Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, as well as the descendants of extinct dinosaurs with feathers. This makes them the only surviving dinosaurs.
100 Mind-Blowing Extinct Facts
Artificial banana flavouring is based on an extinct banana. You may notice that your banana-flavoured food products don’t taste quite like the real thing. This is because the commercially used banana flavouring is based on a type of banana that was wiped out by a plague in the 1950s.
Lemurs were one the size of gorillas. They were a common sight before in Madagascar and used that land as its stomping grounds. This species of giant lemurs is now sadly extinct.
A giant tortoise that was believed to be extinct was found in the Galapagos. Previous to this, this species of giant tortoise had not been spotted for over 100 years. Scientists had believed them to be extinct already until 2019.
Most of the viruses embedded in our DNA are gone already. Most of these viruses have already gone extinct due to human evolution and changes in environments. Modern medicine also played a role in the extinction of these viruses. If scientists were to revive any of these viruses, it could cause a major outbreak that humans won’t quickly heal from.
The heart symbol was inspired by ancient birth control. Do you remember how shocked you were when you discovered in biology class that our hearts weren’t shaped like the cute symmetrical shape we see everywhere? Your next question probably would’ve been, “Well, how did they come up with that butt shape?” A theory suggests that the shape came from the silphium, a type of now-extinct plant that the ancient Greeks and Romans consumed for medicine, food, and birth control. Silphium seeds were shaped like our modern heart icon.
The extinct colossus penguin stood as tall as LeBron James.
You may have heard redheads are going extinct. This is not true. The gene that results in red hair is recessive, so both parents must carry it to produce a red-headed child. However, this fact also means that redheads can pop up generations down the line.
Sadly, axolotls are now critically endangered. They’re on something called the IUCN Red List, meaning they’re in danger of going extinct.