Animal and plant species declared extinct between 2010 and 2019, the full list
The disappearance of 160 species has been declared by the IUCN over the last decade: most had been gone for a long time and their demise can be traced in large part to human impact. The full list of extinct species.
Much like death, extinction is part of life, an inevitable, natural phenomenon that has occurred cyclically throughout our planet’s history. Approximately 99 per cent of species that have walked the Earth are now extinct, having disappeared because of changes in the environment or the appearance of new ones, leading to a constant turnover. The rate of extinction, however, has never been as high as it is today.
- Mammals
- Birds
- Reptiles
- Fish
- Invertebrates
- Plants
Life in the time of the sixth mass extinction
According to many experts, the sixth mass extinction is currently taking place. The extent of disappeared species hasn’t yet reached the threshold that characterised previous extinction events, but it’s happening at a faster pace than ever before. Under normal conditions, the “rate of speciation, meaning the birth of new species, is higher than the rate of extinction,” writes science journalist Pietro Greco, and one to ten species disappear each year.
In the last one hundred years, however, these figures have grown exponentially: the current rate of extinction is estimated to be around one thousand species per year. Human activities are, notoriously, the triggering factor behind this phenomenon. In a negligible amount of time we’ve devastated entire ecosystems, hunted many animals to extinction, introduced invasive species, altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere and climactic and chemical balance of the oceans.
Extinction is forever
The list of species that have gone extinct, directly or indirectly, because of Homo sapiens is immense, and requires constant updating. There’s no way back from extinction and the loss of a species determines the definitive disappearance of a particular tile in the mosaic of life, which had evolved and adapted to a certain environment. Overall, it’s a loss for all life on Earth.
The list of species declared extinct in the last decade
During the decade that just ended (2010-2019), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the extinction of 160 species. These are mostly little-known – perhaps not so charismatic – beings, such as many invertebrates, and most of them have been gone for a long time. Generally, a species can be declared extinct with certainty only after decades without it being sighted. Below is a list of the 160 plants and animals we’ll never see again.
Mammals
Bettongia anhydra (Desert bettong)
The small marsupial belonged to the Potorous genus. Scientists only ever observed one specimen, in 1933, and it hasn’t been seen since. It’s believed that the decline of the species is linked to the arrival of mice and foxes to Australia. It was declared extinct by the IUCN in 2016.
Conilurus capricornensis (Capricorn rabbit-rat)
The small nocturnal rodent native to Australia, belonging to the Conilurus genus, was described thanks to the retrieval of fossilised remains. Scientists believe it went extinct because of the introduction of cats and changes in land use. The IUCN declared it extinct in 2016.
Dusicyon avus
This canid was once found in the grassy plains of Patagonia and the Pampas, in South America. Fossilised remains found in tombs suggest it may have been domesticated. According to analyses of these fossils, it would appear that the species went extinct between 326 and 496 years ago, possibly because of hunting and competition with domestic dogs. The species was added to the IUCN’s list in 2015.
Leporillus apicalis (Lesser stick-nest rat)
These rats were known for building large nests in their native habitats in southern Australia. The species was already rare at the beginning of the 20th century and disappeared between the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps due to feral cats. The IUCN declared it extinct in 2016.
Melomys rubicola (Bramble Cay melomys)
This small rodent can claim the unenviable posthumous title of being the first mammal species to go extinct directly due to the effects of anthropogenic climate change. It lived exclusively on a small coral island in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The animal’s habitat, limited to a surface area of under five hectares and an elevation of less than three metres, suffered from increasingly frequent storms, which gradually destroyed the native vegetation on which the melomys depended. Scientists haven’t spotted a specimen since 2009 and the IUCN declared the species extinct in 2016.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon