Lost Wonders

10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century

By: Tom Lathan, Claire Kohda

Narrated by: Tom Lathan

Read by the author, Tom Lathan.

In Lost Wonders author and journalist Tom Lathan tells the powerful stories of ten species that have lived, died out and been declared extinct since the turn of the twenty-first century.

Many scientists believe that we are currently living through the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at a rate not seen for tens of millions of years – a trend that will only accelerate as climate change and other pressures intensify. What does it mean to live in such a time? And what exactly do we lose when a species goes extinct?

In a series of fascinating encounters with subjects that are now nowhere to be found on Earth – from giant tortoises to minuscule snails the size of sesame seeds, from ocean-hopping trees to fish that wag their tails like puppies – Lathan brings these lost wonders briefly back to life and gives us a tantalising glimpse of what we have lost within our own lifetime.

Drawing on the personal recollections of the people who studied these species, as well as those who tried but ultimately failed to save them, Lost Wonders is an intimate portrait of the species that have only recently vanished from our world and an urgent warning to hold on all the more tightly to those now slipping from our grasp.

Critic reviews

We can't think what we need to think about the catastrophe of extinction. It is too big. Only stories can change us and ignite the passion necessary for action. Lathan's superb storytelling makes ecological crisis personal, local and often scarily visible. He doesn't let the tragedy hide, as it usually does, behind graphs and abstractions. Yet there's hope here too, in spades. This is an exhilarating and vital book. (Charles Foster, author of Cry of the Wild)

Not just a timely epitaph . . . but a celebration of their existence, reminding us of their wonder. (Stephen Moss, author of Ten Birds That Changed the World)

Lathan is a superb writer, in a class with Merlyn Sheldrake, Robert McFarlane, and Bruce Chatwin . . . and also an intrepid reporter and meticulous researcher. . . A haunting elegy for the sixth extinction, with a note of hope.

A beautifully crafted elegy for the lost species of our age. In repopulating the world with extinct snails, lizards, bats and rats, Tom Lathan makes us marvel and care almost as much as the conservationists who tried and failed to save them. (Kate Teltscher, author of Palace of Palms)

These are important stories and Lathan tells them with pathos and sensitivity. (Ross Barnett, author of The Missing Lynx)

A devastating survey of how human negligence pushed species to extinction over the past 25 years . . . This moving elegy will stick with readers long after the final page.

Vignettes of extinction

As a biologist I found this book very interesting and as a person I found the stories to be almost depressing in their similarities. There are ten tales of extinction and each story follows a pattern of basic biology, population declines, and finally what went wrong. There is the unquestionable presence of human activity as an agent in all of these stories but there is a uniqueness to each one. This book should be a wake-up call for paying attention to losses in Earth’s diversity which I think will mostly fall of deaf ears in todays social climate.