The species the world lost this decade
The Rabbs’ fringe-limbed treefrog was unlike any other species on planet Earth. Inhabiting only the forests of Panama, the frog had enormously charismatic brown eyes, and feet so oversized they looked cartoonish. But what made the frog truly special was the way it looked after its tadpoles.
The Rabbs’ was the only known frog in the world where tadpoles would eat the literal flesh of their fathers’ back to survive their early days of life. That’s right: Dads could feed their offspring with their own flesh.
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But in 2016, the very last known Rabbs’ tree frog died in an Atlanta Zoo. And with the death of the last one — a male, nicknamed Toughie — all the biological machinery that came with the frog was wiped off the face of the earth.
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In the past decade, 467 species have been declared extinct (though they might have gone extinct in decades prior), according to the global authority on species conservation status, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. Others have been brought to the brink and still more are seeing serious declines in their population numbers.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/12/9/20993619/biodiversity-crisis-extinction
