Dodo bird and Western Black Rhinoceros

Dodo bird

Mauritius island

2,000,000 - 1681

The Dodo (doe-doe) bird is the most famous extinct animal in the world.
But new evidence suggests that the Dodo was not the stupid, slow, fat, and clumsy bird that most people grow to believe. When people first came to Mauritius (Mur-ish-us) they saw that the Dodo did not fear them which sparked the phrases "Dump as a Dodo" or "You're a dodo". But this was not a surprise to modern scientists because the Dodo had no natural enemies to compete with for food and their were no predators on Mauritius. The Dodo was a "big" bird but it wasn't fat, because the Dodo could not fly the muscles and skeleton had to adapt to living on the ground. In doing so the Dodos legs got bigger and stronger, what was thought to be fat was really muscle, and muscles are heavier then fat leading to the misconception.

 Until 1831 their was no evidence that the Dodo ever existed and was turned into a myth much like the myths of the unicorn or dragon. This is not surprising because (like all birds) Dodo bones are vary fragile because they are hollow. Out of all the bits and peaces only two complete skeletons were ever found. The Dodo was never hunted for food because the meat was to chewy and tasted horrible. The reason it went extinct was because of pigs, and hunting for sport. The pigs ate the Dodo's food which was mostly snails and fruit, the pigs also ate the Dodo's eggs and since Dodos only laid one egg in a ground nest a year it devastated the population.

Western Black Rhinoceros
sub-Saharan Africa and Cameroon
30,000,000 - November 10, 2011

The Western Black Rhino is one of the most resent extinctions to happen. Like all rhinos the Western Black Rhino was hunted to extinction for sport, and it's horn which was believed to have medical powers that have never been proven to be true. The horns were also sold illegally for quick cash.
Unlike the mother species, the black rhino, the Western Black Rhino's horns didn't normally curve inward and the second horn was normally longer then most other rhino species today (Sometimes the second horn was longer then the first horn).

Like all rhinos the Western Black Rhino had poor eyesight, but made up for it with acute hearing. The Rhino most likely relied on the red-billd oxpecker to warn when danger was near like other rhinos. The last Western Black Rhino was killed by a poacher for it's horns.