Animals & Nature
Extinct Animals Quiz
Dodos, woolly mammoths, and the species we lost â some just decades ago.
Dodos, woolly mammoths, and the species we lost â some just decades ago.
The Passenger Pigeon went from being the most abundant bird in North America â with flocks of billions that darkened the sky for days â to complete extinction in just a few decades. This quiz covers 50 questions spanning famous extinctions, recent losses, de-extinction science, and the forces that drive species to disappear forever.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from our pool of 50, making every attempt a unique experience. Select from four multiple-choice answers, receive instant feedback with in-depth explanations, and share your results to challenge others.
Questions span famous extinctions (dodo, woolly mammoth, thylacine), recent extinctions (baiji dolphin, Western Black Rhino), cutting-edge de-extinction efforts, the leading causes of species loss including habitat destruction and chytrid fungus, and remarkable Lazarus species rediscoveries like the coelacanth.
De-extinction is a real and active field. Colossal Biosciences has raised over $225 million to resurrect the woolly mammoth using CRISPR gene-editing and Asian elephant DNA, targeting cold-adapted Asian elephants as a proxy. The University of Melbourne is leading a parallel project to bring back the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger). In 2013, scientists briefly revived cells from an extinct gastric-brooding frog. While no extinct species has been fully resurrected yet, rapid advances in genomics make it increasingly plausible for species that went extinct recently enough to have well-preserved DNA.
Recent extinctions happen more often than most people realize. The Bramble Cay melomys, a small Australian rodent, was declared extinct in 2019 and is considered the first mammal driven extinct by climate change â rising seas destroyed its only island habitat on the Great Barrier Reef. The Western Black Rhinoceros was declared extinct by the IUCN in 2011, and Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise, died in 2012. Dozens of species are formally declared extinct every year.
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) went extinct around 1681, less than a century after humans first arrived on Mauritius in 1638. The primary culprits were invasive species â particularly rats, pigs, and monkeys brought by sailors that raided dodo nests and ate eggs â rather than direct hunting alone. The dodo's fearlessness around humans (having evolved with no land predators) made it easy prey. Interestingly, the dodo's existence was doubted by scientists for about 200 years after extinction because accounts seemed so fantastical, until fossil evidence confirmed it.
Last updated: March 2026