Well, you’ve already read the question, it’s a very simple one. Provide images of the animal(s), so that everyone gets to know it.
My favourite extinct animals are
I’m pretty sure everyone knows how the thylacine looked like… anyway…
Javan tiger
Pretty sure everyone knows the dodo
Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas ). It was a Pleistocene epoch animal that almost made it to the present day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller's_sea_cow
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Em_-_Hydrodamalis_gigas_model.jpg
Do you think they might still be out there? I personally don’t think so, but…
…sea cow sightings have been reported after Brandt’s official 1768 date of extinction. Lucien Turner, an American ethnologist and naturalist, said the natives of Attu Island reported that the sea cows survived into the 1800s, and were sometimes hunted.
In 1963, the official journal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR published an article announcing a possible sighting. The previous year, the whaling ship Buran had reported a group of large marine mammals grazing on seaweed in shallow water off Kamchatka, in the Gulf of Anadyr. The crew reported seeing six of these animals ranging from 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 ft), with trunks and split lips. There have also been alleged sightings by local fishermen in the northern Kuril Islands, and around the Kamchatka and Chukchi peninsulas.
My favorite extinct animals, by far, are Azhdarchid pterosaurs
For recently extinct animals, I’d say I have an interest in large flightless birds, many of which are from New Caledonia. Notably the Lowland Kagu and Sylviornis neocaledoniae.
Even still, I have a strong interest in nearly any extinct life, from Oligocene hummingbirds to Carboniferous plants.
I don’t think so either. If they are they would have to be on the Russian side. The North American coastline is far too developed for them to go unnoticed.
If I know a little about them, I find almost any ancient creature interesting.
The early mammals during the reign of the dinosaurs were all varied and compelling in their own right; not all mammals during this time were the size of shrews or limited solely to burrowing or scurrying through the undergrowth. Some were the size of badgers, some lived in the water much like otters and beavers, some were gliders (with membranous wings much like flying squirrels and colugos), and there was even a known monotreme (Steropodon).
The pterosaurs and dinosaurs themselves were fascinating. I was amazed to learn that dinosaurs did not even dominate the scene when they first appeared in the Triassic (I had been under the impression that they had ruled the earth from the onset of the Mesozoic). Instead, dinosaurs were secondary players to the more dominant crocodyliform archosaurs known as crurotarsans, which included phytosaurs, rauisuchians, and aetosaurs, as well as the lineage that would lead to today’s crocodilians. It was only after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event that the dinosaurs would go on to dominate the ecosystems in which they lived.
Perhaps because I am most familiar with them, my top favourite extinct animals have to be the Pleistocene megafauna, from the saber-toothed Smilodon and Dinofelis (hence my username), to the giant hyraxes and hairy rhinoceroses of northern Eurasia, to the weird and wonderful glyptodonts and toxodons, to the monsters of Australia such as Quinkana and Megalania that would be right at home in Jurassic Park. Many islands in the Pacific had mekosuchine crocodiles which were habitually terrestrial, as well as Meiolania and giant flightless birds fulfilling the niches of mammals elsewhere.
This was the world that we humans evolved in and were shaped most by. We shared the planet with humans who were different enough from us to be separate species. We mastered the use of fire, stone, and wood to carve a place for ourselves within this dangerous, vibrant world. We commemorated the beasts that held significance to us such as the cave lion, woolly mammoth, steppe bison, and Megaloceros through the drawings we left on cave walls, and even left records of observations of behaviour from then, such as rhinos jousting their horns with one another just as their surviving relatives do today.
Closer to home, the Pleistocene Cape of South Africa had a much more extensive coastline than today due to sea levels, with a cooler drier climate promoting more extensive palatable grazing than it is naturally now. This was where the earliest evidence of modern human settlement, as well as the earliest known human drawing, has been found (inhabiting caves 77,000 years ago). In this region, modern African wildlife such as elephants, leopards, ostriches, and so on coexisted with extinct species including long-horned buffalo (Syncerus antiquus), giant Cape horse (Equus capensis), the alcelaphine antelope known as Megalotragus priscus, and apparently a species of wildebeest distinct from the two modern ones.
