I fell down the Wikipedia hole tonight. I’m note really sure how I even got started, but I think when we were sitting by the fire, we got to talking about asteroids and meteors and meteorites because of the Perseid meteor shower. That led to impact events, which led to extinction events, which led to species that were extinct in the wild, which led to endemism.

So I learned that the earliest extinction event was called the great oxygenation event, where photosynthesis began and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere rose, which meant that life could evolve, but also that some organisms would not survive.

I learned also that there are two mammals that are extinct in the wild, but conservationists are trying to reintroduce them: the scimitar oryx and the Père David’s deer. The scimitar oryx was an inspiration for unicorns, because they have super long horns and the thought is that someone saw one that was missing a horn: the Père David’s deer have amazing antlers that are unlike any other deer.

There is also the Kihansi spray toad which only lives in the spray from this waterfall in Tanzania, which was dammed and thus, had it’s flow reduced so far that the road almost died out. However, the Toledo Zoo (of all places) successfully brought it back by figuring out the right conditions for breeding and living. It still hasn’t been very successfully reintroduced, though.

Now it’s 1:38 in the morning and I’ve learned far more than I have written here but I’ve stayed up too late again so tomorrow might be uncomfortable. It’s my normal state of affairs at this point.

Picture to drop the ads down – I think these are Père David’s deer in captivity.