Neomonachus tropicalis
1952
Illustration by Henry W. Eliott of a Caribbean monk seal (labelled here as "West Indian seal") from George Brown Goode's Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States: Section I, Natural History of Useful Aquatic Animals, Plates (1884). The drawing is of a specimen observed at the U. S. National Museum -- Source
Last seen surfacing near the Serranilla Bank in 1952, this monk seal is still sometimes reported by fisherman and divers in Haiti and Jamaica, yet scientific expeditions have failed to confirm the sightings. (It is suspected that the observed animals are hooded seals, not Caribbean monk seals.) While early colonial voyages encountered the species throughout the Caribbean --- Christopher Columbus and his crew slaughtered eight of these "sea wolves" for sustenance in 1494 --- its populations are thought to have been already diminished by the fifteenth century, relegated to atolls by indigenous hunting activities. Although first recorded by Europeans four hundred years before its extinction, little scientific research was ever conducted on the species. By the nineteenth century, Caribbean monk seals had all but disappeared, overharvested by fishermen, sailors, and sealers who preyed upon the animal's genetic tameness and lack of natural defenses.
Bos primigenius
1627
Illustration of an aurochs from Siegmund von Herberstein's Rervm Moscoviticarvm commentarij Sigismundi (1556) Source
Last seen surfacing near the Serranilla Bank in 1952, this monk seal is still sometimes reported by fisherman and divers in Haiti and Jamaica, yet scientific expeditions have failed to confirm the sightings. (It is suspected that the observed animals are hooded seals, not Caribbean monk seals.) While early colonial voyages encountered the species throughout the Caribbean --- Christopher Columbus and his crew slaughtered eight of these "sea wolves" for sustenance in 1494 --- its populations are thought to have been already diminished by the fifteenth century, relegated to atolls by indigenous hunting activities. Although first recorded by Europeans four hundred years before its extinction, little scientific research was ever conducted on the species. By the nineteenth century, Caribbean monk seals had all but disappeared, overharvested by fishermen, sailors, and sealers who preyed upon the animal's genetic tameness and lack of natural defenses.
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