300 000 -Year-Extinct Species Caught on Camera in Alaska Wild!

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:01]Every species on Earth, you, me, and that nasty neighbor of yours, is destined [music] to go extinct someday. Just like what happened to the woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers.

[00:00:13]Stats aren't bright. Scientists say that 99% of all animals that ever lived are now extinct.

[00:00:21]Hey, what's that look on your face?

[00:00:23]Going extinct is not the end of the story.

[00:00:29]Now, listen up. Mammoths might make the greatest comeback ever and even be the key to saving humanity.

[00:00:37]Nope, they won't give away free money so that we don't have to work anymore, but they can sort of help the weather situation on our planet.

[00:00:46]In the Arctic tundra, [music] there's this ground called permafrost. It's like soil in the form of ice. Soil [music] turns permafrost when it stays super cold for two years straight.

[00:00:58]But now, permafrost is actively thawing out, and it's bad news for, well, everyone. Because while thawing, it releases a lot of carbon into the air.

[00:01:10]But what if we had large animals like mammoths there today?

[00:01:14]They would churn up the soil. The ground would freeze more deeply in winter.

[00:01:19]>> [music] >> And then, in summer, a layer of grass would help keep the ground cool and prevent the permafrost from melting.

[00:01:27]Some scientists think that's a great solution.

[00:01:30]So now, there's a company in the US that's trying to bring mammoths back to life.

[00:01:35]Okay, you got me. Not actual mammoths, but a sort of hybrid between an elephant and 1% mammoth DNA. [music] It would be a northern elephant.

[00:01:46]Getting mammoth DNA is easier than you might think. They actually only went extinct about 10 to 14,000 years ago.

[00:01:54]Scientists are hoping to have their first elephant mammoth hybrid by 2027.

[00:02:00]Let's hope it doesn't turn into a real-life Jurassic Park.

[00:02:06]Ah, Australia, a nightmarish place and a home to the most fascinating creatures on Earth.

[00:02:12]But here, the sad fate befell the Tasmanian tiger, also known as thylacine.

[00:02:19]Don't mix it up with a Tasmanian devil.

[00:02:21]That one is living and thriving.

[00:02:24]Nope, the thylacine was a marsupial predator that used to chill in Australia, South Tasmania, and New Guinea.

[00:02:31]It was a nocturnal who preyed on other marsupials like kangaroos.

[00:02:36]In the '30s, [music] the farmers suddenly claimed that thylacines were eating their livestock.

[00:02:42]Looking back at it now, that was probably an exaggeration. But humans started to hunt poor thylacines until they were all gone. And then it turned out that hunting away the important predator isn't the brightest idea.

[00:02:56]Who would have thought?

[00:02:57]You see, thylacines kept things in check by eating bad animals. So once they disappeared, the Australian wildlife was basically doomed.

[00:03:08]35% of total mammal extinctions on Earth happened here. That's an awful world record.

[00:03:14]I know it sounds gloomy, but hey, maybe we can fix this.

[00:03:18]Remember that company we mentioned? It wants to bring back the thylacine, too.

[00:03:23]Luckily, many thylacine embryos are still preserved in jars like some creepy pickles.

[00:03:30]If we bring them back to Tasmania, this could help revive the entire ecosystem.

[00:03:36]Would you be happy to see them back in the wild?

[00:03:39]Me too. And I would also be happy to see you hitting those like and subscribe buttons so you can keep up with amazing facts all year round.

[00:03:50]We also have some huge dreams about tiny creatures.

[00:03:55]Take a trip to Mount Hotham ski resort in Victoria, Australia, >> [music] >> and here you can find a mountain pygmy possum, a tiny bundle of cuteness.

[00:04:04]These guys are super rare. We even thought that they were extinct. All we had was their fossils.

[00:04:11]But then some skiers spotted a possum in a log pile at the ski lodge in 1966.

[00:04:18]Imagine suddenly making a great discovery while chilling on vacation.

