Extinct? Maybe

You are probably thinking of the sao la, or Vu Quang Ox. It was not thought to be extinct, because it was in fact completely new to science. This has been the most remarkable discovery of a large mammal in the last century. Even more incredibly, two other new species have turned up in the same region within the past decade, the Giant Muntjac (also here) and the Truong Son Muntjac, both kinds of deer.

Besides the sao la, one of the most astonishing recent discoveries of a large mammal was the Chacoan, or Giant, Peccary, of South America. This species in fact was first described from Pleistocene fossil material before it turned up alive in 1975.

Another large mammal discovered only in the 20th century was the Okapi, discovered in 1901.

Probably the “Carbonated Warbler.” No one has ever managed to figure out what these might have been. There are a few other Audubon “mystery birds” that can’t be identified with known species, like the Small-headed Flycatcher.

The baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), also known as the Yangtze River Dolphin, if not already extinct, certainly will be soon. The world’s only captive one, Qi Qi, died last month in China. Maybe 5 remain in the wild, though I have read of recent month-long searches that failed to find even one.

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus), also known as the Gulf of California Porpoise, wasn’t even known to science until 1958. It’s also on the verge of extinction with 100-500 still alive, all in the wild.

Erroneous: Nice link. The last time I checked (a year or two ago), the Giant Octopus was only known about thanks to a few tentacles that washed up on a beach in Florida about a hundred years ago.

My great great grandad made a species of bird extinct

Just click on the Fortean Times for all your extinction news.

I remember reading a book on man-made extinct animals that had a report of one unverified sighting of Stellar’s Sea Cow. Probably not true. The only Tasmanian Wolf sighting i’d put stock in is the one by the Park Ranger, i wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them were still running around, but i doubt it.

Maybe someone here knows. I saw a program awhile ago about just this subject, and one of the animals they mentioned having just recently re-discovered was a deer/antelope/gazelle (I forget which, unfortunately) that, in addition to lungs, had a primitive set of gills. I’ve been wanting to find out more about it, but no dice…

Colibri, I don’t know. The links you provided certainly look like the animal I read about, but it’s been too many years for me to say for certain. Nice to know that we’re still finding animals totally unknown to us.

Isn’t the Giant Muntjac on the 99c value menu this month?

Anyway, while it’s semi-off-topic, I wanted to mention the Globster. Occasionally (three times, that I know of) a giant blob of… flesh will wash up on beaches in Australia and NZ. No one is quite sure what it is, but it’s been suggested that these are the remains of unimaginably large, Harryhausen-sized octopi.