List of Galapagos Islands animals extinct in the Holocene

This is a list of Galápagos Islands species extinct in the Holocene that covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years before present (about 9700 BCE)^[A] and continues to the present day.^[1]

Map of the Galápagos Islands

This list includes animals that have gone extinct from the Galápagos Islands, an island archipelago belonging to Ecuador.

Many animal species have disappeared from the Galápagos Islands as part of the ongoing Holocene extinction, driven by human activity.

Mammals (class Mammalia)

Rodents (order Rodentia)

Hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice (family Cricetidae)

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments	Pictures
Galápagos giant rat	Megaoryzomys curioi	Santa Cruz	Known from subfossil remains. Possibly extinct by introduced predators like feral dogs, cats, pigs, and black rats.[2]
Darwin's Galápagos mouse	Nesoryzomys darwini	Santa Cruz	Last recorded in 1930. Extinct due to competition, pathogens transmitted by, or predation by black rats, house mice, brown rats, and feral cats.[3]
Indefatigable Galápagos mouse	Nesoryzomys indefessus	Santa Cruz and Baltra	Last collected in 1934. Extinct due to competition, pathogens transmitted by, or predation by black rats, house mice, brown rats, and feral cats.[4]

Birds (class Aves)

Perching birds (order Passeriformes)

Tanagers (family Thraupidae)

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments	Pictures
Darwin's ground finch	Geospiza magnirostris magnirostris	Floreana and San Cristóbal	Only recorded alive by Charles Darwin in 1835. It was restricted to the lowlands which were the most affected by human settlement starting in 1832; introduced donkeys, cattle, and goats reduced the Opuntia cacti it fed and nested on, while dogs, cats, and rats predated on the birds.[5]

Tyrant flycatchers (family Tyrannidae)

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments
San Cristóbal flycatcher	Pyrocephalus dubius	San Cristóbal	Last recorded in 1987. Likely extinct due to predation by introduced rats, the avian vampire fly, or avian pox.[6]

Reptiles (class Reptilia)

Turtles and tortoises (order Testudines)

Tortoises (family Testudinidae)

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments	Pictures
Pinta Island tortoise	Chelonoidis niger abingdonii	Pinta	The last wild individual (Lonesome George) was captured in 1972 and died in Santa Cruz's Tortoise Center in 2012, but hybrid descendants survive in northern Isabela Island. Declined due to hunting and habitat destruction by grazing feral goats.[7]
Floreana giant tortoise	Chelonoidis niger niger	Floreana	Disappeared from the wild in the mid-19th century, though hybrids survive in captivity and in northern Isabela Island. Likely extinct due to hunting and the impact of introduced mammals including pigs, dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, cattle, black rats and house mice.[8]
Santa Fe Island tortoise	Chelonoidis niger 'Santa Fe Island'	Santa Fe	Undescribed lineage, known from subfossil bones.[9]

Ray-finned fish (class Actinopterygii)

Ovalentaria incertae sedis

Family Pomacentridae

Possibly extinct

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments	Pictures
Galápagos damsel	Azurina eupalama	Galápagos Islands	Last recorded during the 1982-83 El Niño event, which warmed the waters it inhabited and killed off the plankton on which it fed.[10]

Starfishes (class Asteroidea)

Order Forcipulatida

Family Heliasteridae

Possibly extinct

Common name	Scientific name	Range	Comments
24-rayed sunstar	Heliaster solaris	Galápagos Islands	Last recorded during the 1982-83 El Niño event.[11]

Notes

1. The source gives "11,700 calendar yr b2k (before CE 2000)". But "BP" means "before CE 1950". Therefore, the Holocene began 11,650 BP. Doing the math, that is c. 9700 BCE.