[00:04:23]These little possums can spend 7 months of the year sleeping under the snow.

[00:04:29]They wake up occasionally to eat some stored food, and then they wake up in the spring to eat even more, find a mate, and go back to sleep again. What a relatable fellow.

[00:04:40]Since they've made it into this video, you can guess they're pretty endangered.

[00:04:45]There are less than 2,000 left in the wild. All because their current homes don't fit them that well. But hooray, we can help them, too.

[00:04:55]You see, their ancestors lived in lowland forests about 20 million years ago. So maybe mountain possums could live better if we move them there.

[00:05:05]Of course, we can't just take them to the woods and expect them to survive.

[00:05:09]Instead, [music] scientists want to slowly release possums into the forest and check up on how they get on with it.

[00:05:16]Let's hope these cute creatures will adapt to woodland life.

[00:05:23]The southern gastric brooding frog, also called the platypus frog, was quite uh unique creature.

[00:05:30]It was discovered in 1972 in Queensland, Australia.

[00:05:35]Back then, this fellow shocked the scientists with its super weird birthing practices.

[00:05:41]Check this out. The mother frog swallows her eggs, turning her stomach into the womb. Then she doesn't eat at all for 6 weeks straight. I could never.

[00:05:51]Meanwhile, the tadpoles hatch in her stomach, start to [music] grow, and eventually get so big that the mom literally has to breathe through her skin.

[00:06:00]And then, she literally spews out her offspring left and right.

[00:06:06]But, this insane process is a great evolutionary achievement, which is why it drew everyone's attention.

[00:06:13]But, the wonder didn't last long.

[00:06:15]By the mid-80s, all known species of these frogs vanished from their natural habitats. Why?

[00:06:21]>> [music] >> We have no idea. There are many theories, but almost no evidence to back them up.

[00:06:27]In any case, over the years, these guys officially became extinct.

[00:06:32]But, it all changed in 2013.

[00:06:35]Scientists started a groundbreaking project named The Lazarus Project.

[00:06:40]Now, they want to resurrect these frogs to learn cool cloning techniques from them.

[00:06:45]Are you guys ready to copy their genetic preservation method?

[00:06:49]Yeah, me neither.

[00:06:54]But, let's dive deeper. Literally, go in the water.

[00:06:57]Meet the coelacanth. This creature lived in the oceans back when the dinosaurs roamed our planet and didn't even notice the asteroids.

[00:07:07]These guys are the Methuselahs of the sea. They can live up to 100 years, and they don't even start thinking about leaving offspring until they're around 55. At least they've got plenty of time to live for themselves.

[00:07:21]We actually thought this creature had gone extinct about 65 million years ago.

[00:07:26]But then, the first Latimeria specimen was discovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

[00:07:33]Now, they're known as living fossils.

[00:07:37]And these fish are enormous. They weigh around 200 lb. They're also super stylish with those lobe-fished paddles that make them look like disco balls.

[00:07:48]Oh, and they're great aerialists. Thanks to those versatile fins, they can even do headstands and swim belly up.

[00:07:56]The coelacanth is also a bit of a homebody.

[00:08:00]It's not very energetic and likes to live in underwater caves during the day, only coming out at night to snack on smaller fish and squid.

[00:08:09]Another animal who's literally me.

[00:08:13]Now we're trying our best to preserve this species, and I won't be surprised if it outlives us all.

[00:08:22]And finally, let's talk about the largest and most awkwardly looking flightless bird from New Zealand, the South Island takahē.

[00:08:32]The tale of the takahē started way back in the Middle Ages.

[00:08:36]Humans accidentally hunted them all away, and by the late 19th century, it seemed there were none of them left. But then, they were rediscovered in New Zealand in 1948.

[00:08:47]Poor guys did all they could to hide from us in the mountains, but we still got them.

[00:08:53]But it's different now. Since then, we've been trying our best to save them from extinction.

[00:08:58]There's a takahē recovery program going on, and it shows great results. They managed to greatly boost the number of birds in the wild.

