Extinct animals that may actually still be alive

Being a shark nut as a kid, I used to dream and hope that somehow there were still living specimens of Megalodon still swimming the world's oceans...

I used to love reading so-called "first hand accounts" of sighting of Megalodon from the 19th and early 20th centuries...Often written by whalers and fishermen, the exaggeration in these stories was astounding

Sadly, and at the same time fortunately for bathers, Megalodon appears to have become extinct approximately 1.5 million years ago, tho many marine paleontologists believe the last specimens may have died out as recently as 250,000 years ago...

Some even suggest specimens may still roam the deepest of our oceans, but these people are in the minority and are usually scorned...

Great thread OP Lots of interesting posts here

[edit on 26/4/2010 by Retrovertigo]

Megalodon was quite a monster shark indeed, I wish the movie Meg was as good as the book was.

I also like the Sarchosuchus a lot, the most giant crocodile ever lived.

Sarchosuchus

It would have given Steve Irwin a run, may he rest in peace.

I am glad most of these animals are extinct, In some countries we still need a lot more research, like the stories about the Mokele-mbembe, the last living dinosaur in Congo.

Discoveries from the past prove that some species never had to adapt, a more recent one is the giant Isopod.

reply to post by Grey Magic


A 40 ft/8 ton crocodile ? Choice Was right into reptiles/amphibians as well as sharks when I was a kid too...Every zoo visit involved at least an hour in the reptile house...

Definitely would have shut that annoying Bindi kid up...Permanently...BTW, a bindii is an annoying dried, prickly part of a plant that sticks to your socks when you walk thru grass where they grow...

So on that score that kid was aptly named

Unless it evolved to downsize, it wouldn't have enough food to sustain itself if it was living deeper than most animals.

As people have said megladons No longer exist. Say by some magically coincidence they did slowly move to the deep (no evidence of this actually happening) the lower oxygen content + cooler temperatures + much less food would equal a fish that is in no way recognisable to the megladon of old thus not megladon. The changes required would be immense to say the least and likely impossible to achieve

[edit on 27-4-2010 by Dead_Sounds]

Zanzibar Leopard

Serious attention was not paid to the Zanzibar leopard's plight until the mid-1990s, by which time some authorities were already listing it as extinct.[10] A leopard conservation programme was drafted by the CARE-funded Jozani-Chwaka Bay Conservation Project, but abandoned in 1997 when wildlife researchers failed to find evidence for the leopard's continuing presence in and around Jozani Forest.[6]

Local wildlife officials, however, have remained more optimistic about the leopard's survival, and some Zanzibaris have proposed approaching alleged leopard keepers in order to ask them to display their leopards to paying visitors. Villagers sometimes offer to take tourists or researchers to see "domesticated" leopards in return for cash, but so far none of these "kept leopard chases" has been known to end in a successful sighting.[5][11][12]

These conflicting perceptions of the Zanzibar leopard's status and the possibility of its conservation have yet to be reconciled, presenting a dilemma that has been highlighted by researchers.[13][14]

en.wikipedia.org...

Sounds like there is a chance this Leopard is still around.
According to the article Leopards were considered "vermin" and that helped bring them to the brink of extinction.

Norfolk Island Boobook

The Norfolk Island Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata), also known as the Norfolk Island Owl or Norfolk Island Morepork, was a bird in the true owl family endemic to Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. It is an extinct subspecies of the Southern Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae). However, although the taxon is extinct, its genes live on in the descendants of the hybrid offspring of the last female bird, which was sighted for the last time in 1996.[1]

The population of the Norfolk Island Boobook declined with the clearance and modification of its forest habitat, especially the felling of large trees with suitable hollows for nesting in. There was also competition for nest hollows with feral honey bees and introduced Crimson Rosellas.[5] By 1986 the population had been reduced to a single female bird, named "Miamiti" after a matriarch of the Norfolk Island people.[6] As part of a program to attempt to conserve at least some of the genes of the insular subspecies, two male Southern Boobooks (Moreporks) of the nominate New Zealand subspecies, Ninox novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae, were introduced to the island as mates for the female. The males were sourced from the New Zealand subspecies rather than one of the Australian subspecies as it was discovered that it was more closely related to the Norfolk Island taxon.[7][8] Nest boxes were also provided. One of the introduced males disappeared a year after introduction but the other successfully mated with the female with the pair producing fledged chicks in 1989 and 1990. The original female disappeared in 1996 but, by then, there was a small hybrid population of about a dozen birds. These birds and their descendants continue to exist on the island.

en.wikipedia.org...

Animals that have become recently extinct often have a better chance of still being around, but not always.



[edit on 1-5-2010 by FoxMulder91]

Well, this is an interesting topic. Just coming from the Cougar Post in the North East to this, and the premise remains the same.

Very interesting comments and suggestions by all.

So I ask, how would this apply to the context of this discussion?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5e8e7b782650.jpg[/atsimg]

Yes, it is alive, and yes, it is a Human hand, and yes the Left side shows a fossilized embryo, and yes the left side seemingly is a true representative of that "creature" sitting in the hand of the person who found it.

I had sent this along with the background story I remembered to Bill Gibbons, the Dinosaur Hunter, and it blew him away. Never did hear of the findings, but listening to Noorey, or any of the "others" hosting C2C during the night, you hear of these flying around Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico all the time. Although, they are eating Pets and Livestock.

This also could be the Origin of the Mothman, since discriptions suggest they are the size of a Human, or slightly larger, with a huge wingspan.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy the Photo, and look forward to seeing what else "Creeps" out of the Forest, or from under a Rock into the light of day.

