An Aussie (re)discovery: the Wollemi Pine! Imagine going for a bushwalk one day and discovering a long-lost species. That's what happened to one lucky Aussie scientist, in 1994 in the Blue Mountains!
An awesome discovery: the television. TVs were invented in 1925 and were black and white only. Later colour came, then VCRs, then DVDs, then cable TV then... well you get the picture. Ha!
La Gomera giant lizards were thought to be totally extinct (in fact, scientists had only ever seen fossils of them). In 1999, six of these large lizards were found in a cave in the Canary Islands. Way to keep a low profile, guys! Is Nessie with you too?
Chimpanzees. Okay they'd been discovered, and we never forgot about the furry dudes, but in the 20th century scientists discovered that chimps and humans share 96% of the same genetic material! Explains about weird Uncle Jeff then...
The personal computer was invented in 1975, WOOHOO! So they took up nearly the whole room, whatevs! In nearly forty years they'd give us Plants Vs Zombies. Sweet.
Machu Picchu is an ancient city built on top of a mountain in Peru, that everyone forgot about, until one intrepid explorer hacked his way through crazy dense jungle to rediscover it in 1911. Why did he even try? He'd heard a rumour.
Coleacanth have been around since the Late Cretaceous (hanging with Tyrannosaurs) but kept it so low key, scientists thought they died out with their dino buddies. Not so! They were rediscovered in 1938 and hadn't changed a bit!
Microorganisms have always been around, but microscopes haven't, yo. It was only last century that we met our micro mates, and realised they are the real cause of colds (not forgetting socks, like your Mum reckons).
Jayson