7.19 Newly discovered species get their own league table
Newly
discovered species get their own league table
By Jonathan M. Gitlin |
Published: May 23, 2008 - 03:15PM CT
Although humankind's
knowledge has expanded greatly over the past century, there's still an awful
lot we don't know about the world we live in. There's much we still have to
learn about the oceans and the organisms and ecosystems that populate them and,
even on dry land, biologists are still finding new species in rain forests and
other habitats. To celebrate that fact, an international panel of taxonomists,
lead by Janine Caira, a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University
of Connecticut, has published a list
of the top ten new species described in 2007.
Nominations for the list were
gathered via the website of Arizona State University's International Institute
for Species Exploration (IISE), along with submissions from IISE staff and the
committee members. Criteria for inclusion were very broad, and included unique
features and even interesting names. Number one on the list, a sleeper ray
discovered off the coast of South Africa, certainly counts for the latter. The
ray, the largest of the electric rays, is named Electrolux addisoni, after the vacuum cleaner company. The
maker of domestic appliances hasn't started sponsoring species though; the name
was chosen both for the sucking action it employs to feed and the fact that
it's capable of delivering an electric shock. Others gain their place on the list for
varied reasons. There's a bright pink millipede from Thailand, Desmoxytes purpurosea, one of the most
venomous snakes ever discovered (where else but Australia) Oxyuranus temporalis, and a rather
fetching type of fruit bat, Styloctenium
mindorensis, found only on the Filipino island of Mindoro.
Australia contributes another
poisonous animal, this time a jellyfish, Malo
kingi, named after one of its unfortunate victims, Robert King, who
died after being stung off the coast of Queensland.
There's a beetle, Megaceras briansaltini, that's
remarkably similar to Dim, the blue rhinoceros beetle from Pixar's A Bug's Life, an Australian plant, Tecticornia bibenda, named for its
resemblance to Bibendum, the Michelin Man, plus a mushroom, Xerocomus silwoodensis, discovered on
one of the campuses of my alma mater, Imperial College in London.
Finally, there are two
species that make the list that are extinct. One, a duck-billed dinosaur, Gryposaurus monumentensis, dates back
to 75 million years ago. The other, a frog called Philautus maia, was described from a single specimen that
was collected nearly 150 years ago.
IISE has also released a
report, State of Observed Species,
covering the discovery of new species in 2006. Tens of thousands of species
were discovered that year, with the bulk being insects (8995) and vascular
plants (2057). The report and top ten list were specifically released today,
May 23rd, as it is also the birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, A Swedish botanist
who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.
