relict species
Ancient lineage persisting
A relict species is a plant or animal that survives in isolated pockets after most of its relatives have gone extinct or its former range has dramatically shrunk.
These organisms are often called "living fossils" because they represent lineages that were once widespread but now persist only in refugia—small areas with favorable conditions.
The ginkgo tree is a relict species, the sole survivor of a group that flourished millions of years ago.
Climate change, geological shifts, or competition from newer species typically explain why relicts ended up stranded where they are.
- living fossilOrganism unchanged since prehistory
- refugiaIsolated survival zones
- phylogeneticsScience of ancestral relationships
- ecological nicheSpecies' functional environmental position
- paleoclimatePast geological climate conditions
horseshoe crab · microhabitat · coelacanth · ginkgo · Holocene · tuatara · biodiversity hotspots · Pleistocene · remnant · tectonic shifts · fossil record · glacial · holdover · survivor · persistence · ancient lineage · ancient · extinction
- speciescritically endangered, subspecies
- biogeographybioregion, endemism, dispersal, native range, zoogeography
- endemicsnative plants
- laurisilvastinkwood, til, epiphytes
- plantstree, plants, leaves, bluebonnet, trees
- Atlantic IslandsAzores, Bermuda, Canary Islands, Madeira, Cape Verde