Mapping Every Extinct Animal From North America

Join me as I crack open another book (or two) on my shelf and try to learn about every animal missing from this continent!

Follow me on Twitter @theatlaspro

Sources / Additional Reading:

[Taco_bade]

It would be really cool if you continue this series with other continents

[mania_nanor]

0:00 Intro
4:19 Birds
14:23 Fish
21:26 Mammals
26:08 Insects
31:25 Amphibians
32:45 Mollusks
33:58 Conclusion
36:05 Outro

great stuff, as always :)

[craigstephenson]

The destruction of Tenochtitlan and subsequent draining of Lake Texcoco is in my opinion one of the greatest cultural, historical, and ecological losses in history. I can only imagine what Mexico City would look like if it was built around the lake, with the old city and the old dams intact. It wouldn’t be sinking, at the very least

[marco-lsfm]

You should make a book like this yourself. Im sure that you could make a much more detailed version that included more species and facts. And I know we would all love having it in our collections.

[BtrDedThnFed]

Fun Fact & Good News; The Blue Pike is slowly making a comeback, its not a separate species, but a color variation of the native Walleye. This color variation was wiped out in the 60s-80s but local fishermen in the Great Lakes and surrounding estuaries have been catching walleye with more and more blue coloration as the recessive trait is slowly working its way back!

[EdoKarachannel]

Your discussion of fish & crustacean extinctions is a great illustration of the freshwater biodiversity crisis that is happening in north america. I think the extinction rate is something like 10x the terrestrial extinction rate for freshwater species. Especially in the eastern US, there are also a lot of species (especially mussels) which are already extinct or are headed there, since this area is a world center of mussel biodiversity and these species are highly reliant on specific streams and systems, since they've had a very long time to develop and speciate in these areas (the appalacians are an old ecosystem/mountain range)

[HideAndGeekGames]

Being that I'm from the area, I also have to mention the Florida Fairy Shrimp. Its story is pretty similar to the Ainsworth Salamander. It was found in the 50s by (I believe) UF researchers in a pond a little south of Gainesville. But when more researchers went to this same pond, it had already been filled in for development. No more fairy shrimp.

[veggieboyultimate]

I always cry internally whenever the recently extinct animals are mentioned. Although it is important to remember them, it's sad to think there were even more animals until recently.

[goyui]

Surprised at no mention to Stellar's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). The largest sirenian in the world at the time of its existence, they were dugong the size of small whales that inhabited only the Aleutian island chain of Alaska at the time of their discovery during the Bering expedition. An organism so unique and large would likely be a big tourism draw if they still lived.

Interestingly, there is evidence that supports that the sea cow was already on its last proverbial legs at the time of it's hunting to extinction within 30 years of its discovery. In some well-preserved fossil samples it was found that the Aleutian island sea cows had very low genetic diversity suggestive of inbreeding. It is believed from this that the sea cow had already lost the majority of its population from the sea level rise at the end of the last ice age. They were positively buoyant and so when sea levels increased they could no longer feed on the seagrass at the bottom.

[justinwilliam]

I hope you do Europe next to show how diverse the old world was.

[FGreyGhost]

This man's drive to educate folks on YouTube seems to continuously provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding about things than multiple publication firms. Research and academic institutions need to be paying attention to every video this channel uploads.

[amandawilliams]

This made me so happy we've been able to keep the Banff Springs Snail alive. It's this teeny tiny snail only found in the Banff hot springs.

[csualcyclps]

23:28 if you ever cover the wolf/moose predatory relationship in depth, may I suggest Isle Royal? It’s a very isolated environment (being an island) that we have documented for decades at this point.

[suspectsusphium]

I missed this chanel so much so glad you are back :)

[tomp]

I live in Eastern Tennessee, and I enjoy kayaking the numerous rivers in the area! The number of fresh water mussels that inhabit the rivers of Appalachia is fascinating because mussels are something many of us just associate with salt water. It's so cool to watch the river bottom as you glide down the river on a kayak, and the river beds are brimming in white for miles and miles. I really didn't know until recently how many are endangered and have gone extinct.

[MatthewTheWanderer]

Also, having a section on recently extinct animals in a book about all the wildlife of a place makes sense just in case the species didn't actually go extinct after all! Although unlikely, it's not impossible that some might have survived, and their pictures being in a book like these could help people find them.

[Imperiused]

I think in the future you should consider sequel series like one looking at invasive species in North America or critically endangered species!

[tdyerwestfield]

Our government in the UK passed a law in 2022 that allows private water companies to dump raw sewage into our river systems 24 hours per day 7 days per week. We now have by far the worst water quality of anywhere in Europe and animals are dying out.

[Turdfergusen]

This is great coverage of the extinct animals of North America I would love to see an Episode on the endangered species of North America next. Or an episode on the extinct species of the North American Ice Age

[AWormsPurpose]

I'm up every night thinking about the Carolina parakeet