Ever since Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish Botanist, introduced the modern system of the binomial nomenclature of species in 1758, new species have been identified and named at an enormous rate every year. Scientists believe that there are around 8.7 million plant and animal species on the planet. However, only about 1.2 million species have been recognized and described thus far, with the majority of them being insects.
Firstly, what is a Species?
A species is commonly described as a group of organisms that can naturally breed with one another and produce fertile offspring. The categorization of a species can sometimes be complicated. Species that look very similar may be unrelated and animals that cannot be co-related in any way may share a recent common ancestor!
For example: Whales are more closely related to hippopotamus than to sharks, and Rhinos are more closely related to zebras than elephants!
Recent entries to the Animal Kingdom !!
In this article, we will look at 10 of the recent entries to the animal kingdom. Some of them have already gone viral with their unique scientific names, appearances, and capabilities.
1. Emperor Dumbo Octopus (Grimpoteuthis imperator)
Back in April, researchers from Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn, Germany announced the discovery of a new exciting species of Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis imperator), which they dubbed “Emperor Dumbo.”
The researchers chose the common name Emperor Dumbo since the specimen was discovered near the slopes of the Emperor seamount chain in the Pacific Ocean.
The Emperor Dumbo is the first-ever large organism characterized by non-destructive methods. Very little is known about this new species but in general, other dumbos survive on eating worms and shrimp-like crustaceans known as amphipods, which they catch by utilizing their tentacle webbing as an umbrella. Because fast-moving predators are few in such nutrient-depleted settings, these octopuses lost the capacity to spew ink at some point in their evolutionary history.
The new species is described in BMC Biology
2. Wood lizard (Enyaliodies feiruzae)
Enyalioides feiruzae, a new species of dragon-like lizard, has been formally described after seven years of field research that included hand-picking sleeping individuals from plants at night.
The lizards, especially the males, can be found in a range of colors, including turquoise, green, grey, and brown, with lines on their backs and spots on their sides.
They are found in northern South America and Panama as part of the wood lizard genus Enyalioides and are quite similar to the geographically distinct E. rudolfarndti. This E. feiruzae is located in the Huallaga River basin in the Peruvian Andes, an area that has been understudied owing to confrontations with terrorist organizations and drug traffickers in the 1980s and 1990s.
The new species is described in Evolutionary Systematics
3. Trap-Jaw Ant (Strumigenys ayersthey)
The new species is a recently found small trap-jaw ant from Ecuador’s evergreen tropical woods, which is one of the hundreds named after humans. But unique from the traditional naming that usually ends with -ae (after females) and -i (after males), the newly identified ant may be the only species in the world with a scientific name ending in -they, recognizing gender diversity!
“In contrast to the traditional naming practices that identify individuals as one of two distinct genders, we have chosen a non-Latinized portmanteau honoring the artist Jeremy Ayers and representing people that do not identify with conventional binary gender assignments, Strumigenys ayersthey.”
“Such a beautiful and rare animal was just the species to celebrate both biological and human diversity,” said Dr. Douglas Booher, a taxonomic expert at the Yale Center for Biodiversity and co-author of the paper describing the species.
“Small changes in language have had a large impact on culture. Language is dynamic and so should be the change in naming species — a basic language of science.”
The new species is described in ZooKeys
4. Zombie Frog (Synapturanus zombie)
This subterranean frog is one of three new Synaturanus species discovered. The male’s cry may only be heard during or after heavy rain. Scientists must dig the animals out of the dirt with their bare hands to find them (usually getting soaked in the process). This strange circumstance is what gave origin to the name Synapturanus zombie.
All three frog species are located in the Guiana Shield, an extraordinarily biodiverse area of South America. The researchers predict there might be six times as many Synapturanus species as having been reported so far.
The new species is described in Zoologischer Anzeiger
5. Krait Snake (Bungarus suzhenae)
The Suzhen’s krait (Bungarus suzhenae) was originally classified as a subspecies of the many-banded krait (Bungarus multicinctus). However, after carefully examining the characteristics and mitochondrial DNA sequence data from snake specimens collected in the Yunnan region, China, between 2016 and 2019, researchers determined that there were enough changes to support the introduction of a completely new species.
