At the end of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant is trundled off into a vault of forgotten wonders, there to languish in bureaucratic obscurity. The U.S. Endangered Species Program has often worked the same way -- and finally, after decades of waiting, the vault is about to be opened. Thanks to a landmark settlement between conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, decisions will be made on hundreds of species nominated for protection since the 1980s. Some have been designated as "warranted but precluded," a technical way of saying they fully deserve to be considered for threatened or endangered protection, but it's just not a federal priority. Others haven't even received that consideration. "More than half of the candidate species currently on the list have been candidates for two decades or longer. Some of them have been candidates for 30 years or more. The agency is going to address them all," said Mark Salvo, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, one of the conservation groups that negotiated the settlement. "What has started as a trickle of decisions will soon become a gusher." On Oct. 25, the Fish and Wildlife Service released its official list of candidate species. Seven are making their first appearance; the rest have been there before. Over the next year, 48 will be reviewed and given the protection they deserve. Within five years, the list will be almost completely cleared. Some of the animals, like the Mexican wolf, are powerfully charismatic. Others, like the Florida bonneted bat or Spring pygmy sunfish, might be considered ugly, even forgettable. But each represents a singular, unreplicable form of life -- millions of years of evolution culminating in a creature whose fate is now in our hands. For many if not most, this year could mark the beginning of their recovery. Wired Sciences profiles a few of our favorites on the following pages. Above: Gunnison sage‐grouse Known for their elaborate, loud courtship rituals — there's a reason "grouse" is a verb — Gunnison sage grouse are found in southwestern Colorado and the southeastern tip of Utah. Depending for survival on intact ranges of sagebrush, their numbers have dropped by an estimated 98 percent since 1900. Image: Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Sagebrush Sea

Florida bonneted bat With a wingspan of nearly two feet, the Florida bonneted bat is one of the largest in North America. Just several hundred survive, their historic populations decimated by habitat loss and pesticide. Image: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Miami blue butterfly One of 15 butterfly species found only in southern Florida and the Florida Keys, the Miami blue was common as late as the 1970s. By the early 1990s, however, just one colony remained, and it was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. Seven years passed before a Miami blue was seen again. Image: Michelle Wisniewski/Miami Blue Chapter, North American Butterfly Association

Mazama pocket gophers Like streaked horned larks, the pocket gophers live in one of North America's most endangered ecological communities: the prairies and savannas of the Pacific Northwest, a region far better known for its forests. Several thousand of the gophers are left, but many live on lands threatened by development. Image: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Streaked horned lark Once abundant in the Pacific Northwest, an estimated 200 pairs now survive in Oregon. However, unlike many animals, they've shown an ability to adapt to human-disrupted areas -- fields, gravel roadsides, even Christmas tree farms -- raising hopes for future recovery. Image: R. Gilbert/Coastal Sand Ecosystems

Florida semaphore cactus A prickly pear found from the Florida Keys, it's threatened by an exotic Australian moth species introduced in the Caribbean to control a different, invasive prickly pear species. Image: Chad Cullen/University of Southern Florida

Mexican gray wolf Historically ranging from central Mexico throughout the southwestern United States, Mexican wolves were nearly exterminated. By the 1970s, they survived only in captive breeding programs. Then, in 1976, they were declared an endangered species, kick-starting programs that have reintroduced them in New Mexico and Arizona. However, the Mexican wolves were subsequently lumped under a bureaucratic umbrella with other, less-threatened North American wolf species, threatening conservation efforts. The Fish and Wildlife Department will now consider whether to again give them their own, urgent protection. Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Spring pygmy sunfish Specialized for life in the Tennessee River watershed, the inch-long Spring pygmy sunfish has twice been considered extinct, but each time was found again. Its last population lives in just a single five-mile stretch of creek. Image: Center for Biological Diversity

Magnificent ramshorn Making its candidate species debut with the Oct. 25 announcement, this marvelously named mollusk is found only in North Carolina's lower Cape Fear River basin, where it's threatened by the loss of its historic beaver pond habitat. Image: Freshwater Gastropods of North America

Poweshiek skipperling Another creature receiving endangered species consideration for the first time, this colorful creature of the Great Plains prairies requires naturally occurring, undisturbed grassland to survive. Image: Mike Reese & Tom Underwood/Wisconsin Butterflies