True extinction is final, a point of no return where a species disappears forever. And sadly, species go extinct all the time. But in some rare cases, animals believed to be lost for good have ...

Just because a species is presumed extinct doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. Here are four glowing examples of this unique, and felicitous, phenomenon. Not all species that have been classified as ...

In April of 2025, headlines across the world announced that the dire wolf had been brought back from extinction. This 130-150 lbs wolf species, about 25% heavier than modern-day gray wolves, had not ...

New research identifies 10,443 critically endangered species worldwide, with effective protection strategies available if funding and political will follow. More than 1,500 species, or 15% of the ...

In the world of biology, being declared extinct is usually a permanent sentence, but nature occasionally loves to prove us wrong. These incredible animals, often referred to as “Lazarus species,” ...

In the past couple of decades, several species have been driven to extinction thanks, in large part, to human interference. Sometimes that interference is direct, poaching for big game trophies or ...

Dire wolves were massive and highly intelligent animals nearly the size of a small horse, capable of ripping a man’s arm off as easily as a dog kills a rat. They lived in cold regions in a place ...

Humans have wiped out hundreds of species — with many more on the brink or experiencing large declines in population. Some scientists have argued that we have entered a “sixth mass extinction” event ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. There’s an important concept in evolutionary biology called ...