by Lorraine Murray
A recent report in the journal Science has suggested that the Earth could be “on the brink of a major extinction.” The study analyzes extinction rates and presents evidence that, in the next 100 years, it is likely that there will be a major extinction event comparable to that which extinguished the dinosaurs.
According to researcher Stuart Pimm:
Species ought to die off at the rate of one species in 10 million every year. What’s happening is that species are going extinct at a rate of 100 to a 1,000 species extinctions per million species…. We are the ultimate problem. There are seven billion people on the planet. We tend to destroy critical habitats where species live. We tend to be warming the planet. We tend to be very careless about moving species around the planet to places where they don’t belong and where they can be pests.
Meanwhile, back at Encyclopædia Britannica, our artists have been busy creating beautiful illustrations of animals that have gone extinct, sometimes long ago in the distant past. We present some of these works and remind our readers that once a species is gone, it’s gone forever.
Entelodont (family Entelodontidae), any member of the extinct family Entelodontidae, a group of large mammals related to living pigs. Entelodonts were contemporaries of oreodonts, a unique mammalian group thought to be related to camels but sheeplike in appearance. Fossil evidence points to their emergence in the Middle Eocene (some 49 million to 37 million years ago) of Mongolia. They spread across Asia, Europe, and North America before becoming extinct sometime between 19 million and 16 million years ago during the early Miocene Epoch.
Mylodon, extinct genus of ground sloth found as fossils in South American deposits of the Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). Mylodon attained a length of about 3 metres (10 feet). Its skin contained numerous bony parts that offered some protection against the attacks of predators; however, Mylodon remains found in cave deposits in association with human artifacts suggest that people hunted and ate them.
Indricotherium, also called Paraceratherium, formerly Baluchitherium, genus of giant browsing perissodactyls found as fossils in Asian deposits of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene epochs (30 to 16.6 million years ago). The indricotherium, which was related to the modern rhinoceros but was hornless, was the largest land mammal that ever existed. It stood about 5.5 m (18 feet) high at the shoulder, was 8 m (26 feet) long, and weighed an estimated 30 tons, which is more than four times the weight of the modern elephant. Its skull, small in proportion to its body, was more than 1.2 m (4 feet) in length. Indricotherium had relatively long front legs and a long neck; thus, it was probably able to browse on the leaves and branches of trees. Its limbs were massive and strongly constructed.
Basilosaurus, also called Zeuglodon, extinct genus of primitive whales of the family Basilosauridae (suborder Archaeoceti) found in Middle and Late Eocene rocks in North America and northern Africa (the Eocene Epoch lasted from 55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago). Basilosaurus had primitive dentition and skull architecture; the rest of the slender, elongated skeleton was well adapted to aquatic life. It attained a length of about 21 metres (about 70 feet), with the skull alone as much as 1.5 metres (5 feet) long. Basilosaurus was common throughout late Eocene seas.
Confuciusornis, genus of extinct crow-sized birds that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous (roughly 161 million to 100 million years ago). Confuciusornis fossils were discovered in the Chaomidianzi Formation of Liaoning province, China, in ancient lake deposits mixed with layers of volcanic ash. These fossils were first described by Hou Lianhai and colleagues in 1995. Confuciusornis was about 25 cm (roughly 10 inches) from beak to pelvis. It possessed a small triangular snout and lacked teeth. Confuciusornis held a number of physical characteristics in common with modern birds but possessed some striking differences. Unlike modern birds, it also retained the feature of having three free fingers on the hand, like Archaeopteryx and other theropod dinosaurs. In contrast, the fingers of more-derived birds are fused into an immobile element.
Glyptodon, genus of extinct giant mammals related to modern armadillos found as fossils in deposits in North and South America dating from the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs (5.3 million to 11,700 years ago). Glyptodon and its close relatives, the glyptodonts, were encased from head to tail in thick, protective armour resembling in shape the shell of a turtle but composed of bony plates much like the covering of an armadillo. The body shell alone was as long as 1.5 metres (5 feet). The tail, also clad in armour, could serve as a lethal club; indeed, in some relatives of Glyptodon, the tip of the tail was a knob of bone that was sometimes spiked. Glyptodonts ate almost anything—plants, carrion, or insects.
Toxodon, extinct genus of mammals of the late Pliocene and the Pleistocene Epoch (about 3.6 million to 11,700 years ago) in South America. The genus is representative of an extinct family of animals, the Toxodontidae. This family was at its most diverse during the Miocene Epoch (23–5.3 million years ago). About 2.75 metres (9 feet) long and about 1.5 metres (5 feet) high at the shoulder, Toxodon resembled a short rhinoceros. Toxodon was probably the most common large hoofed mammal in South America during the Pleistocene Epoch. On his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle, English naturalist Charles Darwin collected fossil specimens of Toxodon, which were subsequently described by British anatomist and paleontologist Richard Owen. Because Toxodon indicated that the fossil mammals of South America were different from those of Europe, it figured prominently in late 19th-century debates about evolution.