EXTINCTION

A Scottish wildcat, likely with some domestic house cat mixed in.

8 Animals That Recently Went Extinct

These fluffy, scaly, and feathered friends will be missed.

Does De-Extinction Actually Work?

“It’s like if you took a chimpanzee and edited its genome to be a little taller and hairless, and then said you brought back Neanderthals,” one scientist said.

Newly metamorphosed Darwin’s froglet at London Zoo.

London Zoo Welcomes 33 Endangered Froglets That Emerged From Their Fathers’ Mouths

The Southern Darwin’s frog is unique in the amphibian world, and conservationists are racing to save it from extinction.

A scene from the La Brea Tar Pits with models of Ice Age animals.

10 Fascinating Facts About the La Brea Tar Pits

There’s a gooey time capsule in the heart of Los Angeles, left over from an era when saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, camels, and giant sloths prowled southern California.

The monarch butterfly is facing challenges.

Monarch Butterflies May Soon Be Protected By the Endangered Species Act

Conservationists warn that the monarch could die out by the end of the century unless action is taken.

The online database covers nearly all the fossils discovered in New Zealand.

New Zealand Is the First Country to Open Its Fossil Database to the Public

New Zealand’s open-access fossil database makes it easier for scientists to collaborate.

PBS’s Woolly Mammoth Action Figure Recreates the Majestic Beast at 1:18 Scale

The shelf-sized mammoth comes with three sets of tusks, including one with battle damage.

Dodos were more agile than most people think.

Dodos May Have Been Fast and Strong, Contradicting Stereotypes

What you think you know about the dodo bird is probably wrong.

Asteroid That Wiped Out Dinosaurs Likely Came From the Outer Solar System

Chemical signatures from the Chicxulub asteroid’s impact—which caused a mass extinction on Earth 66 million years ago—match those of carbonaceous meteorites formed beyond Jupiter.

Irish wolfhound and puppy at Crufts 2024 dog show

9 Dog Breeds at Risk of Disappearing

When dog breeds fall out of fashion, they risk disappearing all together.

Babies named Blake, Amanda, and Aiden will be rare in 2024.

20 Once-Popular Baby Names Now At Risk of Disappearing

As more Millennials have children, many of them are shying away from names that were popular in their own classrooms decades ago.

Skeleton projected onto life-sized elephant model at ’The Secret World of Elephants’ exhibit.

Explore the Secret World of Elephants With the American Museum of Natural History’s New Exhibition

A new exhibit coming to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City examines elephants’ past, present, and future.

Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers in John James Audubon's ‘Birds of America.’

10 Facts About Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, North America’s Most Famous (Probably) Extinct Bird

Here’s your introduction to this legendary, (maybe?) extinct avian—and a look-alike species that might be the source of all the rumors.

Jacques Barraband, ‘Carolina Parakeet’ (1801)

The Curious Extinction of the Carolina Parakeet: An Avian Cold Case

The North American parrots vanished mysteriously in the early 20th century. Now scientists are closer to solving their disappearance.

Woolly mammoths may have existed alongside humans for millennia, according to one study.

How Mammoth Poop Is Changing What We Know About Their Extinction

When did woolly mammoths go extinct? Their fossilized bones say one thing, but their poop paints a messier picture.

"Volcanic Winters" May Have Allowed Big Dinosaurs to Emerge, Study Finds

A new study explains how T. rex's feathered ancestors may have survived the extinction event that wiped out nearly half of all quadrupeds.

An illustration of a woolly mammoth, blissfully unaware of its species impending doom.

20 Cool Facts About the Ice Age

How many ice ages have there been so far? The same number of ‘Ice Age’ movies that have been released. (Five.)

Game of Thrones’s Dire Wolves Existed—But a New Study Suggests They Weren’t Really Wolves

New research suggests that the real-life inspiration for Ghost from 'Game of Thrones' wasn’t a wolf species.

The Anchisaurus polyzelus is one of the dinosaur's duking it out for title of Massachusetts's state dino.

Massachusetts Could Be Getting a State Dinosaur—And You Can Help Choose Which One

Massachusetts already has its fair share of state symbols (including Boston cream pie and Boston cream doughnuts), but you can never have too many.

An artist’s interpretation of the birth of a baby mosasaur.

This Football-Sized Fossil Egg is the First Found in Antarctica, and It May Have Belonged to a Mosasaur

The 68-million-year-old fossil egg’s mystery mother may have been one of the fiercest marine predators from the Late Cretaceous period.

A Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, in captivity circa 1930.

Researchers Just Unearthed ‘Lost’ Footage of the Extinct Tasmanian Tiger—Watch It Here

The 21-second clip shows the last Tasmanian tiger—or thylacine—ever in captivity roaming her cage at Beaumaris Zoo.

How Thomas Jefferson's Obsession With Mastodons Partly Fueled the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Thomas Jefferson thought mastodons might still be lurking somewhere out West—and he was determined to find them.

11 Facts About the Vaquita, The World's Most Endangered Porpoise

Its been just over 60 years since we discovered the species—and now there may be less than 20 of them left in the world.

The Whitsunday Islands in Australia's Great Barrier Reef

For the First Time Ever, a Mammal Has Been Declared Extinct Due to Climate Change

The Bramble Cay melomys was a tiny rodent that lived on a tiny Australian island. The now-extinct animal was killed off by climate change, scientists say.