A small series by illustration Alex Solis remembering those things that used to rule the world.

A bully greenfinch (left) got its comeuppance when a small but fiery dunnock (right) defended itself with its talons in Suffolk, United Kingdom on April 18, 2022. The smaller bird was perched peacefully before the finch burst onto the scene and aggressively squared up to the dunnock. But as the finch tried to peck at the dunnock, the small brown bird expertly used its foot to slam its mouth shut. (Photo by Paul Sawer/Solent News & Photo Agency)

This photo provided by the McKinney Fire Department shows officials at the site of a crash involving a small plane and a vehicle near Aero Country Airport, Saturday, November 11, 2023, in McKinney, Texas. Authorities say a small plane overshot the runway while trying to land at a Texas airport and struck a car that was driving along a nearby road, injuring one person. (Photo by McKinney Fire Department via AP Photo)

A group of frogs hitched a lift on a passing crocodile. Clearly comfortable in the croc’s company the amphibians wait patiently for their chauffeur to move. But the bemused crocodile doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in a hurry. The hilarious images were captured by Tanto Yensen, 36, from Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photo by Tanto Yensen/Media Drum World Photo Agency)

Iraqi army soldiers attempt to move their truck stuck in the mud near the village of Al-Boutha al-Sharqiyah, west of Mosul, on December 2, 2016, during a broad offencive by Iraq forces to retake the main hub city from Islamic State group jihadists. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

A boy moves away as a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) helicopter lands in Rubkuai village, Unity State, northern South Sudan, February 18, 2017. South Sudan on Monday declared famine in some parts of the country, with more than three years of war leaving nearly five million hungry in what aid groups called a “man-made” tragedy. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

An Iraqi special forces soldier wears a rose in his body armor as troops move from the Yarmouk neighborhood to take another district from Islamic State militant control in Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. (Photo by Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo)

Police haul a youth to the paddy wagon as an undetermined number of arrest were made in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, February 25, 1971, as police moved in to disperse black youths after windows were broken and rocks and fruit thrown in what officers called “a major disturbance”. (Photo by Charles Kelly/AP Photo)