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(#12) New Guinea Big-Eared Bat
In 2012, a group of Australian researchers went to Papua New Guinea to study how microbats responded to logging in their habitat. They trapped 41 different species of bats, plus one extra that they just couldn't identify, which they brought back as a sample for study. Years later, researchers finally determined that the specimen in question was a New Guinea big-eared bat, a creature that had not been seen in over 120 years!
One specimen had also been caught in the 80s, but it was misidentified. It had been assumed extinct for nearly a century, and even now we're really not sure how many of these bats remain in the wild.
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(#7) Monito del Monte
- Dromiciops gliroides
You may notice that many animals on this list are small mammals - which also happens to make them great prey animals. However, that's not quite the case for the Monito del Monte of Chile and Argentina. Even though the animal was known to once exist, everyone believed that this particular species had died out 40,000 years ago.
Scientists refer to this animal as a living fossil, because while originally considered a rodent, it was actually found to be a marsupial with its lineage dating all the way back to the middle of the Cenozoic Era! Interestingly enough, their population seems to be holding up pretty well, so these little guys may just stick around for millions of years to come.
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(#5) Bermuda Petrel
The cahow, also known as the Bermuda Petrel, is a bird that is rarely seen, even today. When Spanish sailors in the 1500s used Bermuda's islands as stopping points between their attacks on the Incas, they often relied on ever-plentiful Petrel for food. Later, with colonization and the destruction of their natural habitat, the birds soon died out and were declared to be extinct by the early 1600s.
The story could have just stopped there, but a whopping 300 years later zoologist William Beebe was given an injured seabird, which he identified as being a Bermuda Petrel. A few years later, he took in another bird of the same kind before releasing it for rehabilitation. Nowadays, David Wingate watches over the still small colony of birds where they nest on Castle Harbor.
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(#3) Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
The story behind the Lord Howe Island stick insect seems pretty far-fetched, but it is impressively true. Lord Howe Island is a remote and rocky island off the coast of Australia and was once home to a large stick insect referred to as a "tree lobster." Unfortunately, they were apparently also as tasty as real lobster and a ship that ran aground there in 1918 released a pack of rats that loved to snack on them. Within two years, the insects were entirely gone.
Decades passed and a rumor eventually surfaced about a strange insect living on a nearby island called Ball's Pyramid, which is basically just a huge stone spire sticking out of the ocean. In 2001, a pair of Australian scientists decided to climb the spire to see for themselves, and they narrowed their search down to a single plant. There, under that one plant, was a colony of 24 of the insects, alive and kickin'! That one plant is still their only remaining home.
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(#9) Laotian Rock Rat
This fluffy little rat lives along the Mekong River (which forms the boarder between Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos) and was originally thought to be its own distinct species. Looking like a mixture of a rat and a squirrel, this rodent was researched in greater detail by scientists in 2005 as they were trying to determine exactly what species it was. Imagine their surprise when they discovered that their odd little rat was actually a species from an ancient rat family assumed to be extinct for over 11 million years!
No one knows how common or widespread these creatures are, but we do know that similar species have showed up in food markets as meat. It's possible that people have actually been eating this ancient species for centuries.
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(#8) New Caledonian Crested Gecko
- Rhacodactylus ciliatus
New Caledonia is a small island just off the coast of Australia that's home to several unique species, including one brightly-colored and spiky little Lazarus species. The New Caledonian Crested Gecko was first discovered in 1866, but soon slipped into obscurity and was thought to be extinct. It wasn't until 1994 - over 100 years later - that scientists realized that these little guys were still around!
In the aftermath of a tropical storm, some of the geckos were discovered after being blown out of their natural forested habitat. Since then, scientists have kept their eye on a small breeding population, originating from a few of the adults found in 1994. All of the geckos you find in the wild today are likely related to those select few.
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About This Tool
When comes to extinction, most people will think of dinosaurs, mammoths. In fact, species extinctions never stop happening. Many authoritative studies and scholars have stated that some species are all extinct, but they never expected that these animals would miraculously come back. The coelacanth is a veritable living fossil, this species has long been thought to have become extinct about 60 million years ago, but in 1938, a living species was caught on the coast of southern Africa.
Are you interested in other unique species? The random tool introduced 14 extinct species that were once again found in other areas, they are still endangered animals and remind all humans that it is urgent to protect the habitat and ecological environment.
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