<P> In biology , extinction is the termination of an organism or of a group of organisms ( taxon ) , normally a species . The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species , although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point . Because a species ' potential range may be very large , determining this moment is difficult , and is usually done retrospectively . This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa , where a species presumed extinct abruptly `` reappears '' ( typically in the fossil record ) after a period of apparent absence . </P>
<P> In biology , extinction is the termination of an organism or of a group of organisms ( taxon ) , normally a species . The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species , although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point . Because a species ' potential range may be very large , determining this moment is difficult , and is usually done retrospectively . This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa , where a species presumed extinct abruptly `` reappears '' ( typically in the fossil record ) after a period of apparent absence . </P>
when is a species presumed to be extinct
when is a species presumed to be extinct
generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species
generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species