Extinct in the wild George on the Galapagos island of Pinta on 1 December 1971. Since then, Lonesome George has been a powerful symbol for conservation efforts in general and for the Galapagos Islands in particular. With his death on 24 June 2012, the subspecies is again believed to be extinct. With the discovery of 17 hybrid Pinta tortoises located at nearby Wolf Volcano a plan has been made to attempt to breed the subspecies back into a pure state. Not all species that are extinct in the wild are rare. For example, "Ameca splendens", though extinct in the wild, was a popular fish
Extinct comet evaporated away, all that remains is an inert rock or rubble pile. A comet may go through a transition phase as it comes close to extinction. Extinct comets are those that have expelled most of their volatile ice and have little left to form a tail or coma. Over time, most of the volatile material contained in a comet nucleus evaporates away, and the comet becomes a small, dark, inert lump of rock or rubble that can resemble an asteroid. Other related types of comet include "transition comets", that are close to becoming extinct, such as were looked for in