User:Rational Dude/sandbox 10

This page is a memorial for the most notable animal species driven extinct by us (way to go, us).

Possibly

Woolly Mammoth

An extinct hairy elephant species, the Woolly Mammoth is the most popular animal on this list (next to the Smilodon). Known for its large size, hairy covering, and massive range stretching from Eurasia to North America, the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenius) is a commonly known animal of the Ice Age (though people often forget that elephants alive today also existed during that time). Archeological evidence gathered from various sites around the world shows that humans and mammoths were contemporaries, and that we hunted them for food and used their remains to also create fuel, shelter, and weaponry.

Smilodon

The famous saber-toothed cat, often mistakenly referred to as the saber-toothed tiger. This is in accurate, as Smilodons and Tigers are from two different groups (saber-toothed cats and big cats) with several million years of divergence between the two groups. As its common name states, the cat was famous for its large sabers.

Confirmed

Dodo

The most famous member on this list, the Dodo is a moderate sized flightless pigeon species that was endemic to the island of Mauritius. These big boys were known for their fearlessness of predators from a lack of thereof on the island they lived in, and according to anecdotes from sailors, their meat tasted awful and was too tough to chew.

Possibly dead

Baiji

The Baiji, also known as the Yangtze River dolphin, was the only freshwater dolphin species native to China in modern times. It lived in a significant swath of the Yangtze River, which was heavily reduced by human activity such as pollution (trash and noise), fishing (which accidentally caught the dolphins), and habitat destruction. One example of the Baiji’s population decrease was when Mao forced people to eat animals such as sparrows and these dolphins during the Great Leap Forward, as he saw nature as an enemy of progress and mankind.

Soon to be dead

Vaquita

The Vaquita is a small porpoise (currently the smallest whale species on Earth) indigenous to the northern part of the Gulf of California in Mexico. It has an extremely small and dwindling population, estimated to be at least 10 individuals.

See also

• Holocene extinction