[00:09:07]As of 2023, the takahē population has grown to around 500 birds.

[00:09:14]They're now considered nationally vulnerable, not nationally critical.

[00:09:19]It's a little progress, but progress nonetheless.

[00:09:23]Let's keep it up.

[00:09:27]When we say extinction, we usually think of dinosaurs that went to lunch with a humongous asteroid and were wiped out from from face of the Earth.

[00:09:36]We don't think of ourselves possibly going away in the near future. But, what we forget is that there have been five mass extinctions that our planet witnessed in the last half a billion years, not just one. And we can be nearing the sixth one, where one of the species to possibly disappear are humans.

[00:09:56]The first great mass extinction came about 440 million years ago in the Ordovician period. Back then, life was mostly thriving in the oceans and along the coastlines.

[00:10:07]Biodiversity was great at the time.

[00:10:10]There were thousands of different species, [music] trilobites, sea scorpions, and all kinds of weird-looking mollusks, and even fish.

[00:10:18]You name it, Ordovician had it.

[00:10:21]But then, the temperature around the planet started to drop. The overall warm climatic zones became colder and colder until the oceans got covered with thick sheets of ice.

[00:10:32]Most of the marine species weren't ready for such abrupt changes. Imagine a trilobite serenely crawling along the bottom of the sea and suddenly bumping into a glacier. Yeah, it's like living your entire life in a beach bungalow, only to find yourself in an igloo one day.

[00:10:50]The event was dubbed Late Ordovician glaciation, which led to Late Ordovician mass extinction.

[00:10:57]Over 60% of all species that lived in that period disappeared. Only ancient fossils were left for paleontologists to discover hundreds of millions of years later.

[00:11:08]Nobody still knows exactly what caused the temperature drop at the time.

[00:11:13]The main theory is that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere fell sharply. It led to cooling down the entire surface of Earth. But the reasons for such a collapse are still under debate.

[00:11:26]However, that wasn't the worst mass extinction event in the history of our planet. Despite more than half of all living creatures being wiped out, biodiversity on Earth restored itself in the following 5 million years. Life went on until another catastrophe struck.

[00:11:44]Within the span of 20 to 25 million [music] years, from about 375 to 350 million years ago, several extinction events occurred.

[00:11:55]They were like pulses that damaged a lot of marine species. Arthropods, like scorpions [music] and mites, lots of various fish, including sharks, all were in decline.

[00:12:07]Overall, more than 75% of all living beings disappeared back then, who were mainly in the oceans.

[00:12:14]The reasons for such events are even more unclear than those before the late Ordovician mass extinction.

[00:12:20]Most scientists now believe those waves were caused by changes in the sea level and a lack of oxygen in the oceans.

[00:12:28]A lot of plants quickly moved to land and adapted to living outside of water.

[00:12:33]And since they were the main source of oxygen in the ocean, all those fish and sea scorpions were in for a very unpleasant surprise.

[00:12:42]The booming growth of plants on land also removed much of the CO2 in the atmosphere and enriched it with oxygen instead.

[00:12:50]This led to an abrupt temperature fall again.

[00:12:53]And although no new ice age followed, many land animals couldn't adapt to the new conditions.

[00:12:59]The bitter irony was that the major part of them had just recently crawled out on land from the ocean looking for a better environment.

[00:13:07]Ah, well.

[00:13:09]This was only the first wave though. The reasons for the second one that came about several million years later are still unknown.

[00:13:16]>> [music] >> Scientists think there could have been mass volcanic eruptions or even meteor strikes, but those are just hypotheses.

[00:13:25]Then another hundred million years passed without much trouble.

[00:13:29]Species rose and fell, evolved and disappeared, but the cycle of life continued until about 250 million years ago when the third mass extinction event occurred. It happened in the Permian period, the last period of the Paleozoic era, and it was so catastrophic that it had all the chances of becoming the last mass extinction [music] on our planet.

