19 Animals We Have Lost To Extinction, From The Cretaceous To The 21st Century

The number of species that currently exist is nothing compared to those that have already come and gone. Among the ranks of the extinct are creatures that have roared their way into our history books, as well as ones that appeared and disappeared with barely a whimper.

For a quick run-through of all the majestic animals we have lost, there’s a video from travel company Adventure Alternative and animal rescue non-profit International Animal Rescue. Those two worked together to create a preview called “Friends of the Past” that includes prehistoric and ancient creatures like the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, the formidable saber-toothed tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as those that have been lost to extinction in more recent human history.

One is the dodo, a bird that has become synonymous with an idiot or something obsolete and was hunted into destruction in the 17th century by humans and invasive species. Another is the Falkland Islands wolf, which was also known as a warrah or an Antarctic wolf and was gone by the 1870s, in part because its friendliness made it easy for humans to capture and kill it.

The video serves as a cautionary tale, as there are many species today that are near extinction, or threatened in some way. As Adventure Alternative notes, those vulnerable creatures include pandas, polar bears, big cats like tigers and leopards, rhinos and porpoises.

“As we reflected on the animals we’ve lost and those currently endangered, we decided to create our ‘Friends of the Past’ animation to commemorate the animal friends we’ve lost over time and raise awareness of wildlife currently at risk of extinction,” the group said in a blog post.