A site in China was found to contain 190-million-year-old organic remains from non-avian dinosaurs and dinosaur embryos. The findings have provided a brand new insight into how the extinct animals grew to be so large.

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Researchers recently came across hundreds of fossilized dinosaur embryo bones in China’s Lufeng County that date back to the Jurassic period roughly 200 million years ago. They have identified until now the scattered bones of about 20 embryos, all thought to belong to an early species of plant-eating dinosaurs called Lufengosaurus.

The study was published in the journal Nature and showed that dinosaurs grew very fast inside the eggs compared to modern reptiles, possibly to reduce the risk of eggs being eaten by predators before they hatched. This rapid growth may also clarify why these extinct animals were able to grow to such enormous sizes as adults.

“That’s what makes this particularly exciting”, said Robert Reisz, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, and lead author of a study that details the find. “We’re looking at different stages of the embryonic life of this animal”, he added.

“These are by far the oldest embryonic materials. But we did not find complete eggs. It’s a bone bed, which means the bones have been sorted and concentrated, and all of the eggshell materials have been broken up into little pieces”, also said Reisz.

The professor revealed the remains clearly show that dinosaur embryos grew rapidly – not a surprising revelation for dinosaurs, but one suggesting that members of this particular branch of the dinosaur family tree were outpacing others in their ability to attain an impressive body size in short order.

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Reisz and his team speculate that the Lufeng site was once located near water and was a popular nesting ground for the dinosaur species. “These animals probably liked to make their nests close to the water because it keeps the sediment in which they lay their eggs fairly moist, so the eggs don’t dry out”, added the professor.

Another thing the professor noted is that the nests could be flooded, which is quite dangerous, so that’s exactly what he and his team presumed happened. The nests became flooded, the embryos were smothered by sediment and water, and the dinosaurs basically rotted and fell apart.

Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now some would say abandoned, these rare animals have the smallest chances of recovery out of all the creatures on this planet. Studies have shown that there are at least 35 different animals with world populations of under 1000. Moreover, experts estimate that 27,000 species vanish from the Earth every year, never to be seen again. One of them was Lonesome George, the sole surviving member of the Pinta Island race, a species of Giant Galapagos tortoises. The turtle died in 2012 and now there are not any Pinta Island tortoises.

Nowadays, lots of species are facing the same faith. Here are the top 5 rarest animals in the world. Not only are they the rarest, but they are also close to becoming extinct animals.

5. The Iberian Lynx

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The Lynx is the most endangered of the world’s 36 cats and it stands on the edge of extinction. There are only about 100 Iberian Lynxes remaining in the world today, native to Spain and Portugal. Once distributed over the entire Iberian Peninsula, the lynx’s area is now severely restricted in Andalusia. The cat was not only threatened by destruction of habitat and of its pray, but it was also killed by traps set for rabbits or car hits.

4. The Pygmy Tarsier

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This species was thought to be extinct for 85 years, until 2008, when expedition found a handful of them in the Mountains of Indonesia. Also known as the mountain tarsier or the lesser spectral tarsier, the pygmy is a nocturnal primate having a very small body length and weight (about 4 inches head-body length and less than 2 ounces weight). Tarsiers live in trees and are the only carnivorous primates in the world, as they only eat insects.

3. The Javan Rhino

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Once widespread throughout Asia, the Javan rhino was nearly hunted to extinction in the 1930s in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, India and Burma. It was poached for its horn, which is believed to have medicinal uses. Nowadays, this scarce animal is one of the rhino species with less than 40 animals surviving in only two known locations: Indonesia and Vietnam. The Javan rhinos’ chances of survival are very small, even with all the conservation efforts, since the reduced population implies risks of disease and inbreeding.

2. The Hawaiian Crow

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Also known as ʻalalā, the Hawaiian crow is a species of crow in the crow family. Once widespread throughout the island, there are fewer than 100 Hawaiian crows alive today and they are all in captivity, which means that the species has become totally extinct in the wild. Unfortunately, 27 more native bird species have gone extinct in Hawaii, making the island the endangered species capital of the world.

1. The Baiji Dolphin

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Also known as the Yangtze River Dolphin, the Baiji has become the rarest animal in the world. Found only in China’s Yangtze River, this freshwater dolphin has become functionally extinct. This means that there are so few of them left, that they’re probably not reproducing anymore. However, experts are still searching for members of the species. Nicknamed “Goddess of the Yangtze”, the Baiji population declined drastically in decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity.

