Finding a live prehistoric animal that was once thought extinct is a paleontologist's dream. But is this really possible today, considering all we know about the natural world? As much as we like to think we have ever corner of our planet mapped and catalogued, there are still dark places where few people go.
The deep sea, forbidding jungles and dense forests remain difficult places to explore. Satellite imaging can’t reveal their secrets, and people struggle to survive in these last places of wilderness here on Earth. It sounds cliché, but almost anything could still be out there.
In the field of cryptozoology, researchers study rare animals that are not yet proven to exist by modern science. But there is another part of this research that includes animals we know once roamed our planet, but we now believe to be extinct. When considering a report of a strange creature, cryptozoologists must weigh the evidence and decide if it is a new animal, or perhaps a relic from the past that has still managed to survive.
The coelacanth is the best example of a living prehistoric creature we once thought extinct. This six-foot fish was known from the fossil record, but thought to die out 65 million years ago. Researchers didn’t know that fishermen off the coast of Africa had been occasionally catching them for years. One species of coelacanth was rediscovered by western researchers in 1938, and another species in 1998.
The deep sea, forbidding jungles and dense forests remain difficult places to explore. Satellite imaging can’t reveal their secrets, and people struggle to survive in these last places of wilderness here on Earth. It sounds cliché, but almost anything could still be out there.
In the field of cryptozoology, researchers study rare animals that are not yet proven to exist by modern science. But there is another part of this research that includes animals we know once roamed our planet, but we now believe to be extinct. When considering a report of a strange creature, cryptozoologists must weigh the evidence and decide if it is a new animal, or perhaps a relic from the past that has still managed to survive.
The coelacanth is the best example of a living prehistoric creature we once thought extinct. This six-foot fish was known from the fossil record, but thought to die out 65 million years ago. Researchers didn’t know that fishermen off the coast of Africa had been occasionally catching them for years. One species of coelacanth was rediscovered by western researchers in 1938, and another species in 1998.