It's called 'a snowman' and until recently scientists believed them to be all but extinct.

They are all but extinct, surviving only in the lumbering public services where their brawn makes up for lack of brains.

The disease was quickly all but extinct here, though it still plagues poorer countries.

Phones can be richly entertaining and are almost always available, making boredom all but extinct.

Nowadays, though, beardy magic, big pointy hats and incendiary reptiles are all but extinct.

If they succeed, it will be the first time a virtually extinct mammal with no living males has been brought back from the brink.

After finding the first fossils he became an ardent explorer and collector of extinct mammals.

With more time to find them, foraging ground sloths (and other extinct mammals) could eat the pods and transport the seeds to a new site.

He was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations.

In the next horizon we find the stromatoporoids, extinct relatives of sponges.

A study of the energy needs of living molluscs and extinct relatives concluded that laziness may ensure the survival of a species and individuals.

Could their extinct relatives have been tool-users?

All quillworts and their extinct relatives are heterosporous.

The family comprises the red panda (the sole living representative) and its extinct relatives.

The evolutionary clues hidden in these fossil assemblages hold much greater information than details about an obscure extinct species.

All of the branches lower down that twist and turn and end without leaves are extinct species.

As the prospect of eradicating species we dislike gets closer, so the prospect of resurrecting extinct species we like gets closer too.

We know about pollution, extreme weather, crop failures, extinct species.

One outstanding problem remains the lack of consensus in the attitude of anthropologists to extinct species.

Some will become locally extinct.

If a species can not limit the impact of competition in a hostile environment, its population will crash, and it will become locally extinct.

Six species of non-breeding birds have not been recorded since before the 1950s and are considered as being locally extinct.

The last two species are now locally extinct.

If these species become locally extinct in a fragment, this reluctance to cross unforested barriers makes their re-establishment unlikely.

Glaciers are long extinct rivers that are formed of deeply packed snow.

Such pockets are dotted about the country, telling their tale of trade links long extinct and industries half-forgotten.

These congregations are long extinct, although some of their members were still alive in the late 1950s.

These islands represent the remnants of a long extinct ring volcano rising from a seabed plateau approximately 40 m (130 ft) below sea level.

It also clones long extinct animals and performs selective breeding.

The species was previously unknown and nearly extinct.

Forty years ago they were nearly extinct on our shores.

These means of transport are either extinct or nearly extinct.

The variety was nearly extinct in the late 20th century with only a few scattered vines left on the island.

They have been on the nearly extinct list for 40 years and will remain.

But they are virtually extinct now, at least publicly.

The guaranteed pensions enjoyed by public sector workers are virtually extinct in the private sector.

Outside banking so-called non-contributory pensions are virtually extinct in the private sector.

Real letters are virtually extinct.

Final-salary schemes, which guarantee a fixed sum on retirement relating to salary and length of service, are now virtually extinct in companies (though not in government).