Honourary mentions as favourites would have to be Thylacosmilus, the phorusrhacids (‘terror birds’), and Livyatan (a macropredatory sperm whale that gave the shark Megalodon a run for its money).
Childhood me was always unreasonably upset about the Passenger Pigeon. Which is silly because if they hadn’t died out I’d probably have the same opinion of them as I do like, Morning Doves, which is - ‘freaking adorable but don’t you dare lay an egg on my windshield STOP SITTING THERE’
Adult me? Ivory Billed Woodpecker, full. fucking. stop. Its absolutely infuriating that we had confirmed breeding pairs on the Singer Tract, the Audubon Society tried to buy the land, and the logging company just said ‘lolno’ and razed it.
I have hope that some might be out there (maybe the Cuban subspecies hidden in the mountains?) but realistically that’s probably false hope.
Thats another species that I really like but forgot to write it when i presented the topic.
I keep thinking about the Carolina Parakeet. Most of the eastern United States once had flocks of native parrots. Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it?
Ever since I read about Dominican amber, I think about how many taxa the Caribbean once had, that are now only in Central and South America. I would rather have army ants and leafcutter ants than fire ants. Back in 2020, I posted a thread about The lost macaws of the Caribbean. As colorful as the Islands are, think of how much more colorful they would be if they had endemic versions of every Central American taxon.
On the topic of Mekosuchines, it’s honestly crazy just how diverse crocodilians were just a few thousand years ago. While today we’re confined to your usual Alligators, Crocodiles, Caimans, Gharial, and Tomistoma, (many of which are already in decline as is), it’s crazy to think that there were multiple examples of fully terrestrial crocodilians alive with humans thousands of years ago.
Another great recently extinct crocodilian is Ikanogavialis papuensis, a fully marine gryposuchine.
I really like pterosaurs in general. Considering how distinct most the fossils are from each other makes me think they would be one of the more easily identifiable taxa on here if they were still with us, probably much like the birds now, especially with those head crests.
Maniraptora are another favorite due to how similar many look to their modern relatives.
However, the crown has to be to the arthropods during the Carboniferous and Permian, like
Meganisoptera (given the very appropriate and awesome nickname Griffinflies)
The Palaeodictyoptera, where many had this extra pair of “winglets” which could only conjure up the image of speculative three winged insects if these were to have survived and evolved further into today.
And Arthropleura, those giant millipedes.
I also really enjoy all those early invertebrates too. Anomalocaridids, Eurypterids, Hallucigenia, all those triolobites…
What can I say, I’m an arthropod fan. :)
Diprotodon…marsupial “lion”…
At my Wodonga Mens Shed our member Kevin made this “ferro cement” replica, financed bt Parklands Albury Wodonga grant.
It has recently been installed at Gateway Islands in a reasonably secluded place.
Eventually a track and signage will be in place to show him off to walkers.
In the mean time, ranger Danny snapped this photo of him with somenew friends.
In the southeast of my country the Nubian Ass is on the brink of extinction, but it might have become already extinct because of its mingling and reproduction with feral/domesticated donkeys. I was hoping to help in bringing it back but the obstacles are far too many.
In Ancient times, I would have loved to see the Twin-horned mammal known as Arsinoitherium. It had a resemblance to the Rhinoceros but scientists think it is more closely related to the Elephant and the Hyrax. It was first discovered in Egypt by Beadnel at the beginning of the last century.
Outside of dinosaurs it would be the Carolina Parakeet. Such a cool bird!
More fun to let them find him unexpectedly 
Rauisuchus, or more generally landcrocs.
Dunkleosteus would also be here, but a recent paper[0] indicates that it wasn’t bus-sized.
[0] Russell K. Engelman: A Devonian Fish Tale: A New Method of Body Length Estimation Suggests Much Smaller Sizes for Dunkleosteus terrelli (Placodermi: Arthrodira), https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/15/3/318#
I wish we had hadrosaurs. It has been theorized they could “breathe fire” of a sort. That’s mostly based on the fact that the frill is hollow bone for which we have no idea the use of. It would also explain where the legends came from
Scientists didn’t theorise that, a creationist did. And no humans lived while (non-avian) dinosaurs were alive, so I have no idea how that possibly could have created legends of dragons
