Extinct Species

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There are sadly many animal species that are endangered. This means they are in danger of becoming extinct. When a species becomes extinct it means they are gone forever.

We all know all the dinosaurs became extinct. They don’t live on Earth anymore. But there are other creatures that once lived on Earth that are no longer here. Sadly lots of animals that are still on Earth today have extinct species or subspecies, including lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes and rhinos.

Dodos

The Dodo was a bird that lived on the island of Mauritius, which is in the Indian Ocean, just east of Africa. It became extinct over 300 years ago.

It was under a metre tall, covered in grey or brown feathers and had really quite small wings. This was because it couldn’t fly and didn’t use its wings to move around. They had big beaks that were a hooked kind of shape.

Dodos became extinct because of humans taking over the island where they lived, destroying their habitat and introducing predators, which they couldn’t fly away from! Before humans lived on the island it is thought that the Dodo didn’t have any predators. They died out very quickly after humans arrived on the island.

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Woolly Mammoths

Woolly Mammoths were creatures very similar to elephants we still have living on Earth.

They were the same sort of size, although some species of Woolly Mammoth were bigger. They had smaller ears and much longer tusks, in fact, their tusks kept growing the older they got and could end up being around four metres long!

Unlike elephants today they were covered in fur, which would have kept them warm during the ice age they lived throughout.

Most species became extinct over 10 000 years ago, but the last Woolly Mammoths became extinct around 4000 years ago. The reasons for them becoming extinct was probably because of the weather changing at the end of the ice age and because of humans hunting them.

Sabre Tooth Cats

Sabre Tooth Cats roamed in many places all over the world before they became extinct. The last species is thought to have become extinct around 10 000 years ago.

They were very similar to the wild cats we still have living on Earth. Most of the information we know about Sabre Toothed Cats is based on their fossils, so it is hard to know what colour their fur was or if it had any patterns on it.

The main difference between Sabre Toothed Cats and modern day wild cats was their teeth. They had really scary long canine teeth that could grow to be as long as 28cm and were razor sharp.

The reason they became extinct is thought to be the weather changing and there not being enough prey for them to eat but it is hard to know for sure.

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