The Future | July 24, 2012 | 13 comments

A Glimpse of What We've Lost: 10 Extinct Animals in Photos

source: http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/natural-sciences/glimpse-what-we-lost-10-extinct-animal...

Image
FreeSpiritMuse
Pictured - Golden Toad

In many ways the Golden Toad is an iconic species when it comes to extinction. Only described to science in 1966, and once abundant in a 30 square mile area of the cloud forest above Monteverde, Costa Rica, none of the 2" long toads have been sighted since the 15th of May 1989. The reason for sudden extinction is not conclusively known, but habitat loss and chytrid fungus are the likely culprits. Regional weather changes brought about by El Niño conditions are also suspected to have played a role in killing off the last of the Golden Toads.
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    The Future,   Environment,   Animal Rights = Veganism,   Animal Rights
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13 comments // A Glimpse of What We've Lost: 10 Extinct Animals in Photos

  • youngdebater
  • EmperorThan
  • FreeSpiritMuse
    • +1
      FreeSpiritMuse  
    • EmperorThan:

      Tree Hugger writer Mat McDermott wrote..........However, questions remain about whether some lions held in captivity at zoos or in circuses may be descendants of the Barbary lion.

      Now that's a fine piece of double talk! Ahem, I'll let Mr. Mat McDermott know. Thanks EmperorThan.

    • 10 months ago
  • trut
  • jackhole
  • Argon18
    • +7
      Argon18  
    • Image
    • jackhole:

      http://maxcdn.fooyoh.com/files/attach/images/591/528/247/004/agent-smith.jpg

      So where is Agent Smith when you need him?

      "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure."

      Or is that cure worse than the disease? That depends on how you define "the greatest good for the greatest number"

    • 10 months ago
  • jackhole
  • Argon18
    • +6
      Argon18  
    • jackhole:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3PyJAbZ00

      He is only right if you fall for the false equivalency that all life is equal in development, since there are millions more virus than people. By that argument, all medicines should be eliminated and bacterial growth should be encouraged by ceasing any sanitation methods.

      Not surprising for a software agent that deals in absolutes to make that mistake, but it completely ignores the factors of depth and span.

      "Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span. The greater the depth of a holon, the more precarious its situation. Since its existence depends on the existence of a series of other holons internal to it, and since the lower holons are components of the higher, there can’t be more number of the higher than there are number of components.

      The number of cells in the universe will always be less than the number of molecules in the universe. Also, the span of mental holons is much less than the span of living holons."

    • 10 months ago
  • trut
  • rluz
  • FreeSpiritMuse
    • +2
      FreeSpiritMuse  
    • Image

    • credit: Unknown photographer, 1870s

      Only one Quagga was ever photographed, the female above, taken at the London Zoo. In the wild, the Quagga, a subspecies of the plains zebra, was found in great numbers in South Africa. However, the Quagga was hunted to extinction for meat, hides, and to preserve feed for domesticated animals. The last wild Quagga was shot in the 1970s, with the last one held in captivity dying in August of 1883. Interesting fact, the Quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA examined. Prior to this it was believed the animal was an entirely separate species from the zebra, rather than a subspecies.

    • 10 months ago
  • rerushg
  • FreeSpiritMuse
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