[00:13:53]Scientists are still unsure of what caused so many species to be eliminated.

[00:13:58]But the fact is that around 96% of all living creatures in the world were gone.

[00:14:05]One theory suggests that volcanoes started being overly active.

[00:14:11]They threw millions of tons of methane and basalt into the atmosphere.

[00:14:16]Asteroid strikes might have added to the damage, too. The sky was literally covered in dark clouds of ash.

[00:14:23]The proto-mammals and reptiles tried to hide from the black and gray mist, but it was everywhere. It was like hiding from the air itself.

[00:14:32]Another culprit could have been microbes that loved their methane-rich environments. They could have quickly spread in the oceans and literally choked the rest of the marine life forms there.

[00:14:43]But whatever the reason, the Permian mass extinction event was the most massive and destructive of all the great five. All life on our planet could have ended right then and there.

[00:14:55]But those 4% that persisted eventually spread across the Earth and started a new era. Yay!

[00:15:02]This time they lived a peaceful life for only 50 million years, and then whammo, the fourth great mass extinction hit. It was different, though, slowly creeping across the planet over the last 18 million years of the Triassic period.

[00:15:19]The extinction occurred in numerous short pulses, wiping out several species at a time.

[00:15:24]A slight climate change here, an abrupt temperature fall there, and very upset animals and fish all around.

[00:15:32]The main reason for that was again the volcanic activity at the time.

[00:15:37]Fiery mountains started spewing out ash and gas once more, lowering [music] the oxygen levels and suffocating life.

[00:15:44]Well, that was harsh.

[00:15:47]The gases and other substances thrown out of the volcano's mouths changed the Earth's climate again.

[00:15:54]Sea levels rose because of that, and some researchers believe even the pH levels were altered. That means the marine life that used to be swimming peacefully in more alkaline waters suddenly found itself trying to survive in acid.

[00:16:09]But, apart from causing bursts of extinction, these changes also ushered in the era of dinosaurs.

[00:16:16]It didn't begin immediately, of course.

[00:16:18]Some species evolved and slowly grew into the mighty animals we've heard so much about.

[00:16:24]Their extinction was the last of the great five, and certainly the most well-known.

[00:16:29]About 65 million years ago, when dinos were still ruling both land and ocean, an enormous asteroid came from outer space and fell right on Earth. The impact was so powerful, it left a huge crater in the Yucatán Peninsula, and the explosion sent billions of tons of debris into the air.

[00:16:49]The dinosaurs that lived far away from the impact zone raised their heads and saw black and churning clouds blocking the sun.

[00:16:56]It remained for years, drastically dropping the temperatures.

[00:17:01]In addition to the cold that followed, the asteroid hit a carbonate rock that had a lot of flammable material in it.

[00:17:09]The impact led to an explosion. The chemicals mixed in the air and produced sulfuric acid, and that [music] acid fell down in the form of rains, altering the pH of the oceans. Aquatic creatures that were again used to more alkaline waters went, "Oh, come on." That didn't help, though.

[00:17:28]The changes were abrupt and severe.

[00:17:31]About 75% of all animals and plants went extinct in a matter of years, unable to survive the new harsh conditions on the planet. But some persisted. Many of them were reptiles, like crocodiles and turtles, >> [music] >> which managed to survive even up to this day, looking almost the same as they did back in the dinosaurs days.

[00:17:52]Others were mammals, which had lived in the shadow of the mighty dinos and hid from them in dark corners. But now that the giant animals were gone, they began to flourish, bringing in the Cenozoic era, the one that lasts to this day.

[00:18:09]And today, we might be witnessing the sixth great mass extinction.

[00:18:15]According to scientists, with the evolution of humans, a lot of different plants and animals have gone from the face of our planet, never to return. The good thing is mass extinctions have always happened over a span of several million years. So, we might still have time to recognize it, prepare, and counteract. What do you think? Shall we?

