Dear Avira,
My argument with you on this topic is that this is not that kind of statement. And if you think it is such a statement, than you should really look into it, and then say “I don’t care about all this evidence. Call me a fool everyday.”
It’s more that just saying such a species is no longer known. It’s tracking almost every one else a species and knowing their entire habitat. This could be parsed a lot. Is the American Jaguar the same species as the Mexican Jaguar? (I’m not sure if I got the right cat. I’m almost sure it has a different name for north and South.) What about when a new species is brought about temporarily? Like a certain type of dog or monkey that is engineered for lab experiments. A few dozen are developed, and are not replaced.
It also has to do with finding fossilized creatures that are no longer known to exist. When we study the historicity of extinction, it is debatable if even species that are common today, can be considered coming from an extinct ancestor. The cows we know today, are in no way similar to the taurus described by the ancients.
The science Rav Hirsch was using, assumed that since a dog did not come from a horse or vice versa there is nothing similar about them. Their brains, nerves, organs, are all different. The only similarity is that they are both animals and can be classified differently than the owl, turtle, or otter. This has been mostly selected. It is now known that there are many similarities in species that have no connection to each other. Some of these are found in a bunch of random creatures and are not found in any of the species that are extremely similar to them. This completely changes the implications of extinction from that it was in Rav Hirsch’s day. It’s not just a lo ra’inu.
As I write this, I realize that maybe I’m stepping on some toes here. Was this one of the Slifkin ‘debates’? I’m to young to know the majority of them. And I find his blog condescending and without much of a point. Most of his questions that he calls obvious proofs are satisfactorily answered with a shrug.
I would tell you what the scientific consensus on this topic is. I’m just unaware of any. Nobody could prove either way if a species is ever really extinct. Wherever the dodo bird came from originally, it could theoretically come from again.