all but extinct, farewell, graceful Baiji

[moonvoice]

This is old news, but I only just found out about it:

Functional Extinction of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphins

The Xinhua News Agency announced on 4 December 2006 that no Chinese River Dolphins were detected in a six-week survey of the Yangtze River conducted by 30 researchers. The failure of the Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition raised suspicions of the first unequivocal extinction of a cetacean species due to human action (some extinct baleen whale populations might not have been distinct species). Poor water and weather conditions may have prevented sightings, but expedition leaders declared it "functionally extinct" on 13 December 2006 as fewer are likely to be alive than are needed to propagate the species.

....

A report of the expedition was published online in the journal Biology Letters on August 7th, 2007, in which the authors conclude "We are forced to conclude that the baiji is now likely to be extinct, probably due to unsustainable by-catch in local fisheries"

Some reports suggest that information about the baiji and its demise is being suppressed in China.

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangtze_Dolphin

Made third page news in our newspaper on Thursday. The first large vertebrate to go extinct for some time now, China covering it up so that the rest of the world isn't giving it much coverage, and the protector of the Yangtze, a beast of both myth, legend and beauty gone from the polluted waters it once protected.

Comments

[paleo.livejournal.com]

:-(

Last night, I caught a wonderful show on the Discovery HD channel called "The End of Extinction" about thylacines. Learned more than I ever did as it covered so much of its evolutionary history, the story of its persecution, and the controversy around cloning that little pickled pup. I didn't know that thylacines were actually a *group* of marsupials who just had one species surviving by the time white folks showed up.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and not just occupying Tasmania either, but stretching significantly around the mainland, much in the same way Thylacoleo is more than one species that also stretched around the mainland. Both may have been completely destroyed by Aboriginals, but there is a lot of conjecture and controversy as to how the bulk of both got extinct.

My Dad used to be great friends with Dr. John Long - curator of the Museum of Western Australia, and I was privileged to hear a lot about some of that controversy, including how excited Long was as he was the one who discovered the first mostly complete thylacoleo skeleton in Western Australia. Paleontology here is big business, especially as we have such ancient soil and rock here comparative with the rest of the world.

Thylacines are definitely interesting. I don't believe they still exist tangibly in Tasmania anymore... I wish they did though.

[paleo.livejournal.com]

Given what the documentary said about the issue, I don't think thylacines are around, either. I hope I'm wrong.

I check up on paleontological news often, and Australia has been kicking scientific ass lately, both with prehistoric marsupials and dinos. That's cool that you had an in to it for a while.
The documentary flashed a depiction of a thylacoleo for a split second and something bear-like.

Thylacine films

[perzephone.livejournal.com]

Humans won't stop til we're the last species standing.

You've probably seen these before, but this website is really well put-together:

Thylacine films (http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/films/java/film1/film_1.htm)

Re: Thylacine films

[paleo.livejournal.com]

*nods* The documentary showed that, and I believe I've seen it before. They also showed a clip that they claimed had never been publicly seen before of one eating at a zoo.

Re: Thylacine films

[qilora.livejournal.com]

"Humans won't stop til we're the last species standing."

chances are pretty good we won't survive to *be* the last of the species (thank G-d)


- E.