[00:18:38]Currently, there are approximately 20 [music] billion animals inhabiting our world. If everything were ideal, we would have 5 billion more animals on Earth. But many species have gone extinct, and around 44,000 species are currently in danger. The largest, most recent mass extinction event in history occurred during the dinosaur [music] era, leading to the eradication of 75% of species on Earth.

[00:19:06]The thylacine wallaby is a long-lost relative of today's kangaroo. But they had a hidden superpower, night vision.

[00:19:14]That's why they were mostly active at night. They were 3-ft tall and fed on grass, fruit leaves, and other plants.

[00:19:21][music] Wallabies lived in grassy areas near swamps and other water bodies, but not for long. By the 19th century, [music] their numbers had gone down, bringing them to the edge of extinction. Only 14 wallabies had been left in the wild [music] by 1920.

[00:19:37]A rescue mission was launched. They tried to capture the last 14 animals [music] to protect them, but the situation got out of control and 10 wallabies lost their lives. The four remaining ones were transferred to a special facility, and in 1935, the last animal [music] passed away.

[00:19:56]Only one picture of the toolache wallaby is left now.

[00:19:59]There were reports of the animal sightings after [music] that, but no proof was shown, and the creature was officially declared extinct in the [music] '70s.

[00:20:09]Short-faced bears were a unique species that lived in North America, particularly Alaska. It was a massive bear, weighing around 1,500 lb. [music] When standing on its hind legs, it was around 12-ft tall, a whole foot taller than today's biggest beast in this family, the polar bear.

[00:20:28]>> [music] >> This animal was different from today's bears because almost all of them are omnivores, except for polar bears. But, this monster was solely carnivorous, which was the reason for their extinction.

[00:20:41]During the end of the ice age, many herbivores were gone, and those bears did not have enough food to survive.

[00:20:47]They were the Usain Bolt of the bear world, the fastest bruins to have ever lived, reaching a top speed of 40 mph, which is 5 mi faster than grizzlies.

[00:21:00]There are around 400 million pigeons in the world now. [music] Some time ago, in America, a species of birds called passenger pigeons were abundant throughout the country, >> [music] >> especially in the eastern forest. There were more than a billion of them, but they went from a billion to zero in a few years. They had small heads and necks, but long tails and wings, and strong breast muscles that allowed them to fly super long distances.

[00:21:27]The last passenger pigeon passed away [music] in captivity in 1914. It was named Martha. With that, the ecosystem in the US has never seen this bird again.

[00:21:40]Now, elks are enormous animals, but they look tiny when you compare them to long-gone Irish elks.

[00:21:46]That elk was around 7 ft tall at the shoulder with a humongous antler of 12 ft. Today, elk are only 4.5 ft tall at the shoulder and have around 4-ft long antlers. Despite its name, this elk [music] was found all over the world, from Asia to Europe. It got its name because in Ireland, near Dublin, researchers found a perfectly preserved specimen.

[00:22:10]>> [music] >> Since then, it's been called the Irish elk.

[00:22:13]The last one passed away in Ireland.

[00:22:15][music] The main reason for their disappearance was their inability to adapt to changes. When the ice age ended, the elk could not survive and became extinct.

[00:22:26]Now, somewhere deep in the forests of Costa Rica lives the interesting-looking golden toad. It was discovered in 1966 in one particular spot where all toads would gather to mate.

[00:22:39]In 1967, a large population of this golden [music] nugget was noted in that same spot. But, the following year, only 10 to 11 toads were seen. And the year after that, in 1968, only one lonely male toad showed up at the spot.

[00:22:57]For years, there were searches for golden toads.

[00:23:00]In 2004, the toads were officially declared extinct. Humans were not responsible this time. The drought in the area in the '80s had a significant impact on the toads. Still, the last straw was the arrival of a new fungal species [music] that caused the animal skin to thicken, eventually leading to the toad passing away. This chytrid fungus is responsible for the extinction of more than 90 frog and amphibian species, becoming one of the biggest threats [music] to their lives.

