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| FORMERLY EXTINCT: This is a cache of creatures which are known to science, but at one time or another were believed to have joined the ever growing list of extinct animals. Some of these species were thought to have shuffled off this mortal coil at the end of the Jurassic period - over 65 million years ago - while others have made this unenviable roll call as recently as the last century, only to have their names stricken off the list as a living, breathing specimen has been seen ambling through the frozen tundra, or crawling out of a jungle forest, or welling up from the ocean's depths... for the sole purpose, it would seem, of making the scientific community re-evaluate all of their "hard" data regarding the premature demise of the species in question. The significance of these creatures lies not only in the fact that they have managed to somehow survive, but more intriguingly that they were able to do it while remaining hidden from the world of man (with the exception of a few keen-eyed natives) for hundreds if not thousands of years. This suggests that there may be other animals destined to be removed from this tragically rising catalogue or - more intriguingly perhaps - that there may be a new species or phylum of creatures, lurking in the darkness of some uncharted rainforest, which is unlike any which we have ever encountered. |