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A specimen of the Pink Hand Fish has been spotted for the first time in decades off the coast of Tasmania.
These remarkable creatures have cartilaginous-reinforced "hands" that they use to walk along the sea-bed.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-59778215
 
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'Comical-looking' bat thought to be extinct is found again after 40 years​

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A 'comical-looking' critically endangered bat not seen in 40 years and feared extinct has been found in Rwanda.

Two Hill's horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hilli), which haven't been seen since 1981, were found by scientists in the forest at the Nyungwe National Park in Nyungwe.
From msn.com here.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-tortoise-species-thought-extinct-found-alive

‘Fantastic giant tortoise’ species thought extinct for 100 years found alive
Identification of Galápagos tortoise celebrated by scientists as a big deal for island’s biodiversity


A rare Galápagos species, the “fantastic giant tortoise”, long thought extinct, has been officially identified for the first time in more than a century in what scientists called a “big deal” for the famed islands’ embattled biodiversity.

The animal is the first Chelonoidis phantasticus to be seen since a male specimen was discovered by the explorer Rollo Beck during an expedition in 1906. The newcomer has been named Fernanda, after the Fernandina Island, a largely unexplored active volcano in the western Galápagos Archipelago that she calls home.

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Despite the headline I'm not sure that this is suitable for this thread; it's more about the reintroduction from captivity of a species believed extinct in the wild. But anyway, from The Guardian here:

‘Extinct’ parrots make a flying comeback in Brazil​

The Spix macaw, a bird that had once vanished in the wild, is now thriving in its South American homeland after a successful breeding programme
Now, if only they could do the same for the Glaucous Macaw.

ETA: regarding the above mentioned Glaucous Macaw:
A 2018 study citing bird extinction patterns, the heavy destruction of its habitat, and the lack of any confirmed sightings since the 1980s recommended uplisting the species to Critically Endangered - Possibly Extinct.[7]
 
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The Shelta Cave Crayfish has been re-discovered in its sole known habitat after being presumed extinct for the last 30 years.
Rare Crustacean, Thought To Be Extinct, Found in a 2500-Foot-Long Cave

... A team led by an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has uncovered a small, rare crayfish that was believed to have been extinct for 30 years in a cave in the City of Huntsville in northern Alabama. ...

The Shelta Cave Crayfish, scientifically known as Orconectes sheltae, was discovered by Dr. Matthew L. Niemiller’s team during 2019 and 2020 trips into Shelta Cave, its sole habitat.

A study on the discoveries was published in the journal Subterranean Biology. ...

A 2,500-foot cave system that is owned and maintained by the National Speleological Society (NSS) is the crayfish’s home. It is discretely tucked under the NSS’s national headquarters in northwest Huntsville, and it is surrounded by busy roads. ...

“Interestingly, the crayfish has been known to cave biologists since the early 1960s but was not formally described until 1997 by the late Dr. John Cooper and his wife Martha.”

Dr. Cooper, a biologist and speleologist ... , studied the aquatic life in Shelta Cave with a particular focus on crayfish for his dissertation work in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Shelta Cave’s aquatic ecosystem was particularly diverse then, with at least 12 cave-dependent species documented, including three species of cave crayfishes.

“No other cave system to date in the U.S. has more documented cave crayfishes co-occurring with each other,” Dr. Niemiller says.

But the aquatic ecosystem, including the Shelta Cave Crayfish, crashed sometime in the early 1970s. The crash may be related to a gate that was built to keep people out of the cave and yet still allows a grey bat maternity population to move freely in and out.

“The initial design of the gate was not bat-friendly, and the bats ultimately vacated the cave system,” Dr. Niemiller says. “Coupled with groundwater pollution and perhaps other stressors, that all may have led to a perfect storm resulting in the collapse of the aquatic cave ecosystem.” ...
FULL STORY: https://scitechdaily.com/rare-crustacean-thought-to-be-extinct-found-in-a-2500-foot-long-cave/
 
Vid at link.

Rare tree dormouse not seen for 20 years found in Austria

A rare tree dormouse has been found in an Austrian forest, after not being seen in the wild for over 20 years. The forester who found the mammal had been searching for it for over two years.

Researchers hope to learn more about the species before it goes into hibernation for the winter.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-63094688
 
After 80 years of being presumed extinct, the Lord Howe Island wood-feeding cockroach has been re-discovered.
A Large, 'Extinct' Australian Cockroach Has Reappeared After More Than 80 Years

In 1887, Australian Museum scientists undertook a pioneering expedition to Lord Howe Island, a tiny patch of land off the east coast of Australia. Among their many discoveries, they recorded "a large Blatta" – a type of cockroach – under a decaying log.

This was later described as Panesthia lata, the Lord Howe Island wood-feeding cockroach. P. lata was noted as being highly abundant, playing a key role in nutrient recycling, and presumably a food source for the many birds on the island.

Alas, in 1918 rats arrived on the island from a shipwreck. By the late 20th century, P. lata could not be found despite extensive searches over multiple decades and was assumed to have gone extinct due to rat predation. ...

