Vaquita

Mammals > Cetaceans

The Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), affectionately known in Spanish as the ‘little cow,’ is the world’s smallest and most critically endangered marine cetacean. Discovered by science in 1958, this shy, elusive porpoise is found nowhere else on Earth except...

Pygmy Three-toed Sloth

Mammals > Sloths

The Pygmy Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus), also known as the monk sloth, is a diminutive, critically endangered xenarthran mammal endemic solely to a single uninhabited Caribbean island off Panama. A classic textbook example of insular dwarfism, it became...

Kipunji

Mammals > Primates

The Kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji), also celebrated as the highland mangabey, is an extraordinarily rare and evolutionarily significant African monkey discovered by primatologists in 2003 in the mist-veiled Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Representing the first new...

Western Underground Orchid

Plants > Orchids

The Western Underground Orchid (Rhizanthella gardneri) is one of the most astonishing, bizarre, and scientifically fascinating botanical anomalies on Earth. Entirely subterranean throughout its entire life cycle, this ghost-like plant lives, grows, flowers, and sets...

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

Invertebrates > Stick Insects

The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect (Dryococelus australis), famously dubbed the ‘tree lobster,’ is one of the heaviest, most iconic, and remarkably resilient flightless phasmids on Earth. Measuring up to 15 centimeters in length with a heavy, glossy...