They may be found in rice fields and streams in monsoon forests in southwestern China and northern Myanmar at elevations ranging from 800 to 1,560 meters (2,600 to 5,100 feet) above sea level.
The new species is described in ZooKeys
6. Wallace’s Sphinx Moth (Xanthopan praedicta)
When Charles Darwin received a specimen of an orchid from Madagascar with an extraordinary nectar tube measuring 30 cm long in 1862, he gasped in a letter to a friend: ‘Good heavens, what insect can suck it!’
Darwin thought that if the orchid can afford to have such a deep nectar tube and survive, there must be a species of insect that will have such a long tongue to suck its nectar. Five years later, Alfred Wallace also came to the same conclusion. In 1903, the species was described but just as a subspecies of Morgan’s sphinx moth.
Finally, a 2021 study of the moth’s genetic and morphological distinctions has discovered that the Madagascan moth is not just a subspecies of Morgan’s sphinx moth, but rather a completely distinct species, currently known as Xanthopan praedicta.
The new species is described in ResearchGate
7. Chameleon (Brookesia nana)
This newly discovered member of the nano-chameleon category could well be the smallest reptile on the planet.
Found by a German-Madagascan expedition team in northern Madagascar, its body is about 13.5 millimeters (0.53 inches) long, making it the smallest of the nearly 11,500 known reptile species, according to the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich.
Males are about 22 mm long from snout to tail whereas females are a bit longer with an average length of around 29mm. This species is even smaller than the tiny Brookesia micra which was first identified in 2012.
The new species is described in Nature
8. Bat (Myotis nimbaensis)
Researchers studying bat populations in natural caves and mining tunnels known as adits in Guinea’s Nimba Mountains in 2018 were shocked to discover a stunning and huge orange and black bat that did not fit the descriptions of any other locally recognized species.
Further examination of the morphological, morphometric, echolocation, and genetic data, as well as comparisons to bats in collections at other museums, indicated that it was a species previously unknown to science. It was given the scientific name Myotis nimbaensis, after the Nimba Mountains where it was discovered. This mountain range, which has been described as a series of “African sky islands,” is home to incredible biodiversity.
The new species is described in American Museum Novitates
9. Rice’s whale (Balaenoptera ricei)
Rice’s whale, which was earlier thought to be a subpopulation of Bryde’s whale, was recently identified as a new species in 2021. Rice’s whale is the only resident baleen whale in the northern Gulf of Mexico all year. It has a population of 51 individuals and is one of the world’s most endangered baleen whales.
Rice’s whales are typically located off the Florida panhandle in a region known as De Soto Canyon, however, scientists have verified a sighting of a Rice’s whale in the western Gulf of Mexico.
The Rice’s whale is on the verge of extinction, and it is one of the world’s most endangered cetaceans, along with the vaquita. It is rated as severely endangered on the IUCN Red List and is protected by the Endangered Species Act of the United States.
The new species is described in Marine Mammal Science
We started this article by saying the majority of the 1.2 million species named yet belong to insects therefore it would be fair enough only if we finish the list with one.
10. Weevil (Trigonopterus corona)
Museum scientists from Germany and Indonesia exploring the Indonesian island of Sulawesi were in for a treat as the number of Trigonopterus species, a genus of flightless weevils located in the Indo-Australian-Melanesian archipelago, surged considerably in late October, with 28 new species identified.
It was difficult to come up with names for the new species when they were identified. Trigonopterus corona was an easy option, reflecting the significant influence of the COVID-19 epidemic on their research.
T. corona is just one among the many weevil species since the previous study done by the same team of scientists on the same island saw them describe a jaw-dropping 103 new species.
The new species is described in ZooKeys
Let’s Remember
Different anthropogenic activities have altered the smooth functioning of nature as we are starting to see the effects of human-induced climate change. This could alter the niches of many species eventually making them run for mere survival. As humans, we have the moral responsibility to protect every species to the best of our ability. Let’s do the best we can…
Also read: Why is fruit fly a model organism? -Drosophila melanogaster
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