Lost Wonders : 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century

by Lathan, Tom

Environmentalist, conservationist & Green organizations

Published 04/09/2025 by PAN MACMILLAN (Picador) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 448 pages, 30 b&w integrated

Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies award for nature writing.

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

'Timely, elegiac' - The Daily Mail'Superb storytelling . . . an exhilarating and vital book' - Charles Foster, author of Cry of the WildLost Wonders is 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, Tom Lathan brings these lost wonders briefly back to life and gives us a tantalizing 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, and with beautiful illustrations, Lost Wonders is an intimate portrait of the species that have only recently vanished from our world. It is also an urgent warning to hold on all the more tightly to those now slipping from our grasp.

Illustrated by Claire Kohda