Palos Verdes Blue

Invertebrates > Insects

The Palos Verdes Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis) is one of the rarest, most fragile, and most fiercely protected butterflies in North America. Confined exclusively to coastal sage scrub habitat on the ocean-facing bluffs of California’s Palos...

Desertas Wolf Spider

Invertebrates > Arachnids

The Desertas Wolf Spider (Lycosa ingens) is one of the largest and most formidable wolf spiders in the world, reigning as the undisputed apex invertebrate predator on the remote, uninhabited volcanic islet of Deserta Grande in the Madeira archipelago. Confined...

Bonytail Chub

Fish > Ray-finned Fish

The Bonytail Chub (Gila elegans) is the rarest and most critically imperiled of the legendary big-river endemic fishes of North America’s Colorado River basin. Superbly engineered through evolutionary time to navigate the historically untamed, sediment-heavy...

Saba Black Iguana

Reptiles > Lizards

The Saba Black Iguana (Iguana melanoderma) is a distinct, magnificent endemic lizard described by taxonomists in 2020 from the volcanic, jewel-like island of Saba in the Dutch Caribbean. Instantly distinguished by its jet-black to charcoal-slate coloration and a...

Geometric Tortoise

Reptiles > Turtles & Tortoises

The Geometric Tortoise (Psammobates geometricus) is widely regarded as one of the most exquisitely patterned and critically endangered testudines on Earth. Endemic strictly to a tiny handful of isolated lowland valleys within the Western Cape province of South Africa,...