When it comes to naming extinct animals, most of us would probably know the dodo and the woolly mammoth. But how many of the over 900 species classified as extinct since 1500, and the over 44,000 species threatened with extinction, could we actually name?

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals by Sami Bayly can help us plug some of these knowledge gaps. More importantly, it reminds us we need to care for nature and its delicate ecosystems before it’s too late. Before they collapse.

‘Today, the rate at which species are becoming extinct is thought to be 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate,’ Bayly writes in the encyclopaedia’s introduction. ‘Hunting, overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and the introduction of invasive species are all modern causes of extinction. If we aren’t careful, the sixth mass extinction event could be a result of human choices and actions.’

It’s sobering stuff – and particularly for children.

Happily, though, while Bayly is candid about the realities of extinction she also makes learning about the 60 extinct or near-extinct creatures in the encyclopaedia both interesting and fun.

For each of these amazing creatures there is a double page spread, one page for the illustration and the other page for information about the animal’s extinction status, location/habitat and diet, as well as a box containing fun facts.

Did you know, for example, that the giant millipede (arthropleura) weighed 50 kilograms and grew to approximately the length of a car? Or that the giant ground sloth (megatherium americanum) was the largest bipedal mammal to have ever lived, and that they were even bigger than modern rhinos and elephants?

Were you aware that the Sunda pangolin (manis javanica), like all pangolins, is thought to have been able to feast on over 70 million ants or terminates in just one year, using their 25-centimetre-long sticky tongues to slurp them up. Or that western black rhinos (diceros bicornis longipes) probably communicated, like modern day rhinos do, through their urine, conveying important information through the scent of their pee? Amazingly, a single spray of rhino urine can reach distances of 4 metres! What!

Bayli’s marvellous illustration of the pugnacious wedge-seal (gomphotaria pubnax) shows a frightening set of tusks, and her portrait of the helicoprion shark (helicoprion) offers an eerie close-up of their spiral jaws (called ‘tooth whorls’). In fact, all the illustrations are really well done.

I was intrigued but also somewhat overwhelmed by the Australian-based species that have become or are nearly extinct. This includes the Kangaroo Island assassin spider (zephyrarchaea austini) thought to have been made extinct after a major bushfire on Kangaroo Island at the end of 2019 and start of 2020. Two spiders were discovered in some leaf litter in 2021, which means they’re not extinct but critically endangered.

Then there’s the southern corroboree frog (pseudophryne corroboree) of which there are only around 300 left in the wild in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. Also, there’s Hackett’s giant echidna (murrayglossus hacketti), which went extinct around 40,000 years ago, and may have been an occasional food source for early humans.

Fossil evidence places the Quinkana (Quinkana) – one of the last terrestrial crocodiles, and one of the largest Australian predators to have ever lived – in Bluff Downs, a fossil site approximately 1,150 kilometres northwest of Brisbane.

Along with the species I’ve mentioned so far, Bayli includes many more sea creatures, snakes, geckos, rats, orangutans and other animals from across the world for us and our young ones to study and consider. She also gives pronunciation guidance for the scientific names, which is helpful.

I love this encyclopaedia. It’s a rare bird in terms of how beautifully and carefully it’s been put together. A great gift for children aged 8+ … and, you know, Christmas is coming.

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The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals

Sami Bayly

Hachette HB $32.99

Imprint: Lothian Children’s Books