Has anyone seen extinct species?

Vision said:
Why the need for such an unnecessarily pedantic comment? Jurek's comment, to me, seems well within bounds for this topic; sure, it's widely regarded as a subspecies rather than a species, but it is definitely a near-extinct taxonomical entity that a few zoochatters have been fortunate enough to see before it went extinct. Whether that taxon is a species or subspecies (an inconsistent and subjective system) surely isn't that important?

I know I've missed my chance to see one. I was in San Diego in 2010, but this was before I knew a lot about zoos and rare species in them... So I went to San Diego Zoo and Sea World instead.
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My comment was NOT unnecesary nor pedantic, certainly not in any degree more than the 95% of the content of whole Zoochat forum. I find your post somewhat offensive.
 
Brum said:
Never! I definitely disagree with cottoni being distinct enough at species level, I really don't care what DNA testing says in this case! :p ;)
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I tend to agree. You cannot differentiate between them on physical characteristics reliably afaik, and that is an important indicator I think. The mixed pair at ZSL were certainly indistinguishable -apart from their sexes that is.
 
Pertinax said:
I tend to agree. You cannot differentiate between them on physical characteristics reliably afaik, and that is an important indicator I think. The mixed pair at ZSL were certainly indistinguishable -apart from their sexes that is.
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cottoni was certainly morphologically distinct, especially when looking at the skull and that is visible in pictures uploaded here. Add to that a long period of separation and one might very well regard Northern white rhino as a distinct species...
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Kakapo never misses an opportunity to remind people he disapproves of the vast majority of currently-accepted taxonomic splits or placements :p
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In first place you're absolutely wrong, is you and some other zoochatters who never misses an opportunity for try to ridiculize me and the vast majority of currently-accepted taxonomic splits of placements without apparent reason.
In second place, you are putting this absolutely unrelated reply to the question, what just confirm (once more) what I said.
 
Kakapo said:
Is not even a subspecies ;) as much you can call it a form.
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If you would look at the available evidence, combining morphology, genetics and biogeography you are dealing with a highly distinct subspecies, if not species. If you can give me clear facts, not opinion, why described morphological and genetical differences should be ignored in this case, we can have a discussion....
 
Chlidonias said:
Groves in 2010 gave an estimated separation of Northern and Southern White Rhinos as around a million years, which is where the "two separate species" comes from. A more recent paper (from this year), using the whole genome, gave an estimated separation of the two as between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago.
https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/05/16/gr.227603.117.full.pdf
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Thanks, I wasn't aware of that study, which puts the situation in a rather different light, that indicates more a subspecies level difference.
 
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