I'm glad you asked the question and I've always wanted to know the
     same thing.  Since the 1940s or 50s no one has seen the Caribbean monk
     seal and I think a reasonable person would agree that the poor sucker
     is truly gone in view of its non-cryptic habits.  But what about the
     six-foot long, blue coelacanth -- Latimeria chalumnae -- though to be
     extinct for 300,000,000 years but caught in the Indian Ocean about 50
     years ago?  New species of BIRDS are being found in Central Africa and
     a new Asian deer has been described.  Are the dodos and passenger
     pigeons lurking around somewhere?  And of course we might ask whether
     the Yeti and Nessie has gone extinct before being found.  We know that
     there are species of dolphins; sighted but never caught, found
     stranded, nor described.  Another species is known only from a couple
     of skull parts.  Obviously, the absence of evidence is not the
     evidence of absence.
 
     So you folks with the USFWS protected species program get back to us
     on this one.  Outta here.
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: CRITERION FOR EXTINCTION?
Author:  Paul Monfils <[log in to unmask]> at ~smtp
Date:    8/26/98 5:11 PM
 
 
It was recently stated that certain species had been removed from the
endangered species list because they are now extinct.  Who decides that
a species is "now extinct", and how?  Is there some specific criterion,
like no specimens collected in the past X number of years? Paul M.