How do we know that a species has definitely gone extinct (as opposed to just being extremely rare/elusive)?
In: Biology
The short answer is that we don’t. Consider the [Coelacanth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth).
> Coelacanths were thought to have become extinct in the Late Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago, but were rediscovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa.
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