[00:23:32]Now, Canada is a very cold country, [music] no surprise there, and nobody would expect tropical birds like parrots to live there. However, there was a parrot species that lived in America and some parts of Canada. I'm talking about the Carolina parakeet. Those were truly beautiful birds with orange-yellowish heads and green bodies. Their favorite rest spots were big trees alongside rivers.

[00:23:57]>> [music] >> This parrot's favorite food was cocklebur seeds, which are poisonous to us, but the bird had no problem eating them. Also, they used the dangerous cockleburs as a defense [music] mechanism. After they ingested loads of them, their meat became poisonous, and predators do not enjoy eating toxic birds. [music] Carolina parakeets were abundant. There were millions of them. But, since the ice age, their numbers had been gradually going down because of natural reasons, mainly temperature. By 1935, no such parakeets [music] were left in the wild.

[00:24:33]Today's African lion had a much more prominent [music] and notorious cousin, the Barbary lion. Those cats were mentioned in many famous old books. They were described as mean, terrifying beasts. It's believed that they were the largest lion species ever. [music] Those big cats weighed around 600 lb and were 9 ft from the head [music] to tail.

[00:24:55]Unfortunately, this lion was declared extinct in the '90s due to many factors.

[00:25:01]Today, we only have one photo of this animal taken from a plane.

[00:25:07]Paradise parrots were native to Australia. They were genuinely amazing birds with captivating colors. What was unique about them was their nesting habits. They only nested in termite mounds. This parrot was always on the edge of extinction, and the reason for that is still unknown.

[00:25:24]Mice, rats, and other animals also hunted them, and it added fuel to the fire. The last bird was spotted in the year 1972.

[00:25:33]Since then, paradise parrots [music] have only been seen in museums.

[00:25:39]The Gulf of Mexico was once home to Caribbean monk seals. This species of seals enjoyed spending time in the warm subtropical climate of the Caribbean.

[00:25:49]Most of the time, they were found near reefs and islands foraging for food.

[00:25:54]Like most of us, they also loved sandy beaches and were usually seen in groups of 100 seals resting before the next adventure. In the year 1886, monk seals were declared extinct. You can still see this animal in two museums. Both are located [music] in the UK.

[00:26:13]As we all know, zebras have black and white stripes, but once a zebra species had only half the body covered with brown and white stripes. The rest was just brown, and the belly was white. It was called the quagga. They lived in the southern part of Africa in grass fields and wet pastures, [music] like today's zebras, and ate grass and other plants.

[00:26:35]The last quagga perished in 1888, but not all hope is lost. Today, extensive research is being done to bring this animal back into the wild.

[00:26:47]Australia is home to many outlandish animals, but the craziest ones are probably [music] gastric-brooding frogs.

[00:26:54]This species is not like your ordinary [music] frog that lays eggs. They hatch their young inside their stomach and give birth by vomiting around 25 fully-formed young frogs. Sometimes [music] their stomach becomes so bloated that they have to breathe through their skin.

[00:27:12]Two species of this frog were discovered [music] in the northern and southern parts of Australia in the 1970s by Mike Taylor.

[00:27:19]A decade after their discovery, [music] both species are gone. The main reason for their extinction is the chytrid fungus. Luckily for them, they're also part of a de-extinction program that's putting serious efforts into bringing them back into the wild.

[00:27:38]A pre-Christmas miracle happened near the mouth of South Africa's Chalumna River on December 22, 1938.

[00:27:46]Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of East London Museum, was on her routine visit to the docks. She was checking if there were any unusual catches from [music] local fishermen.

[00:27:57]Suddenly, she spotted a strange fin sticking out of a pile of discarded fish.

[00:28:02]Intrigued, [music] she cleaned off the slime to reveal an incredible discovery: a pale blue fish with silvery flecks, thin scales, [music] and four fins that looked almost like limbs.

[00:28:15]And it was huge, too. 5 ft long, weighing about 127 lb.

