endling

[ end ling ]

noun

1. an individual living thing that is the last survivor of its species or subspecies and whose death consequently means the extinction of that species or subspecies:

   The endling of the once plentiful passenger pigeons was Martha, who died in a zoo in 1914.

2. a person who is the last living member of a family line and whose death consequently means the end of that lineage:

   Sadly, Kenneth, childless and himself an only child, is soon to leave this world, alone and an endling.

Word History and Origins

Origin of endling¹

First recorded in 1996 in the correspondence in the British journal Nature; end ¹( def ) + -ling ¹( def )