The Presence Of Absence: How Do We Know A Species Is Really Extinct?

𝐆𝐫𝐫π₯π’πœπ’πžπ§π­π’π¬π­, scientist & journalist
Dialogue & Discourse
Published in
9 min readJun 28, 2022

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When the only image available of your species is a painting, that’s a really big clue that the species is extinct

Β© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | Twitter | Newsletter

A pair of Purple-winged Ground-doves (Paraclaravis geoffroyi). Female, left; male, right. (Copyright and credit to the artist, Evaristo HernΓ‘ndez-FernΓ‘ndez)

They were nomadic. Shy. They slipped quietly through the skies over seemingly endless tropical forests, their lives devoted to travelling from one patch of…

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𝐆𝐫𝐫π₯π’πœπ’πžπ§π­π’π¬π­, scientist & journalist
Dialogue & Discourse

Written by 𝐆𝐫𝐫π₯π’πœπ’πžπ§π­π’π¬π­, scientist & journalist

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PhD evolutionary ecology/ornithology. Psittacophile. scicomm Forbes, previously Guardian. always Ravenclaw. discarded scientist & writer, now an angry house elf

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