[00:28:22]Marjorie actually specialized in birds, but she had always been fascinated by the natural world, including [music] the ocean.

[00:28:30]She didn't know what the fish was, but she had a feeling that it was something special.

[00:28:35]So, she had the fish loaded into a taxi and [music] taken to her museum.

[00:28:40]She then went through lots of reference books, but [music] no matter how hard Marjorie tried, she couldn't identify the species.

[00:28:48]She decided to show it to the chairman of the museum's board, but [music] he just dismissed it as a common rock cod.

[00:28:54]Marjorie didn't listen to him.

[00:28:56]>> [music] >> The creature fascinated her so much that she kept studying it and even tried to preserve it by having it taxidermied, although [music] she couldn't save the organs.

[00:29:06]Desperate for answers, she reached out to a fish expert, J. [music] L. B.

[00:29:10]Smith, but tough luck. He was away at that moment.

[00:29:14]When Smith finally [music] saw the drawing, he got instantly intrigued.

[00:29:19]By January, he finally [music] wrote the response to Marjorie saying the fish was giving him sleepless nights. He was eager [music] to see it in person.

[00:29:27]On February 16th, when he finally arrived at the museum and laid eyes on the fish, [music] he was stunned.

[00:29:35]Suddenly, it dawned on him that he was looking at a coelacanth, a species believed to have gone extinct 66 million [music] years ago.

[00:29:44]This made it a Lazarus species, an extinct species that reappears [music] after a long absence in the fossil record.

[00:29:52]It was like seeing a fossil come to life. Scientists [music] thought that this creature had vanished with the dinosaurs.

[00:29:59]Thanks to Marjorie's persistence, this became one of the most remarkable biological finds of the 20th century.

[00:30:05]The entire genus Latimeria was named in her honor.

[00:30:10]Turns [music] out fish was vibing in the deep ocean waters completely unbothered by an asteroid strike [music] for millions of years. Today, at least two species of coelacanth are known to exist. [music] Both come from this ancient lineage that survived the test of time.

[00:30:27]They mostly live in the Indian Ocean with some chilling around Indonesia here [music] and there.

[00:30:32]Coelacanths look and behave very differently [music] from other fish.

[00:30:37]Their creepy fins actually move in a way similar to how human arms and legs move.

[00:30:42]They also have a special joint in their skull [music] that lets them raise a part of their head while feeding.

[00:30:48]That's because they're related to tetrapods. [music] Those guys that were the first to step out of the waters to the land.

[00:30:55]Michael Smith is a British naturalist.

[00:30:57][music] On July 2018, he was exploring the remote Wondiwoi mountain range in Papua, Indonesia.

[00:31:05]He was there to search for rare pretty flowers called rhododendrons, but he accidentally took a photo of a funky-looking creature.

[00:31:14]Smith got very curious about this animal.

[00:31:17]He then returned for another expedition, this time with [music] a local guide.

[00:31:21]He spent 10 tough days searching high in the mountains.

[00:31:25]The terrain was harsh with constant rain, slippery ground, and leeches [music] crawling into their boots.

[00:31:32]When they were already exhausted and close to giving up, the miracle happened.

[00:31:36]>> [music] >> The team finally spotted and snapped a picture of the animal.

[00:31:40]This cute [music] thing turned out to be the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo, the one thought to be extinct for 90 years.

[00:31:47]The first time it was discovered was 1928. [music] It's a sad story. A biologist spotted it while studying the area, and [music] this was the first and the last time we saw that animal.

[00:32:00]But, as it turned out, it wasn't extinct at all. It's just a very elusive and sneaky [music] creature.

[00:32:06]This marsupial lives in small, isolated, steep, and misty forest.

[00:32:12]Very few people venture there, all because of the reasons we [music] mentioned, the rugged terrain, dense bamboo thickets, lack of water. Even the local hunters had never seen one.

[00:32:23]They're super cute [music] with their round face, reddish fur, and appearance that looks like a mix of a monkey and a bear.

