With over 8.7 million species of plants and animals on earth right now and that being less than 1% of all the species that have ever existed (estimates are over 5 billion), sometimes it's nice to hear about an underdog story, a species we thought was gone forever, rediscovered tens, hundreds, thousands, and even millions of years later.
Lost & Found is a really cool website that compiles a list of species we once thought were extinct, presented through storytelling, video, and comics! Species like the Fairy Lantern, thought to be extinct for 151 years and was rediscovered in 2017, the Bullmer's Fruit Bat, thought to be extinct for over 10,000 years and was rediscovered in 1992, or even the Coelacanth, a fish that was thought to have gone extinct all the way back in the Cretaceous period (over 150 million years ago) and was rediscovered in 1938! Many entries have lots of fun facts to go along with them too.
"The “Lost and Found” project works to bring to life the inspirational stories of those that never stopped believing and whose passion led them to rewrite the history of the species they so deeply cared about. Our goal is to use the universal language of storytelling to showcase in narrative and visual format the most formidable rediscoveries of both vertebrates and invertebrates animals as well as plants from five continents."
To check out the website and stay up to date on this ongoing project, click here.
Featured image courtesy of Lost & Found via lostandfoundnature.com
