Why extinct species seem to be returning from the dead

David Roberts, University of Kent

Like something out of a zombie movie, species that were once thought extinct seem to be rising from the dead. Between February 21 and March 4 2019, three notable rediscoveries were announced – the Fernandina Island Galápagos tortoise ( Chelonoidis phantasticus), which was last seen in 1906; Wallace’s giant bee ( Megachile pluto), which had supposedly disappeared in 1980; and the Formosan clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa brachyura), which disappeared after the last sighting in 1983 and was officially declared extinct in 2013.