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A comment on Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya. Parent comment

Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by ajeet_dhaliwal on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @06:54AM (#16627386)
I was at the Natural History Museum in London on Saturday and astounded to learn the Mastodon was still around 13,000 years ago. I started looking online and realized that many of these animals I thought were super prehistoric are more recent that I thought, including the Mammoth (present until 4,500 years ago). The plaque suggested a bunch of reasons for the Mastodon extinction but one of them included hunting. We (our species) have been at this for a long time. Perhaps if the Earth was far larger they would stand a better chance.
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by peterwwillis on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @11:14AM (#16629243)
Another interesting one gone: Aurochs, larger ancestors of domestic cattle, died out in 1627. They were famous in Greek myths and used in Roman arenas. Elasmotherium, a sort of furry rhino, died out about 10,000 years ago, and could have inspired tales of Unicorns or other mythical beasts. Aepyornis - The Elephant Bird (9.8ft tall, 880lbs) died out in the 11th century, and Dromornis was even taller. Quagga, a subspecies of Zebra, went extinct in the 19th century.

Many animals may have been spared extinction by humans due to the fact that the western world thought they were myths, until late in the second millennium AD when furthering exploration brought back evidence of their existence. Among them: tigers, komodo dragons, giant squid, giraffe, pandas, gorillas.

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by setr on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:39PM (#16631829)
Dromornis was prehistoric, and would never have encountered humans, according to wikipedia

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromornis

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by lainga on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @11:50AM (#16629619)
Yuval Noah Hariri's Sapiens devotes several pages to the extinctions of various prehistoric species in the Americas and Australia, and how they all seem to curiously line up with the first signs of human migration. Only African species evolved around early apes and hominids, and learned to fear their wiles. Our current mass extinction is rivaled by the spear-y wave of death that followed humans' advance out of Africa.
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by gaius on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:51AM (#16627693)
Yes, Mammoths were alive at the time the Pyramids were built. Kinda mind-blowing.
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by aunty_helen on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:28AM (#16627565)
For a more recent example, the Moa of New Zealand went extinct only a few hundred years after human arrival.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/why-did-new-zealands-...

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by wingspar on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:45AM (#16627664)
More recently, the North American passenger pigeon. Billions to extinct in 19th century... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by onychomys on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:57AM (#16629094)
Twentieth century, as Martha (probably the last member of the species, although the standard post-extinction cryptic sightings continued into the 1930s) died in 1914.

If anybody wants to read an extremely complete book on the subject, it's hard to do better than A Feathered River Across The Sky[0]. It's well written and the science is sound.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Feathered-River-Across-Sky-Extinction...

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by jwilk on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:15AM (#16628719)
Non-mobile link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by reitanqild on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @12:18PM (#16629930)
I was about to mention the Great Auk [0] but realized while reading up on it that scientists have started asking questions about the previously official sad story that I heard as a child.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by sametmax on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:13AM (#16627806)
I always though Giants animals have been on earth longer than we though and were the sources of our legend such as as dragons or sea monsters.
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by caf on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @08:27AM (#16627892)
Well, the largest animal known to have ever existed is still around today.
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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by olliej on Wednesday March 21, 2018 @11:24PM (#16645424)
Tasmanian tiger is still one I’m sad about. The video of the last one in a zoo makes me so sad :(

New Zealand also has some horrifying stories (the last group of a thought to be extinct bird was killed by a lighthouse owners cat after he’d sent one to be identified. I hate cats.)

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Re:Sudan, last male northern white rhino, dies in Kenya by vincnetas on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @07:35AM (#16627597)
Also the famous Dodo : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo
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