<p>The loss of species is now a global phenomenon. This paper explores species extinction as more than a biological fact or cultural metaphor, proposing its interpretation as a symptom within the ecosemiosphere—a semiotic system encompassing ecosystems, species, and cultural processes. While conventional discourses frame extinction either as a singular irreversible event or as a symbolic representation, such views obscure its semiotic depth and ecological significance. By analyzing extinction as a symptom sign, the study reveals its causal links to deteriorating ecological and semiotic processes, including habitat fragmentation, loss of interspecies communication, and erosion of animal umwelts. These processes signal a broader decline in the “depth of meaning” a concept describing the richness of semiotic relationships between organisms (humans and nonhumans alike) and their environments. Furthermore, extinction correlates with cultural impoverishment, as biodiversity and cultural diversity are intertwined, while both are also threatened by modernization. The paper argues for integrating indexical meaning layers into cultural and artistic strategies to counter extinction, highlighting examples from contemporary art that reconnect symbolic and pre-symbolic modes of representation. Such strategies can foster awareness of extinction as an existential crisis affecting both biological and cultural domains. Understanding extinction as a symptom reframes it as a sign of systemic degradation, offering new pathways for ecosemiotic research and creative practices aimed at restoring biocultural connectivity.</p>