E V they are often referred to by the generic the Oligocene era, about 35 million years ago, A name alone: Tyrannosaurus, Tricerotops, belong in the first category of extinct animals. TA H FUN! Stegosaurus, etc. In this they are not being No human being was ever lucky enough to X A treated any differently than the way most see one flitting along the shores of the lake in O N by Harry Zirlin people refer to living animals as elephants, which it was eventually entombed by volcanic N N zebras and baboons even though there are ash. different species of elephants, zebras and There must also have been many species O A W baboons. There were different species of of butterflies that lived during the time of M T woolly mammoths and sabertoothed cats for woolly mammoths and sabertoothed cats but I US that matter. In fact, our own Monarch, Danaus went extinct along with them. The remains of STS J plexippus (which was named by Linnaeus extinct beetles and other insects have sur- The Names of the Departed himself in 1758) could be viewed as just one vived for tens of thousands of years trapped of several monarchs in the genus Danaus in permafrost, or in the tar of the Rancho La It is estimated that 99.9% of all the species as frameworks for huts.) Whether humans [some Old World publications do call Danaus Brea deposits in Los Angeles, and it stands to that have ever existed are extinct. There have actually hunted mammoths into extinction is, plexippus, American Monarch — Ed.]. reason that if some beetle species went extinct, been five mass extinctions during the Earth’s however, a matter of conjecture. If humans Now, if you have more than a passing there were butterfly species that did so as well. history. Humans are currently causing a sixth. did wipe out mammoths and other ice-age interest in living butterflies, birds or some But, as far as I know, no extinct butterflies Let us think about extinct organisms in three herbivores, that may have led to the extinction other group of extant organisms, you are have been described that date from this period. categories. First, there are all of the species of top-rung predators like the sabertoothed well aware that whether one population of That brings us to the third category — that became extinct for reasons having noth- cats. There are also theories that humans and organisms is the same species as, or a differ- extinct butterflies whose extinction was caused ing to do with human beings. These species animals domesticated by humans may have ent species from, another population is often by human beings. Worldwide, there are quite existed, and then became extinct, before there caused the extinction of mammoths and other intensely debated. The evidence that is used to a few butterflies that are extinct or presumed were any human beings. Trilobites (an ancient animals by spreading diseases from conti- come to a reasoned conclusion as to whether extinct. An extinct snout butterfly, Libythea class of arthropods made up of nine orders, nent to continent. But, again, no one knows an entity is a valid species or not, can include cinyras, apparently occurred on the island and numbering over 15,000 described spe- for sure exactly what happened to cause the life history studies, breeding studies, genetic of Mauritius along with the Dodo. But how cies) and dinosaurs (or non-bird dinosaurs if extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. analysis, dissection and comparison of certain many North American butterfly species are you subscribe to the taxonomic concept that Finally, there are those species which internal organs, and much else. Almost none extinct? It depends on what is meant by the birds are dinosaurs) are in this category. Both humans certainly caused to go extinct, either of these techniques can be brought to bear on word “species.” If that word means a taxon groups became extinct long before there were through habitat destruction, overhunting, intro- deciding whether the fossil remains of two that most scientists agree was a full species any human beings around. Trilobites became duction of alien and invasive species and dis- organisms that closely resemble each other and not a subspecies of a surviving full species extinct at the end of the Permian period, eases (an insidious type of habitat destruction) belonged to the same species or not. Indeed, it then the answer is that one species, Xerces approximately 251 million years ago. Non- or some combination of these factors. In this is sometimes discovered when more complete Blue, Glaucopsyche xerces, has become bird dinosaurs became extinct at the end of category are the Dodo, the Carolina Parakeet, fossils are found that two described species extinct. But some authors lump Xerces Blue the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. the Passenger Pigeon, and far too many others. were actually one and the same. as a subspecies of Silvery Blue, Glaucopsyche (Humans have been around a few million Not everyone realizes that the same Butterflies have been around a long time. lygdamus, so even here there is some debate years at most.) The extinction at the end of system of nomenclature developed by There are fossil butterflies that are at least about full species status. But, unfortunately, the Cretaceous period is considered the last of Linnaeus (1707-1778) for living species 40-50 million years old, but, at that time, there is no debate that some very distinctive the five major extinction events. is applied to extinct species as well. Take the major families of butterflies as we know subspecies have also become extinct along In the second category, there are those the most famous dinosaur for instance them already existed, strongly suggesting that with Xerces Blue. In fact, most lists of extinct species that became extinct while human — Tyrannosaurus rex. Its name is composed butterflies are much older than that and prob- North American butterflies list four butterflies, beings were in existence, but whether humans of the same elements as any living species. ably (some would say certainly) co-existed all of them from California. directly or indirectly caused their extinction Tyrannosaurus is the genus in which it belongs with dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period Xerces Blue was confined to the area is unknown. Woolly mammoths and saber- and rex is the species name. (Whether there which dates from 144-65 million years ago. around San Francisco, California. It was toothed cats are in this category. There is clear are other species of tyrannosaurids that I have already written in this column about described in 1852 by the French lepidopter- evidence that humans and woolly mammoths should be placed in the genus Tyrannosaurus the scientific names of some fossil butterflies ist, Jean Baptiste de Boisduval (1797-1879). co-existed and that humans exploited woolly along with T. rex is a matter of debate among discovered in Florissant, Colorado. (Butter- The last known individual of Xerces Blue was mammoths for food and shelter. (Yes, shelter paleontologists.) Indeed, every dinosaur flies of the Underworld, American Butterflies, recorded on March 23, 1943, less than 100 — humans used mammoth bones and tusks has both a generic and a specific name, but Winter 2000.) Those butterflies, dating from years after the species was described. Xerces 42 American Butterflies,Summer/Fall 2006 43