List of extinct animals of Europe


This list of extinct animals in Europe features the animals that have become extinct on the European continent and some in other dependent territories of European countries. While most of the animals in the recent Holocene have a human-caused extinction, Pleistocene extinctions and early Holocene extinctions are contested. Many theories of the cause of their extinction have been presented; some human-caused while others as a product of climate change. The K-T extinction is also contested, with the major cause being either both volcano and meteor or just a meteorite that caused the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.
Many of the extinct animals were subspecies or color morphs such as the pied raven or disputed species like the tarpan or the gravenche. Most extinctions occurred in prehistoric times. The species gone extinct in the last 500 years were mostly from peripheral regions of Europe like the Caucasus, the North Atlantic or Mediterranean islands. Except for molluscs, the only species extinct in the heartland of Europe in the last 500 years is the aurochs, which survives in the form of primitive cattle breeds that possess similar physical features.

[Prehistoric] and earlier extinctions

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Crocodilians

Dinosaurs

Recent extinctions

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Fish

Insects

Sea anemones

Molluscs

22 species and three subspecies of gastropods have become extinct in Europe since 1500. No species of bivalves are known to have become extinct in Europe after 1500.