It’s sad that some animals are extinct and others are about to have the same problem. For example, Maui’s dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world, are almost extinct. There are only 55 survivors left, which is very sad.

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Although conservationists have warned that these dolphins of New Zealand are in danger of extinction, little effort was done to save them. The last time these creatures were surveyed was in 2005 and at that time there were 111 dolphins left, according to the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

Dr. Barbara Maas, international head of the Nature and Biodiversity Union’s International Species Conservation division said about this: “Every day the animals are exposed to gill and trawl nets carries a risk we can’t afford. If ever there was a time to act, it is now.”

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She also added that it takes a long time for the Maui’s dolphin population to recover as the species cannot breed until they are 7 to 9 years old and they have one baby every 2-4 years.

A team of scientists has proposed a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans” that perhaps will be passed into law, the Daily Mail reported. A coalition of experts in philosophy, conservation and animal behaviour argued that dolphins and whales experience almost the same problems, so they deserve similar rights on an international level.

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Even if that law may not pass, there are chances for the Maui dolphins population to recover if New Zealand bans nets over a larger area of the coastline and sets up a sanctuary that the government seems to consider. Nonetheless, time is passing by, which is critical for these endangered animals and maybe we are witnessing their extinction without being able to do something to help them.

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There are many animals in danger of extinction this year. Fortunately, there are jobs in this field and many volunteers who want to prevent animal extinction. Nonetheless, the most endangered animals in 2012 are:

1. Amur Leopard is a very rare leopard subspecies that lives only in the snowy northern forests of Russia’s Primorye region. In the past, this animal lived also in Korea and northern China, but now is extinct in those areas. In 2007, a census showed that only 14-20 adults and 5-6 cubs live. Threats of this animal include habitat loss caused by road and house building, encroaching civilization, as well as logging, illegal hunting and global climate change.

2. Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is one of the most critically endangered species. Even if until 2004, it was considered extinct, reports from Florida and Arkansas about it emerged. Even if a population still exists, it’s very rare and vulnerable. The cause of their extinction or potential extinction is habitat loss and also exploitation by humans who hunted these creatures for their feathers.

3. Javan Rhinoceros is one of the world’s most endangered five species of rhinoceros. There are only 40-60 animals estimated to remain on the western tip of the Island of Java from Indonesia in Ujung Kulon National Park. These animals are protected now, but there may not be the chance to prevent them from extinction because there’s not enough population.

4. Greater Bamboo Lemur lives on the Island of Madagascar. This animal is also known as he broad-nosed gentle lemur. There are less than 100 greater bamboo lemurs which remained in this area. Illegal hunting and habitat loss are the main causes of threats.

5. Northern Right Whale is the world’s most endangered whale species. There are 350 individuals that travel the US and the Atlantic coasts of Canada. During the 19th century, it was considered by whalers the “right” whale to kill because it floated at the surface and it was also full of oil. Today, these animals are protected, but they are still threatened by entanglements in fishing gear and global climate change.

There are also other endangered animals in 2012 such as Western Lowland Gorilla, Leatherback Sea Turtle, Siberian or Amur (Tiger), Chinese Giant Salamander and Kakapo Parrot.

Extinct species have always been a topic for numerous researches, due the fact that scientists have been on the lookout for the things that have made animals populating the world disappear, in order to be able to learn more about the events of the past and to have knowledgeable resources for the extinctions that may happen in the future. Here is a top 5 of curious extinct species you may not have known before:

5. The Passenger Pigeon is related to the one we see today, with the difference that it has large flocks that darkened the sky upon their flight. The extinction took place over night and it is presumed that it had a human implication, as these types of pigeons used to be very dangerous for the cultures of the farmers in the past with the shadows that they were able to produce.

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4. The Archaeopteryx used to be an Ancient creature, as it was discovered in the mid-1800s. The remains that were found showcased this curious species as a dinosaur type with feathers and other bird-like features. It had a flat breastbone, teeth, feathers, a bone tail and claws at the end of its wings.

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3. The Saber-Toothed Cat had canine teeth of great sizes, which made it look fierce, although it had the stature of a feline. It was extinct about 10,000 years ago and it used to populate regions in North America and Europe. This feline had a lion like behavior, living in packs and having a very organized lifestyle.

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2. The Plesiosaur was an aquatic reptile of large dimensions, which used to live in the Cretaceous and in the Jurassic periods. The image of the Loch Ness Monster has been designed after the Plesiosaur, due to the fact that it has a very large body, a long thin neck and a very small head.