[00:32:30]It's a weird type of kangaroo that jumps on the trees, [music] not the land.

[00:32:34]When Michael Smith rediscovered it, he immediately contacted experts, [music] including a specialist on tree kangaroos.

[00:32:41]The discovery was confirmed.

[00:32:44]Even though it's still hard to catch these creatures in the wild, they're still a mystery to science, and scientists try to [music] protect the species.

[00:32:52]In 1996, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society were walking around the meat market in Thakhek, Laos.

[00:33:00]Suddenly, they spotted a bunch of weird rats. Yeah, it may seem to be a common thing for a market, but those were no simple rats at all.

[00:33:09]At first, they thought it was a new species.

[00:33:11]>> [music] >> They called this new rodent the Laotian rock rat.

[00:33:15]This animal was so different from other rodents that biologists wanted to place it [music] in its own family. But, in 2006, Mary Dawson and her team challenged this idea.

[00:33:26]They suggested that the Laotian rock rat might actually belong to an ancient family of rodents, the ones that [music] were believed to have been extinct for 11 million years.

[00:33:37]In the same [music] year, scientists finally captured and documented a live specimen. And guess what? Those were indeed those [music] ancient rats. They didn't go extinct. They just preferred to avoid the spotlight and decided to go vibe in the limestone karsts of Laos and a small [music] part of Vietnam.

[00:33:56]Turns out, the locals were even familiar with the rodent, regularly [music] trapping it for food.

[00:34:02]Right, that must be the true reason for their hermit lifestyle.

[00:34:05]Now, these guys are a huge interest for scientists [music] and are being studied carefully.

[00:34:11]In 2019, some scientists went on a joint expedition on Fernandina Island in the Galapagos Archipelago.

[00:34:19]During the expedition, [music] the team started noticing weird things: tracks, scat, and claw marks on trees.

[00:34:26]By following them, they suddenly discovered the culprit, [music] a mysterious turtle that was sitting on a high elevation on the volcanic island.

[00:34:36]It was a lone female tortoise.

[00:34:38]>> [music] >> They nicknamed her Fernanda. That's because they recognized her as a Fernandina giant tortoise, [music] a species that was thought to have been extinct for 112 years.

[00:34:50]The last [music] time we've ever seen this species was in 1906 when scientists found a male tortoise and sent it to the California Academy of Sciences.

[00:35:00]They thought that volcanic eruptions [music] and extensive hunting caused the species to completely disappear.

[00:35:07]This was a huge [music] deal. It provided hope for the survival of the Fernandina giant tortoise.

[00:35:14]Park rangers [music] said that they saw signs of at least two other tortoises, so maybe they'll be able to find them soon.

[00:35:21]The Galapagos Conservancy has launched fundraising efforts to support further expeditions.

[00:35:28]In July of 2007, Luis Enrique Minguez was hiking in La Palma, a small island in the Canary Islands.

[00:35:35]>> [music] >> He's a researcher in the Institute of Ecology and Conservation.

[00:35:39]While he was walking through the northeastern part of the island, he spotted an interesting lizard.

[00:35:45]The lizard was almost 12 inches long.

[00:35:48]He saw [music] it near a forest trail about 147 feet above sea level. Minguez took a photo of the lizard and shared it with his buddy researchers.

[00:35:58]After seeing the [music] pictures, they realized that it was the long-lost La Palma giant lizard.

[00:36:03]This species was presumed to be extinct for centuries. [music] They thought that it disappeared within the last 500 years due to being hunted by cats and habitat destruction.

[00:36:14]Unfortunately, even though they were super hyped up at first, things didn't go so well next time.

[00:36:21]They did some follow-up expeditions in October of 2007, [music] and then some more, but they couldn't spot the lizard anywhere again since then.

[00:36:30]The lizard probably lived [music] in very high and dry spots of the island.

[00:36:35]Researchers hope to discover at least some of the lizards in the future and help them thrive once again.