Exploring our Lost Worlds
Joined January 2021
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The Extinctions retweeted
Check out the new article at TheExtinctions by @GottGro! Art by yours truly of course 😌 This year started with a lot of lions, but the true protagonists here are the ground squirrels :B
NEW at The Extinctions: In this latest article, @GottGro traces the history of the European steppe since the late Pleistocene through one of its quintessential inhabitants: the ground squirrel, or souslik.
#extinction #macroecology #Holocene
theextinctions.com/articles-…
The Extinctions retweeted
Violence...
I don't remember if I ever shared this picture I did a while back for @Theextinctions ! I want two things; a bear skull pole like that for my yard, and adding a proboscis monkey nose to the Neanderthal :B
The Extinctions retweeted
Interested in the late-Quaternary #megafauna #extinctions 🦣🐪🐘🦣🐆- check our new review of the patterns, causes, consequences & #Anthropocene implications bit.ly/4aBR9fI 🌿🌐🦘🐎 #pleistocene #mammals #paleoclimate #homosapiens #rewilding #ecosystem #defaunation
The Extinctions retweeted
Another quick doodle, inspired by fossil evidence of the Neotropical wild dog Protocyon (a cerdocyonine, that is, relative to the bush dog and maned wolf, but filling a dhole or African wild dog type niche), preying on an old, arthritic glyptodont :B
The Extinctions retweeted
Two subantarctic bears (Arctotherium tarijense), hungry after a harsh winter, fight over a dead king penguin somewhere in Pleistocene Patagonia :B This was the southernmost bear, and the closest to a southern polar bear although it was actually a tremarctine (short-faced bear)
The Extinctions retweeted
Your reminder that South America's southernmost regions were once inhabited by the Patagonian panther, a descendant of an early migration wave of jaguars that grew as big as tigers and preyed on giant ground sloths. These jaguars were likely paler and furrier than modern ones.
The Extinctions retweeted
Don't miss our latest article!
NEW on The Extinctions - The Great Auk, the lone flightless bird in the North Atlantic, went extinct in the 19th century. Despite seeming like a modern extinction, the species faced a slow decline and once inhabited a much wider area. Read more below:
theextinctions.com/articles-….
The Extinctions retweeted
Rich megafaunas were the norm across Earth's land masses from >30 million years ago until just 10-40 thousand years ago- here illustrations of #megafauna from North America 15 mio years incl #elephants (s.l.) 🐘🫏🐪 #megabiota – at Arhus, Denmark
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The Extinctions retweeted
Do you know the sad story of the Great Auk's extinction? Or that the last great auk in Great Britain was senselessly killed because it was thought to be a witch? Check out @BayKruse 's new article at At The Extinctions! theextinctions.com/articles-…
The Extinctions retweeted
"Time-series modeling strongly implicates humans as the primary cause of the state shift and resulting #extinctions" - analysis of the La Brea #megafauna fossil record in @ScienceMagazine today 🐘🦬🐎
O’Keefe et al. study the fossil in the "La Brea tar pits in conjunction with nearby core samples and found a clear relationship between an increase in #fire—and fire-related #ecosystems—and large mammal #extinction"
science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
The Extinctions retweeted
NEW on The Extinctions - Mass seabird killings, Polynesian settlers, and genetic swamping! Read about the extinctions that occurred in multiple waves on Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea!
theextinctions.com/articles-…
The Extinctions retweeted
For #WorldPenguinDay, remember the original “penguin”: the Great Auk! Although it looks a lot like a penguin and was an adept diver and swimmer, the Great Auk was most closely related to the razorbill!
The Extinctions retweeted
NEW on The Extinctions - Pachyderms, Power, & Politics: The history of the elephant in Northeastern Africa.
In this guest-article by @ReginaldODonog1, explore the history of elephants in the ancient milieu of the Nile and the lands below.
theextinctions.com/articles-… #megafauna
The Extinctions retweeted
Maxilla of the extinct Giant Koala of Australia, Phascolarctos stirtoni (ca. 50 kyr).
These things weighed 20-25 kg, 2-3 times as big as the modern koala (skull in background), no doubt placing great strain of the branches of Australia's ancient gum trees!
#FossilFriday #Koala
ALT Maxilla of the giant koala Phascolarctos stirtoni. Three light coloured teeth are present, emerging out of a red-brown coloured fist-sized rock. The front tooth (premolar) is long and blade-like, and the two other teeth (molars) are squared-shaped and both have four distinct triangle-shaped pointy cusps. A skull of the modern koala sits in the background.
The Extinctions retweeted
Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/… @ARCHE_Griffith @TheFatWombat @Mat_Duv64 @marsupialtapir @robinmdbeck @marsupialtapir @MorphoSource @MorphoBank @datadryad
ALT Top left: partially preserved cranium and articulated mandible of Ramsayia magna (QMF 60370) from Lower Johansons Cave, Rockhampton, Queensland in lateral view (scale bar 100 mm). Top right: line drawing and anatomical interpretation of the specimen with enamel in pale brown, intact bone surface in mid brown and damaged or highly fragmented bone surfaces shown in dark brown. Below: Artist's reconstruction of the giant wombat by Eleanor Pease. Silhouettes at top right show size comparison between the new taxon (top) and the modern common wombat, Vombatus ursinus, at the bottom (scale bar 1m).
The Extinctions retweeted
At the same time that Mylohyus inhabited North America's forests, Platygonus roamed open habitats (although it seems like it was pretty adaptable). It has been suggested that its tail (long for a peccary) may have been used as a visual sign to communicate with herdmates.
The Extinctions retweeted
Quick doodle of the night! A Pleistocene beast seldom talked about, the long-nosed peccary Mylohyus lived in North America's forests during the Pleistocene and could grow quite a bit larger than today's peccaries, weighing up to 70 kg or so! Thanks @A3Dnazrigar 4 the inspiration!
The Extinctions retweeted
:B Thank you, @Hieraaetus, @BayKruse! Very proud and excited of being part of the team!
(1/3) We are proud to announce @HodariNundu as an official part of The Extinctions Team! He has already done numerous wonderful pieces for the website and is constantly evolving as an artist! The partnership continues to be a fruitful one.
The Extinctions retweeted
Reminder that the island of Ibiza used to be home to a pygmy viper (Vipera latastei ebusitana) that went extinct around 4000 years ago shortly after human arrival due in good part to the accidental introduction of venom-resistant dormice that likely ate the viper's young.
The Extinctions retweeted
THREAD: The Giant Marabous of Asia
(1/12) The Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) is a remarkable bird, the largest of the modern adjutants (Leptiptilus). exceptional individuals can attain wingspans of over 3 meters and stand at about 1.5 metres in height and weight 9kg…
