ex·tinct

(of a species, family, or other large group) having no living members.

[thylacine-dreams]

Thylacine at Hobart Zoo, c. 1928. Photograph by H J King, Hobart.

Source: QVMAG

[todaysbat]

Image description: photo of a brown sign with white text that reads: "You can't save everything cute, eat everything that tastes good, and kill everything you're afraid of and expect a working ecosystem to come out of it." -- Flip Nicklin, wildlife photographer

Image source: photograph by op

[tortally-rad]

Lonesome George, the last of his kind.

Chelonoidis Niger Abingdonii, "Pinta Island Tortoise"

Source: [Link]Mike Weston, Wikipedia

[endlingmusings]

There is something incredibly moving and special about a blog dedicated to remembering extinct animals. Thank you for this.

Thank you for your kind words, and for sharing in this mourning with me.

[endlingmusings]

Racing Extinction (2015)

“Orange Band” - The last dusky seaside sparrow.

[briarhide]

Where I Used To Live

Small, quite unplanned painting inspired by an old colorised photo I saw of one of the last remaining thylacines in captivity, something about the pose seemed a little wistful to me.

[endlingmusings]

The preserved hearts of the last known pair of great auks, part of the collection of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. The birds were nesting on the island of Eldey, off the coast of southwest Iceland, when they were killed on June 3rd, 1844. The single egg they'd been incubating at the time was crushed in the process. [ x ]

[prettycreepyprettycrawly]

The Xerces Blue (Glaucopsyche xerces) has been extinct since the 1940s; they used to live in the coastal meadows and sand dunes around San Francisco, before urban expansion and loss of habitat caused their decline. They are the namesake of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

[endlingmusings]

This otherwise unassuming taxidermied foal, displayed at the Danum Gallery, Library and Museum, represents the only known preserved quagga hybrid. The foal, born in the early 1800s at Owston Hall in Doncaster, was the result of a coupling between a donkey stallion and a quagga mare. [ x ]

[antiqueanimals]

Cover art for Wildlife in North Carolina, July 1974. Illustration by Jay Johnson.

Internet Archive

[tigertoons]

Met a celebrity today!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only complete Newfoundland wolf skin. I’ve posted him to my blog before, but certainly not IN PERSON.

Another special guest, the great auk!!!!

[styofa]

remember me (2024)

[alphynix]

Holocene Extinction Month #10 – Falkland Islands Wolf

The Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis) was the only native terrestrial mammal of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It stood around 60cm at the shoulder (~24in), and probably ate penguins and other ground-nesting birds, insects, and scavenged marine life along the islands’ beaches.

Although commonly called a “wolf” or a “fox”, it wasn’t closely related to either of those canids. DNA analysis has shown its closest living relative to be the similarly misleadingly-named maned wolf.

Hunted for its valuable fur, and persecuted by farmers who considered it a threat to their livestock, the Falkland Islands wolf was already rare when Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1833. By 1876 the species was completely extinct, the first known canid species to be wiped out in recent historical times.

[rayleeschobel]

2025 Patreon Print Recap 10/12: Labrador Duck

Patreon reward for October 2025

Labrador Duck

The Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius, is an extinct sea duck species. It is notable for also being the first endemic North American bird species to go extinct after the beginning of the Columbian Exchange.

Labrador Ducks were specialized to feed on mullosks, such as snails and clams, and some fishermen even reported catching them accidentally when using mussels as bait. Their bills were highly modified from that of most ducks, having a wide, flattened tip with lamellae inside. The beak was also notably "soft," suggesting that they may have used their beaks to probe for food in sediment.

The reason for the Labrador Duck's extinction is difficult to identify. They were said to have tasted bad and rotted quickly, making hunters generally avoid them. However, egg harvesting and feather demand may have had an effect on the species' population. It seems like human influence on the Eastern North American coast played much more of a role in the demise of the species. On the Eastern Seaboard, increasing human population and industry led to a decrease in shallow-water mussel populations, a food source that the Labrador Ducks were dependent on.

The last known Labrador Duck was shot in 1978 in southwest New York. According to legend, it was shot by a teenage boy hunting for food for his family. By the time a local ornithologist arrived with hopes of collecting the skin, the bird had already been plucked and eaten. All that remained were the head and some feathers, but this was enough for the specimen to be identified as the last known Labrador Duck.

[cypressure]

Golden Toad (2026), soap ground etching with aquatint

The letter "G" from the series Nothing Left But Their Names. This print is available on my store.

[endlingmusings]

[ Sourced from x ]

[lifeinterconnected]

ivory bills and heath hens. extinct species and extinct subspecies