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1. The Flores Man surfaced in an Indonesian cave in 2003 and appeared to be a mini-human. The exact delimitation of the species is still under debate, due to the fact that many have stated that the remains belonged to small humans, while others associated them with some sort of apes. The species seems to have been extinct about 12,000 years ago, which means that it interacted with modern human species.

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The ever-growing list of extinct animals makes you wonder how long until humans will become extinct, as well? How long until a natural disaster strikes or the world is invaded by an unknown population that will change the planet as we know it forever? While humans may not be in danger, a growing number of animals are endangered and are facing extinction. Here are the top 3 most famous extinct animals of all time, which are still subject to many researches and fascinate a lot of people.

1. Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the largest carnivores and predators ever known by this planet. It measured up to 43.3 feet in length and 16.6 feel in height and it weighed about 7 tons. With such an impressive figure, it gets yo thinking how could such a giant become extinct. How did such a ferocious animal die out? While this remains a great mistery, paleontologists have a theory according to which Tyrannosaurus Rex died after a catastrophic even stroke the earth. They believe that a meteor impact or volcanic eruption may have been to blame for the death of these animals and most other living things on the planet at that time. Their theory is based on evidence from the fossil record. The species became extinct about 65 million years ago.

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2. Woolly Mammoth is another fascinating extinct animal that has become renowned due to its impressive size. Most commonly, the woolly mammoth is associated with the Ice Age. It was probably one of the earliest mammoth species and it lived in North Africa about 3 million years ago. It then migrated o North America sometime during late Pleistocene. Also called the tundra mammoth, this animal did not make it in the New World and is believed to have become extinct about 10,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age. This is the reason why their remains are not fossilized, but preserved in their organic state, since they have remained frozen for a long time. This also led to the woolly mammoth becoming one of the best anatomically understood prehistoric vertebrates and extinct animals known until present day.

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3. The Dodo Bird was a cute, flightless bird that is considered by many to be the archetype of extinct species. The dodo lived in times when the environment was free of predators and it offered plenty of food. It was not a natural disaster or calamity that caused the dodo to become extinct. It was the human kind. The dodo lived in the Mauritius island in the Indian Ocean. When European explorers arrived on the island (in the 1600s), the dodo became endangered. This is because hungry explorers have started to massively hunt it. Unlike many others birds, the dodo was large in size (reaching 1 meter in height), therefore being a great source of meat for weary sailors. Domestic animals accompanying them (mainly dogs, rats and pigs) destroyed the dodo’s eggs and nests, so it was no longer able to multiply. In a few short years, the dodo became extinct.

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These are the most famous extinct animals known until present day. Other fascinating and intriguing extinct species include the Quagga (half zebra, half horse), the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine), Steller’s Sea Cow, the Irish Deer, the Caspian Tiger, the Great Auk, the Cave Lion, and many others.

The animal that you see in the picture does not exist anymore. This is a Tasmanian Wolf, a marsupial that was similar to kangaroos and wombats. It was hunted down in the first middle of the 20th century and it disappeared. Some people pretend they saw it even recently, but not a sighting was ever confirmed. Like this animal, there are many extinct animals. If you want to learn more about them, welcome to our website. Another animal that you should know because it does not exist anymore is the English Wolf. This used to live in the United Kingdom, but it disappeared from all the countries of the kingdom. In England it became extinct since the 15th century, but some wolves were still seen in Scotland until 1743 and in Ireland until 1770. The Quagga was a type of zebra which was found in Africa. In the middle of the 19th century, all the quaggas living in freedom were hunted down and the last one living in captivity died in a zoo in Amsterdam in 1883.

Two beautiful species of tigers, the Turanian Tiger and the Caspian Tiger were also extinct. These lived in Asia, more precisely in China, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan, but they were hunted for their beautiful furs. In the 1930s, most of these tigers disappeared. Apparently, the last Caspian was shot in Russia in 1957. Steller’s Sea Cow was a sea animal living near the Aleutian Islands. It had a weight of about three tons and had a length of 35 feet. Although this animal was only discovered in 1741, only 30 years later it was already extinct as sailors used to hunt it for its meat and for the leather it had.

The Spectacled Cormorant was discovered by the same man that discovered the Sea Cow, George Steller. Unfortunately, it could only be seen and admired for about a century after its discovery in the Aleutian Islands. Because there are some many species which disappeared in time, it is very important to learn about them and to learn how to protect them. People need to understand that protecting the existing animals has a very high importance and will help save the nature. There are many extinct animals, but measures should be taken in order to prevent the extinction of others. For this to happen, there should be laws and regulations which could help the animals survive.

