Editing Extinction (section)

===Lazarus taxa===
{{Main|Lazarus taxon}}
A Lazarus taxon or Lazarus species refers to instances where a species or taxon was thought to be extinct, but was later rediscovered. It can also refer to instances where large gaps in the fossil record of a taxon result in fossils reappearing much later, although the taxon may have ultimately become extinct at a later point.

The [[coelacanth]], a fish related to [[lungfish]] and [[tetrapod]]s, is an example of a Lazarus taxon that was known only from the fossil record and was considered to have been extinct since the end of the [[Cretaceous Period]]. In 1938, however, a living specimen was found off the [[Chalumna River]] (now Tyolomnqa) on the east coast of South Africa.<ref name="dinofish">{{cite web |url=http://www.dinofish.com/discoa.htm |title="Discovery" of the Coelacanth |access-date=2 March 2013 |archive-date=21 January 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121205250/http://www.dinofish.com/discoa.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Calliostoma bullatum]]'', a species of deepwater [[sea snail]] originally described from fossils in 1844 proved to be a Lazarus species when extant individuals were described in 2019.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Freiwald |first1=André |last2=Lavaleye |first2=Marc |last3=Heugten |first3=Bart Van |last4=Beuck |first4=Lydia |last5=Hoffman |first5=Leon |date=4 June 2019 |title=Last snails standing since the Early Pleistocene, a tale of Calliostomatidae (Gastropoda) living in deep-water coral habitats in the north-eastern Atlantic |journal=Zootaxa |language=en |volume=4613 |issue=1 |pages=93–110 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.4613.1.4 |pmid=31716426 |issn=1175-5334 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[Zaglossus attenboroughi|Attenborough's long-beaked echidna]] (''Zaglossus attenboroughi'') is an example of a Lazarus species from [[Papua New Guinea]] that had last been sighted in 1962 and believed to be possibly extinct, until it was recorded again in November 2023.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-11-10 |title=First-ever images prove 'lost echidna' not extinct |language=en-GB |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67363874 |access-date=2023-11-25}}</ref>

Some species thought to be extinct have had ongoing speculation that they may still exist, and in the event of rediscovery would be considered Lazarus species. Examples include the [[thylacine]], or Tasmanian tiger (''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), the last known example of which died in Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in 1936; the [[Honshū wolf|Japanese wolf]] (''Canis lupus hodophilax''), last sighted over 100 years ago; the [[Ivory-billed woodpecker|American ivory-billed woodpecker]] (''Campephilus principalis''), with the last universally accepted sighting in 1944; and the [[slender-billed curlew]] (''Numenius tenuirostris''), not seen since 2007.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Platt |first1=John R. |title=4 Extinct Species That People Still Hope to Rediscover |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/4-extinct-species-hope-rediscover/ |work=Scientific American Blog Network |date=21 February 2013 |access-date=9 February 2022 |archive-date=9 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209131524/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/4-extinct-species-hope-rediscover/ |url-status=live}}{{self-published inline|date=February 2022}}</ref>