Published January 9, 2018 12:52PM

'Robert Hershler/Smithsonian.'
The Center for Biological Diversity announced the extinction of the beaverpond marstonia, a freshwater snail from Georgia, late last month. The Center had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the species in 2010, but it did not act in time. Biologists blame ground water withdrawal for agriculture and urban use, plus pollution, for the snail’s extinction.