jar images - Joel Sartore

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ANI078-00500

An extinct splendid poison frog (Oophaga speciosa) preserved in alcohol at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama.

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ANI078-00501

Extinct Chiriqui harlequin frogs (Atelopus chiriquiensis) preserved in alcohol at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama.

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Portraits of ‘Orange’, the last dusky seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens). This species went extinct in 1987, after their last habitats in northeast Florida were ruined by man, from the construction of an expressway to mosquito spraying. The bird, along with ‘blue’ another one of the last to die, are kept in vials of alcohol in the Natural History Museum at Florida State University.

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ESA001-00544

Herpetologists look for central newts (Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis) at a vernal pool in Bennett Springs State Park near Lebanon, Missouri.

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ANI082-00155

Herpetologists look for central newts (Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis) at a vernal pool in Bennett Springs State Park near Lebanon, Missouri.

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PEO019-00248

A girl with fireflies that she caught at her home in Lincoln, NE.

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PEO019-00249

A girl with fireflies that she caught at her home in Lincoln, NE.

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PEO019-00247

A girl with fireflies that she caught at her home in Lincoln, NE.

Tim Krynak holds up a specimen of a Ecuador cochran frog, Nymphargus griffithsi (IUCN: Vulnerable), a type of glass frog. Tim and his wife Kathy have been coming to this place near Mindo, Ecuador for several years to monitor amphibian life. The Krynaks and their team hope that chytrid fungus does not show up here, but know that many other parts of Ecuador have already seen catastrophic declines due to the fungus. "Every time we come back, if it's quiet on that first night, we think, 'oh no'. We're scared. We think, this is it," said Tim.

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ANI076-00005

Tim Krynak holds up a specimen of a Ecuador cochran frog, Nymphargus griffithsi (IUCN: Vulnerable), a type of glass frog. Tim and his wife Kathy have been coming to this place near Mindo, Ecuador for several years to monitor amphibian life. The Krynaks and their team hope that chytrid fungus does not show up here, but know that many other parts of Ecuador have already seen catastrophic declines due to the fungus. “Every time we come back, if it’s quiet on that first night, we think, ‘oh no’. We’re scared. We think, this is it,” said Tim.