What’s a species that became extinct before being classified?

Question

Hello. I’m taking an anthropology class and need help finding an example of a species that became extinct before it was even classified. I need to also include what kind of creature it may be, where/when the extinction mostly occurred and possible causes for extinction. If you could provide a URL to where you discovered your findings that would be very helpful. Thank you!

Answer 1

Many species were extinct before discovered and classified. Due to the function of the evolutionary process, many species did not survive and, due to the environment or other conditions, have yet to be discovered. For example, Anthropologists (etal.) had theories about what early homo sapiens might have looked like. Early Species were unknown before discovery, such as Australopithecus afarensis (4.2-3.9mya), also known as LUCY – Hadar 40% intact, definite bipedal, height 3.5 ft, Lucy was found by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on November 24, 1974, at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/experts/donald-johanson). Early hominids had shared characteristics such as bipedalism. Approximately 6 million years ago, a species known as Sahelanthropus was bipedal; this species was discovered in 2001 by Michel Brunet (https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence). If you visit the Smithsonian human origins project, you will gain more information than could not be discussed here.