... P. lata is, believe it or not, quite cute and charismatic, and has no interest in going into people's houses. It is wingless, about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) long, and stays hidden in the forest, where it burrows into the soil and feeds on leaf litter and rotting wood by night. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/a-larg...roach-has-reappeared-after-more-than-80-years
 

A clam presumed extinct for 40,000 years has been found alive


Known as Cymatioa cooki, the clam had only ever been found as a fossil, and scientists presumed that the species had been extinct for more than 40,000 years. Then, while scouring tide pools for sea slugs off the coast of California in 2018, marine ecologist Jeff Goddard spotted something unfamiliar: a white, translucent bivalve roughly 11 millimeters in length.

Not wanting to disrupt the clam, Goddard, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, photographed it and shared the images with a colleague. Paul Valentich-Scott, curator of malacology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, didn’t recognize the marine critter either, which made him happy.

The pair finally captured a live specimen in 2019 and brought it back to the museum to compare with known species from the fossil record. It bore a striking resemblance to a fossil bivalve first described in the 1930s by paleontologist George Willett.

Willett named the species after Edna Cook, an amateur shell collector who recognized the fossil as being unique among a collection of more than 30,000 shells.

“Once I physically saw that original specimen that Willett had used for his description, I knew right away” that the live clam was the same species, Valentich-Scott says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/clam-presumed-extinct-found-alive

maximus otter
 

A clam presumed extinct for 40,000 years has been found alive


Known as Cymatioa cooki, the clam had only ever been found as a fossil, and scientists presumed that the species had been extinct for more than 40,000 years. Then, while scouring tide pools for sea slugs off the coast of California in 2018, marine ecologist Jeff Goddard spotted something unfamiliar: a white, translucent bivalve roughly 11 millimeters in length.

Not wanting to disrupt the clam, Goddard, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, photographed it and shared the images with a colleague. Paul Valentich-Scott, curator of malacology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, didn’t recognize the marine critter either, which made him happy.

The pair finally captured a live specimen in 2019 and brought it back to the museum to compare with known species from the fossil record. It bore a striking resemblance to a fossil bivalve first described in the 1930s by paleontologist George Willett.

Willett named the species after Edna Cook, an amateur shell collector who recognized the fossil as being unique among a collection of more than 30,000 shells.

“Once I physically saw that original specimen that Willett had used for his description, I knew right away” that the live clam was the same species, Valentich-Scott says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/clam-presumed-extinct-found-alive

maximus otter
I hope it doesn't taste good.
 
With these animals not being seen for hundreds of years, and then suddenly reappearing - it's rather odd that some of the smaller dinosaurs did not appear again.
Or did they, or some version of them?
The problem with identifying if something like that happened is that if you are going back as far as the dinosaurs, you have to rely on the fossil record, which is pretty patchy at the best of times.

If - for example - trilobites had totally disappeared and then returned a hundred million years later, you would notice the gap. But a return after a few centuries wouldn't be discernible. There just aren't enough fossils around.
 
'Lost' pigeon found after more than a century

A September expedition to Papua New Guinea confirmed via video the existence of the black-naped pheasant pigeon, a critically endangered species that has not been reported for 140 years.

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The group captured the first-ever video and still photos of the bird, a large ground-dwelling species with a rust-colored back, a black head and body, and a bobbing pheasant-like tail. It may only exist far inland on Fergusson Island in hot, extremely rugged geothermal terrain laced with twisty rivers and dense with biting insects and leeches.

"After a month of searching, seeing those first photos of the pheasant pigeon felt like finding a unicorn," said John C. Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds project at American Bird Conservancy.

https://phys.org/news/2022-11-lost-pigeon-century.html

maximus otter
 
Another Forrest Galante programme:

He goes to Zanzibar in search of the Zanzibar Leopard, declared extinct 20 years ago partly due to witchcraft & also poaching. There is only one stuffed example in the world, in a museum on the island. It’s smaller & skinnier than typical African Leopards.

After speaking to other naturalists who had photos of goat kills which had puncture wounds typical of cat attacks he’s encouraged to search. Cutting a long story short, after setting numerous trail cams in the islands only nature reserve he captures a brief video of a large cat which could only be a leopard. There are no other large cats on the island. He doesn’t manage to obtain any conclusive DNA evidence in the form of hair or droppings though.

It seems almost definite they still exist, probably in tiny numbers. He also captured trail cam videos of a type of genet again unique to the island & never filmed before.
 
Bee buzzes back.

One of the UK's most threatened bumblebees has been rediscovered at a site in Devon.

The brown-banded carder bee population has declined due to habitat loss as it requires open flower-rich grasslands where wildflowers thrive, says charity Buglife. In 2022, it was rediscovered at Prawle Point, in the South Hams, the first time since 1978.

Conservationists said it was a "fantastic and highly important find".

A project called Life on the Edge, which is a multi-partner scheme, aims to restore populations of some of the UK's rarest invertebrates and plants living along the south Devon coast between Berry Head and Wembury, including the last known colony of the six-banded nomad bee.
Hayley Herridge, Life on the Edge conservation officer, said: "This recent discovery as part of a wider rare invertebrate survey on the south Devon coast, is our headline news of the summer.

"We are delighted that a species lost, has been rediscovered at Prawle Point for the first time since 1978."

The species has also recently been rediscovered in the north of the county.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-63943801
 
Have just been perusing the net, and came across this item which I thought was very interesting, as I'd never heard this before;
Malaria was once indigenous to UK ~ and could be again!

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