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Pauline Taxa: Fossil Taxa Later Discovered Alive

By Branden Holmes

In addition to the many millions of living species which have been described, a few very special taxa have been named upon the basis of fossil or subfossil material only to later be discovered still living. Although often called Lazarus taxa in both the technical and popular literature, an allusion to the story of the Biblical Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead after four days (John 11:1-44), pronunciation of extinction in each of these cases turned out to be premature, unlike that of Lazarus. None of them were really resurrected from the dead like Lazarus, or the Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), the only true Lazarus taxon to date (Folch et al., 2009)1.

Instead the reappearance of most taxa, both those discovered and rediscovered as living, should rather be likened to Paul in Acts (Acts 14:19-20), when he is stoned, putatively to death, but recovers, clearly never having actually been dead. And hence these taxa should be more appropriately referred to as Pauline taxa rather than Lazarus taxa, a name which I shall adopt throughout this website.

 

Table 1. An incomplete list of Pauline taxa.2

Scientific name Type of animal/plant Last record Rediscovered Source/s
         
Adeonella adae (bryozoan) Late Pleistocene 2000's? Rosso & Novosel, 2010
         
Alytes muletensis Toad Late Pleistocene 1979  
         
Aproteles bulma Bat      
         

Aristena rechingeri

  subfossil 2020-2021? Grano & Cattaneo, 2021
         
Awalycaeus yanoshokoae Snail      
         
Bibimys labiosus Rodent   1980  
         
Blarinomys breviceps Rodent      
         
Burramys parvus Possum (marsupial) ? 1966  
         
Calliostoma bullatum marine snail Middle Pleistocene    
         
Canariella pontelirac Snail      
         
Catagonus wagneri Peccary (related to pigs) ? 1974  
         
Coenocorypha aucklandica perseverance Bird      
         
Crocidura religiosa     early 1900's Woodman et al., 2017
         
Cuscomys oblativa Rodent 1500's? 2009 or 2012  
         
Cyclocypris diebeli Crustacean      
         
Cymatioa cooki bivalve Late Pleistocene 2018-2019 Valentich-Scott & Goddard, 2022
         
Discula cameroni land snail ? 2020 or before Cameron et al., 2021
         
Discus macclintocki land snail Late Pleistocene 1955  
         
Eschrichtius robustus Gray whale, Grey whale ? 1930's Wikipedia
         
Geomitra coronula snail subfossil late mid-1800's Teixeira et al., 2018
         
Hemicycla eurythyra Snail      
         
Lundomys molitor Rodent Late Pleistocene 1993 Voss & Carleton, 1993
         
Mastacomys fuscus mordicus Rodent      
         
Mesocapromys nanus3 Rodent   pre-1938 EDGE website
         
Muntiacus gigas Deer Holocene? 2016? Turvey et al., 2016
         
Natalus jamaicensis Bat      
         
Natalus primus Bat      
         
Nesopupa turtoni (land snail) subfossil 2003  
         
Paulamys naso Rodent ? 1991  
         
Phyllodactylus sp. nov. 'Rabida Island' Gecko c.5,000yBP 2012  
         
Porphyrio hochstetteri Rail (bird) ? 1850 or before Mantell, 1850
         
Potorous tridactylus trisulcatus Bettong (macropod) ? 2012 Frankham et al., 2012; Jackson & Groves, 2015
         
Pseudorca crassidens Whale   1861  
         
Pseudoryzomys simplex Rodent   1991  
         
Rhynchotalona latens Crustacean Quaternary ? van Damme & Nevalainen, 2019
         
Speothos venaticus Canid ? 1843   
         
Tonatia saurophila Bat      
         

Vertigo pseudosubstriata

Snail Late Pleistocene 1984 or prior Schilyenko, 1984; but see Meng et al., 2021
         
Ziphius cavirostris Whale ? 1872  

 

Table 2. Rediscovery of ghost lineages.

Scientific name Type of animal/plant Rediscovered Source/s
[carp gudgeon]    

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/the-mystery-of-a-team-of-canberra-ghostbusters-and-a-freaky-fish-20190321-p5163z.html

 

Table 3. Pauline taxa later shown to represent a different species. 

Scientific name Type of animal/plant Initial claim of rediscovery Rediscovery shown to represent another species
Elseya lavarackorum (turtle) Thomson et al., 1997 Joseph-Ouni et al., 2020

 

Table 4. Recent taxa considered extinct when described but later rediscovered

Scientific name Type of animal/plant Report of rediscovery
Pupoidopsis hawaiensis (snail) Gargominy et al., 2020

 

Table 5. Long extinct species rediscovered via discovery of an extant subspecies

Scientific name Type of animal/plant
Gyldenstolpia fronto chacoensis (Gyldenstolpe, 1932) cricetid rodent

 

Appendix 1: Potential future additions to this list

  • The fossil species Sarcophilus laniarius (Owen, 1838) might be conspecific with the extant Tasmanial devil, Sarcophilus harrisii (Boitard, 1841).

 

Appendix 2: Species first recorded as fossils and later as living individuals prior to scientific description

  • Tellina cockburnensis (Kendrick & Brearley, 1984).

 

Appendix 3: Long extinct genera (or higher) rediscovered via description or transfer of living species

  • Alavesia leukoprosopa Amorim et al., 2020
  • Dromiciops gliroides Thomas, 1894 [family Microbiotheriidae thought extinct prior to rediscovery]
  • Eidothea zoexylocarya A.W.Douglas & B.Hyland (1995)

  • Eurhodia relicta Mooi, 1990

  • Gracilidris pombero Wild & Cuezzo, 2006
  • Laonastes aenigmamus Jenkins et al., 2005 [family Diatomyidae thought extinct prior to rediscovery]
  • Order: Tryblidiida (Lemche, 1957)
  • Submyotodon caliginosus
  • Wollemia nobilis (W.G.Jones, K.D.Hill & J.M.Allen, 1995)

 

Notes

1 Although the Southern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus) has also been resurrected, albeit in a restricted sense (see Phillips, 2013).

2 I owe a debt to a blog post by vertebrate palaeontologist Darren Naish.

3 Sadly this species is now believed to be extinct. The last known individual was collected in 1937.

 

References

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