Teaching your children about animals is very important. They should be aware of the role of animals in nature and they should learn about them from an early age. It is great for kids to have this kind of information and to know that they also have to respect the animals. Kids represent the next generation and someday, they will have to learn to protect the environment in which people and animals live. It is necessary to teach them about extinct animals. There are many species that dissapeared through the years and in most of cases, people are those to blame. Many species lost their living environment thanks to modernization and many were hunted down by those eager to get rich. Some species of tigers, for example, were hunted for their furs until they totally dissapeared. Teaching children about these issues is an important part of their education. Future generations should learn to respect nature and animals and to take care of them. The species that are now endangered should be rescued, no matter if they are plants or animals, because plants have the same problems.

Even in school, children will learn about animals. They will learn about the species that live with people and about those that live in the wild. The subject of those that are extinct is also very important because it represents a serious mistake that they need to avoid repeating in adulthood. There are beautiful species that disappeared in the past due to negligence of humans. There are also many endangered in present and these should be saved in order to avoid new problems. It is certain that as history repeats, there will be more and more animals in the danger to disappear, but people should be able to save them.

Children need to know the stories of extinct animals, even if these are sad. They are the future adults that should learn to protect the environment, this meaning they need to find a way to save plants and animals alike. Buy books and watch documentaries with them, in order to make them understand all the information they receive about these animals. There is a lot of information even on the Internet, but you need to get involved in their education and to show them that you care and they should also care about what is around them, too.

The advance in technology has made it possible for the world today to progress at a fast pace. As the world evolves, numerous animals are being forgotten and eventually become extinct. Whether their habitat is severely modified, they are heavily hunted or they simply have disappeared due to natural causes, the number of extinct animals known till present day is at least worrying. And the worse part is that people carry on with their lives without even thinking about extinct animals, nor about the endangered animals that are about to become extinct. Some of the extinct animals were truly fascinating and it is a shame that they have disappeared from the surface of the Earth.

An example of such fascinating extinct animals include the quagga. The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra and it lived in the Hughveld of the Cape Province and the Orange Free State in South Africa. A particularly interesting fact about quaggas is that they were half zebra, half horse. It may be hard to believe how such hybrid animals existed back in the day and have become extinct animals, especially when we think about the numerous hybrid species intrebred in laboratories nowadays, such as ligers and tigons. The quagga is actually one of the most famous extinct animals of Africa. The distinguishing feature of the quagga was that it only had the usual visual marks of zebras on the front part of the body.

The stripes faded in the mid-section and were absent in the back part of the body, making quaggas some of the most interesting extinct animals that ever lived. The history of the quagga goes back to 1788, when it was originally classified as an individual species. Less then a century later, in 1883, quaggas were already extinct animals. Some say that quaggas became extinct animals even before people realized that they appeared as a separate species. It is a real shame that quaggas and other amazing species have become extinct animals. This is why we should focus our attention on the endangered species that live nowadays and try to prevent them from becoming extinct animals.

Unfortunately, despite all the efforts made with the purpose to save some species, more extinct animals are known today. No matter if these animals have become extinct due to the action of mankind over nature or this reality simply is a consequence of a natural process, the fact is that the species they represent has been driven to extinction. Hunting or even over population are considered to be some of the main causes explaining this evolution. Although some of the animals mentioned here are not that known in the world, they represent beautiful and quite unique species. 

One of the most impressive recently extinct animals is the Baiji River Dolphin. It became one of the extinct animals in the recent decades, due to the increased industrialization in China, which has determined a continuous and full usage of rivers for transportation and hydroelectricity. Due to the human action, the Baiji River dolphin population has been highly decreased mostly because of the inability to live any longer in the industrialized river’s waters. Noise pollution and also water pollution are considered to be the main causes of death of these beautiful, now extinct animals. In 2006, they were officially declared extinct animals.

The Javan Tiger also is one of the recently extinct animals. Found on the Indonesian island of Java, these now extinct animals were really popular in the 19th century. However, along with the increase of the human presence in this island, the tiger population decreased. It is claimed that the Javan tigers became extinct animals due to positing and hunting. They were officially declared extinct animals in the 1980s.

The Pyrenean Ibex has a really interesting story when it comes to its evolution and the way it became one of the extinct animals. The Pyrenean Ibex actually is the first species which has been brought back to life through cloning, although the whole process turned out to be a huge failure. Popular in both France and Spain, these animals became extinct in the 20th century. The last individual from the species died in 2000, at the age of 13, in a zoo.