Chinese River Yangtze loses its dolphin. Climate change may take its toll on other species as well

"The baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, was this unique and beautiful creature -- there was nothing quite like it," said Samuel Turvey, a British zoologist and conservationist who spent more than two decades in China trying to track the animal down. [caption id="attachment_41275" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Parts of the Yangtze River have dried up from the extreme heat.[/caption]

"It was around for tens of millions of years and was in its own mammal family. There are other river dolphins in the world, but this one was very different, so unrelated to anything else," Turvey said. "Its demise was more than just another species tragedy -- it was a huge loss of river diversity in terms of how unique it was and left huge holes in the ecosystem."