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Anyone who has browsed the wiki recently may have noticed that extinct species now automatically show what week they went extinct, and there are likewise categories for what week a species died in. The vast majority of these species are listed as also having an unknown extinction generation and cause.

I've been working on a project to track down every single extinction date and cause. Originally, this was just for the sake of being able to add Sagan Bot, but then I started discovering species that were made extinct by mistake--such as Crystal Sapper, which was never added to the ecosystem page when it was first created, and more notably Uksip Marfinnus, now the oldest extant species, which seems to have been killed off retroactively by accident during a reorganization of the ecosystem pages in 2008. (it's known to be a mistake because there were other species killed off by mistake that appeared or left descendants after the affected pages)

These discoveries sparked deeper investigation into extinctions, such as those of extinct kingdoms, and suddenly mistakes are being uncovered left and right. However, investigating them is proving difficult, as there are literally thousands of extinct species from throughout Sagan 4's 14-year history. Therefore, I have made this dynamic list of every single species with an unknown extinction cause, sorted by week: https://sagan4alpha.miraheze.org/wiki/User:...auseMaintenence

If possible, I would like assistance in pinpointing the exact extinction date and cause of every species listed. If an accidental, mistaken, or otherwise suspicous extinction is found, it should be reported here so it can be investigated further and potentially fixed.

This post has been edited by Disgustedorite: Nov 5 2020, 09:52 AM

It occurred to me that finding an extinction cause may seem like a difficult task. I have a process that I use when determining the generation and cause of extinction:

I picked a species at random, the Mud-Swirl. It is listed as having gone extinct in week 9. It has a single descendant, which was made in week 9 and replaced it. Therefore, I filled in its extinction date and cause as being generation 60 and replaced by a descendant by adding this to the template on its wiki page:

CODE

|exgen       = 60 |excause     = replaced by descendant

For a species not replaced by its descendant, I have picked the Azelak Sprinter, which became extinct in week 15. It has no descendants, so it was not replaced. So, I clicked "what links here" on the wiki's sidebar to see what pages it is linked on. I found it to be linked on the Gammaray page, which preserves week 15 at the moment of the gamma ray burst (between gens 100 and 101) with information on which species died from it. The Azelak Sprinter had no votes to preserve it from extinction, so it died from the gamma ray burst. Gamma ray burst extinctions are being listed as generation 101 on the wiki, so I add this to its wiki page template:

CODE

|exgen       = 101 |excause     = gamma ray burst

The above examples turned out to have correct weeks of extinction, so I only needed to fill in the cause. For a more suspicious extinction date, the process would look more like this:

I picked another species at random, in this case the Feathered Beakworm. It has no descendants the week it went extinct, so I check pages that link to it for anything that might have outcompeted it. In this case, there are none. However, it looks like its prey went extinct the week it died out. However, closer investigation shows that descendants of its prey existed which it would have been capable of eating for much longer. The week it became extinct, its prey was replaced by the Hydroskimmer. However, the Hydroskimmer is still accessible as food for it, and it remained extant until week 11 when it was replaced by something the Feathered Beakworm could not eat. Therefore, the Feathered Beakworm's extinction date is wrong and should be updated to have occurred in week 11 from loss of food. I post this information here or send it to MNIDJM for verification before I edit the wiki accordingly, in case it turns out I'm incorrect.

(of these two I actually picked the Feathered Beakworm to check first most extinctions are not suspicious so that was lucky)

This post has been edited by Disgustedorite: Nov 8 2020, 10:22 AM

I just remembered this thread exists. Help is still needed.

The Swamp Plyent was replaced by its descendent in gen 139

The Plains plyent seems to have died out during the snowball event when its habitat disappeared.

The Desert Plyent, Lazarus Plyent, Twin Plyent, Rooted Swarmer, and Krakow Swarmer all seem to have died out when their habitats disappeared at the start of the ice age.

The South Polar Swarmer probably ought to have survived long enough to be incorporated into the Miniswarmers as they don't seem to have ever been replaced/out competed or lost their habitat, though I can't confirm they were never out competed

The Green Swarmer was replaced by the Green Shocker in gen 123. I think the Green Shocker might still be around, it looks like when LadyM Ocean (Sunlight Zone) was split in week 21 not everything got copied over.

This post has been edited by kopout: Jun 29 2021, 10:42 AM

Mudworm went extinct in 18/121 due to being replaced by the Snorkelworm
Seadragolden was replaced by Lady Dragolden in the same gen
Hydrogen Burner most likely was killed by the ice comet, judging that it died in Week 19.
Gateway Swarmer was killed by the ice comet
Salt-Backed Wingworm died of the ice comet
Protodendron died of the ice age
Hsabburu died in the ice age
Might edit this later if I find more
Update: confused ice comet with ice age.

It seems a lot of species who went extinct due to loss of food are listed as "loss of habitat", is this intentional or are they meant to be distinct causes?

Loss of food is only determined when there is nothing left like their prey, not when the specific prey species goes extinct.

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Sep 16 2022, 08:46 PM)

Loss of food is only determined when there is nothing left like their prey, not when the specific prey species goes extinct.

The ones I found had their prey go extinct due to plagues, and the plague description said stuff along the lines of "The following species also became extinct due to no longer having food: x"

Locally or globally?

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Sep 16 2022, 08:55 PM)

Locally or globally?

Appears I misread the pages, sorry it was local. Although all casualties due to loss of food from most plagues are listed simply as the disease name, while the jumping stalker is listed as "loss of food from Golden Plague". This isn't too much of an issue, though.