History Main / DyingRace

* ''Film/NotOfThisEarth'' (1957): The main antagonist is an alien from planet Davanna who came to Earth to study if human blood could be used to heal his dying race from an incurable disease, through any means necessary.

** The reptilian race called the Illujanka, or Dragon Riders, originally joined Zaros's empire because he promised them a cure for their fertility problems. He did attempt to cure them but by the time Zara's was banished, there were only five of them left on Gielinor. During "One of a Kind" the player frees what is believed to be the last Dragon Rider from suspended animation. At the end of the quest it is discovered there still is a population of them left on their home world but they have given up hope of escaping extinction.

* ''TabletopeGame/PrometheanTheCreated'': While Prometheans as a whole are not exactly on the verge of extinction (though they are implied to be one of the rarer races of the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness''), shifts in the world and in the nature of Azoth will sometimes render specific lineages unable to reproduce, dooming them to eventually die out as their members either die or achieve the New Dawn without being replaced. Specific examples of this include the Hollows (born of the Dust Bowl agricultural disaster and unable to be created after the long drought ended), and the Amirani (the choler-aspected Lineage who preceded the Frankensteins, the reason for their fading is unclear).

* Expanded ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' universe material reveals that Alicorns were once plentiful, or at least more than the two that remain in the present day, who are sisters and obviously not going to produce any more. More alicorns ''do'' come into existence by way of [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascending]], but Luna and Celestia are the last naturalborn alicorns in existence [[spoiler:until Flurry Heart, and even she is not born of two alicorn parents but of a pegasus-turned-alicorn and a unicorn]].

** Dwarves are also dying, and have stayed in decline since the destruction of their greatest kingdoms, something not at all helped by their obsession with grudges that causes them to constantly go from one war to the next.

* ''Film/DarkCity'': The aliens are this; it's the reason the city was built in the first place. It's not clear exactly what they're dying ''from'', though, or how they expect the city to save them.

* In the ''Literature/Silverwing'' prequel ''Darkwing'' ([[WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck No, not that one]]), the Saurians are on their way out. They are [[RaptorAttack raptor-like]] dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) who have survived the cataclysm that wiped out most of their kind at the end of the Cretaceous Period and are still around in the novel’s setting of the Early Paleogene, but are slowly dying out due to lack of food, climatic changes, and a rotting virus. Even so, an adult or even juvenile Saurian is still too powerful for the small mammal protagonists to take down in a fight, and the mammals have decided to exterminate what little eggs the surviving Saurians have laid to prevent them from making a comeback.

** Maxima uses this to lure Superman, claiming that only she can save the kryptonian species, as she is the only one who is both genetically compatible and [[ManOfSteelWomanOfKleenex sufficiently durable enough to handle Superman]], [[BlessedWithSuck now that he's been drenched in empowering sunlight.]] It ''almost'' works too, until Maxima lets it slip that she leads a brutally expansionist empire that her kids will be continuing the proud traditions of. It turns out that human beings ''are'' also genetically compatible with Superman, however, and as his powers develop so to does his muscle control, making his SuperStrength and NighInvulnernability largely non issues.

** Maxima uses this to lure Superman, claiming that only she can save the kryptonian species, as she is the only one who is both genetically compatible and [[ManOfSteelWomanOfKleenex sufficiently durable enough to handle Superman]], [[BlessedWithSuck now that he's been drenched in empowering sunlight.]] It ''almost'' works too, until Maxima lets it slip that she leads a brutally expansionist empire that her kids will be continuing the proud traditions of. It turns out that human beings ''are'' also genetically compatible with Superman, however, and as his powers develop so to does his muscle control, making his SuperStrength and NighInvulernability largely non issues.

** Maxima uses this to lure Superman, claiming that only she can save the kryptonian species, as she is the only one who is both genetically compatible and [[WomanOfKleenex sufficiently durable enough to handle Superman]], [[BlessedWithSuck now that he's been drenched in empowering sunlight.]] It ''almost'' works too, until Maxima lets it slip that she leads a brutally expansionist empire that her kids will be continuing the proud tradtions of. It turns out that human beings ''are'' also genetically compatible with Superman, however, and as his powers develop so to does his muscle control, making his SuperStrength and NightInvulernability largely non issues.

* ''Fanfic/Ben10Guardians'': The The Vladats are this instead of an extinct race, as although many of them were nearly wiped out, some remnants survived, such as Galactic Enforcers member Varn. The author did this because he thought a race a tough as them wouldn't die out so easily.

%%* ''Film/{{Species}}'': Although the alien hybrids can cure injuries very quickly, they are very vulnerable to earthly bacteria and viruses.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': The dwarves are stuck in a HopelessWar with the darkspawn that has already reduced a once-thriving kingdom to two city states. [[spoiler:Worse, the entire population of one of these city states is Tainted.]] They'd be doing better if their own traditions didn't bar a chunk of the population from serving in the conventional military (or getting any kind of decent treatment). However, this is only a cultural case rather then a racial case, due to the thriving population of surface dwarves.