Ciao

Shane

Caribbean Monk Seal

The Caribbean Monk Seal or West Indian Monk Seal (Monachus tropicalis) is an extinct species of seal. It is the only seal ever known to be native to the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The last verified recorded sighting occurred in 1952 at Serranilla Bank.[1] On June 6, 2008, after five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals, the U.S. government announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.[2]

A collection of Caribbean Monk Seal bones can be found at the Tropical Crane Point Hammock Museum in Key Vaca.

Sightings

In the United States, the last recorded sighting of this marine mammal occurred in 1932 off the Texas coast. The very last reliable records of this species are of a small colony at Serranilla Bank between Honduras and Jamaica in 1952.[1]

Unconfirmed sightings of Caribbean Monk Seals by local fishermen and divers are relatively common in Haiti and Jamaica, but two recent scientific expeditions failed to find any sign of this animal. It is possible that the mammal still exists, but some biologists strongly believe that the sightings are of wandering Hooded Seals, which have been positively identified on archipelagos such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. On April 22, 2009, The History Channel aired an episode of Monster Quest which hypothesized that an unidentified sea creature videotaped in the Intracoastal Waterway of Florida's southeastern coast could possibly be the extinct Caribbean Monk Seal. No conclusive evidence has yet emerged in support of this contention, however, and opposing hypotheses asserted the creature was simply a misidentified, yet common to the area, West Indian Manatee.

en.wikipedia.org...


It sounds like theres a chance its still around.
It would be interesting to see the videotape of the unidentifed sea creature.

I believe there are lots of undiscovered animals within the ocean, new ones are found all the time, so theres a good chance that animals that are considered extinct may still be around.

Cheers

I'd bet money (well, just a little) that there are still thylacines out there. Tasmania has more square miles unexplored than used, with tough terrain.
I also think that the giant sloth probably still exists, and will be put back on the extinct list because of the burning of the rain forests.
This is a really tough topic, as there are probably more things alive that are not described than are. Being from the US, I would be really happy to see some of the apex predators regaining some of their former range.
I'd like to see the artic tern, ivory-billed woodpecker, carolina parakeet, and passenger pigeon found again. Birds are a good barometer of the overall health of an ecosystem, and are a bit nicer from an aesthetic standpoint than amphibians.

Yeah, they live underground in Telos and throughout the Agartha Network... Dude.

Originally posted by Grey Magic
Teratorn comes swooping down and flies away with a young calf.

This was the real Thunderbird the native Indians knew passed from stories, generation to generation, not some myth, but a bird that has been proven to exist once..

Huh. It is a Roc!

I always believed that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (North America) would be rediscovered; I guess according to National Geographic it has been.




"Extinct" Woodpecker Found in Arkansas, Experts Say

However, now that we are currently killing the GOM, I highly doubt this magnificent bird and many others will survive the onslaught of polluted hurricanes over the next decade or two, or more.

Wishing the Ivory-billed the best chance possible. This was the very bird which inspired 'Woody' the Woodpecker cartoons; his species was the Ivory-billed.

Only the other month I was reading about a variety of loris that was re-discovered in Sri Lanka.
It was previously thought to have been extinct for 60 years.

Found: Sri Lankan primate thought to be extinct for 60 years

I belive in the thunder bird, me and 3 other people were out in the country here in Oklahoma with on of the kids fathers. Ugh most boring four hours ever. Who ever invented bird watching had way to much time on their hands. The only eventful thing was watching this bird swoop and dive way up in the sky. Her father said from what he can tell that bird had at least 16 ft wing span I just kind of scoffed like yeah right somthing that big and he told me the stories, and they go all the way up to the 80's a large group in Illinois saw the bird and this boy swore he was almost picked clean away.

We never did find the owl nest he wanted to see we all kind of got pale and took off after his explination of the bird picking up a 150 pound kid.

reply to post by FoxMulder91


If anything that we think is extinct now but has a chance of still being alive.......

Well, we'd need to look no further than our own Oceans. As ive said before, we know about the Moon than we do our own Oceans. It wouldnt shock me one bit if something prehistoric still roamed down in the murky deep of the watery abyss.

We need to seriously study our own backyard more.

Considering the human coverage of the planet I seriously doubt that any giant prehistoric beasties still exist undiscovered on land or in the air. The oceans may be a different story, but again it gets more doubtful as time goes by.
My best bet for a non-extinction would be for a species that humans are blamed for eradicating such as the Tassie Tiger. I'd love to hear of a Dodo or a Moa being found alive, but it's just very unlikely.
Maybe a few of the smaller birds like Parrots, owls and such have a chance of being alive still and perhaps a few of the smaller rodent sized animals but unfortunately... I'd say that's about it.
Here's hoping I'm proved very wrong!

Well, it would depend on if they were bottom feeders or not. Something huge maybe lurking down inside/near the Mariana trench.

We seriously need to put some money into Ocean research projects and stop with the Moon projects already.

I'd rather learn whats in my backyard first before I start looking into someone elses backyard. This is the planet that we inhabit - So why go searching for whats on other planets etc when we dont know everything that there is to know about our own Earth? That honestly baffles me.

[edit on 12-8-2010 by CheapShotArtist]

I think it's likely that there are some seefaring dinosaus and prehistoic fish out there. Perhaps even some in ancient lage and deep lakes. Who knows, or ability to explore and monitor the ocean is very limited.

There are probably some unidentified greater primates out there as well.

But as vast as this world is with much remaining unexplored and hard to access with regularity there is the potential for the existence of thousands of unidentified o previously thought extinct species.

I still think the best bet is in the Ocean.

Originally posted by DrJay1975


I still think the best bet is in the Ocean.

I could not agree more

It makes me wonder what the bloop really was.........