Five Unique Species That Recently Went Extinct

Extinction isn’t just for dinosaurs

Skeletal remains of an arctic sea cow displayed in a museum. (Daderot / CC0)

According to scientists, roughly 99.9% of all species to ever existed on Earth have gone extinct over the course of history. When people think of extinct animals, many minds go straight to the dinosaurs, the most prominent example of a type of animal that no longer exists. However, you do not need to go back millions of years to find unique and interesting animals that have gone extinct.

In fact, you only have to go back a couple hundred or even just a couple of dozen years to find some recently deceased species.

Here are five animal species that have gone extinct not all that long ago.

Tasmanian tiger

Rare photos of the Tasmanian tiger before it went extinct. (Public domain)

Not to be confused with the Tasmanian devil, the Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous marsupial which was native to the island of Tasmania as well as mainland Australia. This creature also went by the name of thylacine. Rare photographs of these animals still survive showing their unique shape and coloring.

The Tasmanian tiger is fascinating for many reasons. First, their stature is very similar to that of a…