endling
noun/ˈɛndlɪŋ/
Etymology From end + -ling, suggested in a 1996 issue of the magazine Nature.
1
Rare The last individual of its species or subspecies, which therefore becomes extinct upon its death.
- The last known survivor, the endling of its species, is now stuffed and mounted in a museum in the remote, dusty city of Nukus.2002, SEJ Journal:
- Endlings are also recorded for the quagga, an equine with zebra-like stripes on its front half, which died in 1883 in a zoo in Amsterdam; a Caspian tiger killed in the 1950s in Uzbekistan; and whichever of a pair of great auks killed in 1844 off the coast of Iceland died second.2012 June 27, Helen Lewis, “Sense of an endling”, in New Statesman, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2012:
1 more example
- It feels as if I'm the last one left—a human endling—the world turned silent beneath my boots.2017, B. J. Hollars, Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds, page 106:
- Related terms
- end of the line