Living Fossil (short story)
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"Living Fossil" is a science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, on the concepts of human extinction and future evolution. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fi
Charles Schneeman's illustration of the story in Astounding Science-Fiction
Living fossil
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A living fossil is a term for an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record, though scientifically the term is deprecated and avoided. To be considere
Living Fossil (short story)
…return to South America before the local colonists rediscover and despoil the forest, hoping to have the human habitat set aside as a preserve for these living fossils. John K. Aiken, in his review of the anthology A Treasury of Science Fiction, included "Living Fossil" in "the dozen or more ... first-class stories…
The coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago, until a living specimen belonging to the order was discovered in 1938.
170 million-year-old fossil Ginkgo leaves
Living Ginkgo biloba plant
Elephant shrews resemble the extinct Leptictidium of Eocene Europe.