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qman256 — Natural History Drawings part 8 (front side)

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Published: 2019-10-30 10:09:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 787; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 0
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Description In the front side of my 8th part of the gallery, you have the Quagga (Equus quagga quagga), an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra that once roamed in vast herds in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. Its name was derived from its call, which sounded like "kwa-ha-ha". It looked like the Frankenstein of all equid species, which the head and stripes of a zebra strapped together with the body and hindquarters of a horse. Unfortunately, they were heavily hunted for their meat, hides and their competence with domesticated animals for forage. The last wild quagga probably died out in the late 1870's, with the last specimen in captivity died on August 12, 1883 at the Natura Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam. You also have the Shasta Ground Sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) was one of the smallest species of ground sloth, only growing to be the size of bear. Like other ground sloths, it had a similar lifestyle and browsed on the vegetation that grew in the Grand Canyon, in which where it lived during the Last Ice Age, in which it was cooler and wetter than it is today, which allowed plants to flourish. Right next to the ground sloth, we have the Golden Toad (Incilius periglenes), a small toad that once inhabited the elfin cloud forests of Monteverde, a city in Costa Rica. Their skin was so bright and shiny like gold, Jay Savage, the herpetologist who first discovered it, thought that they were dipped in paint. They were commonly considered the "poster child" for the amphibian decline crisis that threatens modern amphibians today. The last one was discovered and died out on May 15th, 1989. They went extinct, due to deforestation, climate change, pollution and UV radiation. Scientists believe that the warmer climate caused them to contract a deadly skin fungus, known as chytrid fungi.

At the top of the Shasta Ground Sloth, we have the North Island Giant Moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae), one of the two species of moa found in New Zealand. These species of moa showcases the greatest size difference between males and females of any bird alive or extinct, with the adult females being larger than the adult males. They lived in the lowlands, shrublands, dunelands, grasslands and forests of North Island. Their long legs made them more agile than any other moa species, along with their acute sense of smell. They ate a fibrous diet of twigs and leaves, along with flowers, berries, seeds, shrubs, vines and a few herbs and grasses. DNA study suggests that like other moas, they're more closely related to the tinamou of South America than the kiwi. They went extinct, due to overhunting by humans for food. Behind the moa is the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis), a extinct bird that once lived in huge colonies on the shores of the North Atlantic, as well as the coasts of southern France, Italy and others among the Mediterranean Basin. Even though it's sometimes called "The penguin of the north', they're more closely related to modern murres and puffins. The Native Americans valued them as a food source, clothing and a symbolic item. However in the 1800's, the high demand for oil, down, fat and meat caused them to be overhunted. The last one sadly went extinct on July 3rd, 1844, being the final factor that they were in high demand by collectors, including museums. Finally, we have the Glyptodon, a large prehistoric relative of today's armadillos that grew to the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. It originated in South America, but moved to North America 2.5 million years ago during the Great American Interchange in the Last Ice Age. Their protective shells was composed of more than 1,000 2.5 cm-thick osteoderms, even their tails had a ring of bones for protection, which may had been used as a weapon in fights. They died out 10,000 years ago, due to overhunting by humans, which used the shells of dead animals for shelter as well as climate change.
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