Dodo

The Dodo is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of
Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Its appearance in life is evidenced only
by 17th-century paintings and written accounts that vary considerably,
so its exact appearance is a mystery. Little is certain about its
habitat and behaviour. Subfossil remains show the Dodo was about one
1 metre (3.3 feet) tall and may have weighed 10–18 kg (22–40 lb).
It is presumed that the Dodo became flightless because of the ready
availability of abundant food sources and a relative absence of
predators on Mauritius. The first recorded mention of the Dodo was by
Dutch sailors in 1598. In the following years, the bird was preyed upon
by hungry sailors, their domesticated animals, and invasive species
introduced during that time. The last widely accepted sighting of a Dodo
was in 1662. Its extinction within only about a century of its discovery
called attention to the previously unrecognised problem of human
involvement in the disappearance of entire species. The Dodo achieved
widespread recognition from its role in Alice in Wonderland, and it has
become a fixture in popular culture, often as a symbol of extinction and
obsolescence.

Golden-crowned sifaka

The golden-crowned sifaka is a medium-sized lemur characterized by
mostly white fur, prominent furry ears and a golden-orange crown. It is
one of the smallest sifakas, weighing around 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) and
measuring approximately 90 cm (35 in) from head to tail. Like all
sifakas, it is a vertical clinger and leaper, and its diet includes
mostly seeds and leaves. The golden-crowned sifaka lives in groups of
around five to six individuals, with groups containing a balanced number
of adult males and females. Its binomial name, Propithecus tattersalli,
denotes its discoverer, Ian Tattersall, who first spotted it in 1974.
Found in gallery, deciduous, and semi-evergreen forest, its restricted
range includes forest fragments around the town of Daraina in northeast
Madagascar. Its estimated population is between 6,000 and
10,000 individuals. Forest fragmentation, habitat destruction,
poaching, slash-and-burn agriculture, and other human factors threaten
its existence, and it is listed by the IUCN Red List as Endangered.
Lawlessness resulting from the 2009 political coup in Madagascar led to
increased poaching of this species, and many were sold to local
restaurants as a delicacy.

Fomitiporia ellipsoidea

Fomitiporia ellipsoidea is a species of polypore fungus in the family
Hymenochaetaceae, a specimen of which produced the largest fungal fruit
body ever recorded. Found in China, the fruit bodies produced by the
species are brown, woody basidiocarps that feed on dead wood and can
grow very large under favourable circumstances. They measure 30
centimetres (12 in) or more in length, though typically extending less
than a centimetre from the surface of the wood. A number of chemical
compounds have been isolated from the species, including several
steroidal compounds. These may have pharmacological applications, but
further research is needed. The species was first recorded in 2008 by
Bao-Kai Cui and Yu-Cheng Dai in Fujian Province; it was revealed in 2011
that they had found a very large fruit body, measuring up to 1,085 cm
(427 in) in length, on Hainan Island. The specimen (pictured), which
was 20 years old, was estimated to weigh between 400 and 500 kilograms
(880 and 1,100 lb). This was markedly larger than the previous record
holder, a specimen of Rigidoporus ulmarius found in the United Kingdom,
which had a circumference of 425 cm (167 in).