A clam presumed extinct for 40,000 years has been found alive
Reese Vaccaro
Jeff Goddard
The Cymatioa cooki is a clam who once lived some thousands of years ago and has been assumed extinct for over 40,000 years. It had only been documented and researched in fossil form as it was thought to not be around anymore. Off the coast of California, in 2018 Jeff Goddard discovered this clam he had never seen before and took pictures of it. In 2019 they finally caught one and brought it to the museum to further examine and compare it with others to decipher what it might be. Paul Scott who helped Goddard photograph the clam originally was able to then later asses it and confirm it was the Cymatioa cooki. They are not sure how it had been hiding and how scientists have missed it for so long. David Jablonski, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago saw this discovery and said: “It’s rare to find something first as a fossil and then living.”
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/clam-presumed-extinct-found-alive
https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/95139/
How can we take what scientists learned from situation and compare it to other organisms that we have discovered?
Do we think there are other organisms that were assumed to be extinct that are just hiding?
When did this organism originally live?
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