Upland Combshell (Epioblasma metastriata)
The upland scallop lived in shallow areas including the Black Warrior and Cahaba rivers in Alabama and the Coosa River basin in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, USA.
The shell of the species reached a width of up to 6 cm.
The last living specimen of this species was collected from the Conasauga River in Georgia in 1988.
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syn. Dysnomia metastriata Conrad
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edited: 29.07.2012
Beaverpond Marstonia (Marstonia castor)
The Beaverpond Marstonia was described in 1977, it is known exclusively from its type locality, Cedar Creek in the Flint River Drainage, Crisp County, Georgia, USA.
The species was not found during recetn surveys and was finally declared extinct in December 2017. [1]
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References:
[1] Georgia Snail Is First Species Declared Extinct Under Trump Administration. www.biologicaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2018-01-07
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edited: 01.05.2019
The Boulder Snail was described in 1842; it inhabited the Clinch- and the Powell rivers which are a part of a river system that spans over parts of Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, USA.
The species is now extinct, the last remaining population of this species disappeared when the Tellico River was dammed in 1979 to create Lake Tellico.
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The Boulder Snail is sometimes considered rediscovered, however, these accounts must be assigned to a closely related species, Anthony’s Boulder Snail (Athearnia anthonyi (Redfield)).
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edited: 14.11.2021
Pegasus Spur-throated Grasshopper (Melanoplus pegasus)
The Pegasus Spur-throated Grasshopper was described in 1919, it was found on some small islands in the Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia, where it inhabited dense thickets of vegetation.
The species is apparently very closely related to the Larger Fork-tail Grasshopper (Melanoplus furcatus Scudder), and was also assigned to that species as a subspecies. It differs from this species by its more solid coloration and by the form of the male cerci.
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References:
[1] Morgan Hebard: New genera and species of Melanopli found within the United States (Orthoptera; Acrididae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 44: 141-169. 1918
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edited: 31.08.2019
Stone Mountain Fairy Shrimp (Dendrocephalus lithaca)
The Stone Mountain Fairy Shrimp was described in 1940, it is known to have inhabited little rock outcrop pools located on the summit of Stone Mountain, a giant granite rock near the city of Atlanta in Georgia, USA.
The species was only ever collected twice and was never found again since the 1950s, it is now considered extinct.
The rock pools still exist, they are now inhabited by Clam Shrimps (Eulimnadia graniticola Rogers et al.), which were only discovered and described as a new species in 2010. [1]
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Another fairy shrimp species, the Alachua Fairy Shrimp (Dendrocephalus alachua (Dexter)) from Alachua County, Florida, was also thought to be extinct, but was rediscovered in 2019. [1]
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References:
[1] D. Christopher Rogers; Ann Dunn; W. Wayne Price: A review of Dendrocephalus (Denrocephalinus) (Crustacea. Anostraca) with the first records of male-male anostracan aggressive competiotion. European Journal of Taxonomy 509: 1-4. 2019
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edited: 14.09.2019
Maiden Rocksnail (Leptoxis formosa)
This species was described in 1860.
The Maiden Rocksnail was endemic to the Coosa River system in Alabama, USA, where it was restricted to the upper and middle reaches some of the tributaries.
The shells reached sizes of about 1,5 cm.
The species disappeared after the impoundment of the river by the building of dams and is now considered extinct.
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edited: 04.11.2017
Florida Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos floridanus)
The short-faced bears, so named for the shape of their skulls, which appear to have a disproportionately short snout compared to other bears, are a subfamily (Tremarctinae) of the bears that are/were restricted to the Americas. Only a single species survives until today, the Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus (Cuvier)) of South America.
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The Florida Spectacled Bear, described in 1928 based on fossil bones from Pleistocene deposits, inhabited the southern parts of North America, including Mexico, as well as Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, and Tennessee, USA.
The species differed from its South American counterpart by its much larger size and its heavier proportions.
The Florida Spectacled Bear was mainly a Pleistocene species and disappeared at the end of that epoch, however, bones of the species, found at Delvil’s Den, a flooded karst cave in Florida, were dated to an age of about 8000 BC, indicating that the species may have survived for a somewhat longer time. [1]
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References:
[1] B. Kurtén; E. Anderson: Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press 1980
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edited: 04.11.2017