Birds > Pogonornithidae & Stitchbirds
The Hihi (Pogonornis cinctus), historically known as the stitchbird, is an ancient, phylogenetically distinct passerine endemic to New Zealand. Representing the sole surviving member of the monotypic family Pogonornithidae, the hihi diverged from ancestral...
Amphibians > Micrixalidae & Dancing Frogs
The Wayanad Dancing Frog (Micrixalus saxicola) is a captivating, torrent-adapted amphibian endemic strictly to the swift mountain cascades of India’s Western Ghats. Facing the deafening acoustic roar of rushing rapids where vocal mating calls are rendered...
Birds > Bucerotidae & Hornbills
The Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), revered across indigenous Bornean Dayak cosmology as the divine earthly messenger of the spirits and celebrated as the official state bird of Sarawak, is a colossal, majestic forest bird belonging to the hornbill family...
Plants > Asparagaceae & Dracaena
The Socotra Dragon’s Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari) is one of the most otherworldly and iconic botanical sentinels on Earth, an ancient relict endemic strictly to the windswept limestone plateaus of the Socotra Archipelago in Yemen. Famous for its surreal,...
Fungi > Ascomycete & Chorioactidaceae
The Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis geaster), also known as the Texas star mushroom, is one of the most enigmatic and geographically perplexing macrofungi in the world. Designated as the official state fungus of Texas in 2021, this rare ascomycete displays one of...
