Without a doubt, the mass extinction of species in the modern world is a problem everyone is aware of but unfortunately, the actual statistics behind this are much more frightening than you'd assume they were. It is estimated that anywhere from 200 to 2000 animal and plant species are lost every year, a major blow to nature by mankind as the rate of extinction is calculated to be between 1000 to 10000 times worse than the natural extinction rate (WWF, 2020). Even still, all is not lost. It appears that in recent years, there has seemingly been a wave of initially presumed extinct animals making a reappearance.
The most impressive of recently rediscovered species is a Lazarus clam thought to be extinct for the last 40 thousand years found by marine ecologist Jeff Goddard off the coast of California.
The Harlequin frog is another example of species of presumably extinct alike that made a comeback in recent years. Their genus had lost a staggering 70% of its species, however, in 2016, one-third of the same extinct species have been rediscovered (Kreier, 2022). Plants such as the purple crowberry which has been seen for the first time since 1908 (Bendavid, 2022), or Brachystelma attenuatum, a presumably extinct species of plant that has been discovered after being “extinct” for 188 years (Srivastava, 2022), are among the few species that have seemingly returned from the dead. It seems that every day new species reappear but why is that?
It should be noted that each of these species has a possible explanation for their elusion of science, as, at the end of the day, that is exactly what these species have done, eluded science. For example, the 40 thousand-year-old clams are thought to have evaded scientists because their habitat seems to be in a far remote area south of California, and its clams may have washed up on the Santa Barbara shore (Gasparini, 2022). While the plant Brachystelma attenuatum reappearance could be explained by the remoteness of its natural habitat and the rare scouting of that area by scientists(Srivastava, 2022).
Nevertheless, extinction is still rampant even with the incredible amount of wrongly presumed ones. The number of actual extinctions vastly outnumbers the reappearing species. Although this loss of species is mostly humankind's fault, we must do what we can to help preserve our world. Preserving nature has always been important, and even with this glimmer of hope, there is still much we can do.
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