Talk:Extant taxon

What does it mean Basil

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Is there a difference in meaning of expressions "still existing" and "still in existence"?


 * Extant means "still existing".
 * ... can be applied to ... that are currently still in existence.

Is Wikipedia really a dictionary? -Wser 19:33, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Semantic drift
Does anyone besides me feel like extant sounds more like "already existing" than "still existing"? I feel like I've heard it used a lot (and tend to use it myself) to mean the former, and was a little surprised to see the latter as the real definition. User:Glenn Willen (Talk) 15:22, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

"Already existing" sounds like a species that was miraculously created, rather than a species that evolved and is "still existing".Flight Risk (talk) 18:26, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

I know extant in connection with the platypus, as one of three extant (still existing) species of monotremes. It's one of the words that has survived better in Australia, only because it has more obvious applications here.Trishm 23:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Is there really much that can be said about this subject? If it is just going to be a dictionary definition it doesn't qualify for an article. Richard001 06:52, 25 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I was wondering the same thing myself. Kingdon 19:21, 2 November 2007 (UTC)


 * If we can have an artical about extinct species, why not about extant species?Flight Risk (talk) 19:32, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

What does it mean?
This article is ridiculous, it ends up saying a whole lot without saying anything. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.202.89.125 (talk) 15:18, 13 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Worse than that, it also adds a layer of confusion with the sentences: "However, extant refers primarily to a species that is extinct from a localized area. For instance, the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf became extant, or rather, was extirpated from Yellowstone National Park, but was then reintroduced later." which seem to be completely wrong. I think I will remove them. Huw Powell (talk) 15:02, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

This article contains useful information
The term extant is used in another wiki page, that on "equus". (And I'm sure there are other pages.) I did not know the meaning, clicked it, and wound up here. The explanation in the article helped to understand the term.

As all species will die out or evolve into others at some point in time, I have no problem with the "still existing/in existence" definition.

--88.159.247.141 (talk) 19:46, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * However, Wikipedia isn't a dictionary. Instead of linking people to this stub, it would be equally useful to hyperlink the user to Extant, which achieves the same thing, but in a better format, as well as ensuring that both Wikis stick to their own purpose. R ah  rah  b o ahb  T 17:15, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

I believe this article basically stayed as an Interwiki page for other languages to link their article here. The words "extant" and "extincted" seems intruitive for native speakers, but in other languages, they sometimes need a special term to refer to such category.--Tomchiukc (talk) 10:40, 2 May 2015 (UTC)