Once Extinct, Twice Discovered

Seemingly everyday there is an animal species that drops off the face of the earth with a new label: Extinct.  So I always find it pretty cool when some of these long lost species re-emerge from the cosmic soup to be discovered again. 

About a year ago I remember reading about a landlocked salmon that was thought extinct for seventy years only to be found colonizing a lake in its native Japan. Today I came across a frog, a toad, and a sponge that have reappeared after being declared no longer around decades ago.

The sponge was found alive and well near Singapore by a research team after thought vanished from the seas over a hundred years ago.  Called Neptune cups, the sponge is known to grow to large proportions, so large they were once used as children's bath tubs.  The newly discovered specimen is a little one, reported to about the size of a goblet.

The Ha-Hula lake in Israel was the site of a re-found frog, the Hula painted frog.  A female frog was the only one found so it's fate is still questionable.

The Bornean rainbow toad, aka the Sambas Stream toad got some scientists excited when it was found anew on Borneo this past July.  Never even photographed before, the rediscovery allowed for pictures of this brightly colored toad to be finally documented.

You can find pictures of these animals at Mongabay.com