Vampire hedgehog, Pygmy pipehorse, “blob-headed” fish among new species identified in 2024

A vampire hedgehog, a pygmy horse and a “spotted head” fish were among hundreds of new species identified in 2024.

The variety of species identified was quite eclectic and the names of the new species crossed a wide spectrum of locations and formations, some even inspired by politicians or celebrities.

A new insect species was named after Vice President Kamala Harris (P. kamalaharrisae) and another after Harrison Ford (P. harrisonfordi) for their commitments to climate science and conservation, said California Academy of Sciences researcher Brad Balukjian, who introduced 17 new species to the Pseudoloxops family from French Polynesia.

Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio had a new species of snake named after him. researchers discovered the small copper colored snake in the Himalayas and named the species Anguiculus dicaprioi.

Places where scientists discovered these species included Peru, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the Greater Mekong region of South Asia. California Academy of Sciences they said their scientists made discoveries on six continents and three oceans, which led to the description of 138 new species of animals, plants and fungi.

“Finding and describing new species is vital to understanding our planet’s biodiversity and protecting it from further loss,” said virologist Shannon Bennett, chief science officer at the California Academy of Sciences.

The number of new species identified in 2024 cannot be counted or determined by a single list. Researchers present their findings in various articles, conferences and among the scientific community. Inclusion becomes misleading because discoveries can be made by anyone, anywhere, but by describing and identifying a new species it requires a scientific process.

This process involves studying and analyzing the new specimen and similar organisms, and then assigning a new name to the species. A species may be discovered, but not necessarily described until years later.

Bennett told CBS News that when scientists describe a new species, they compare it to “a popping ball.” For the first time, Bennett said, the species is correctly identified and finally has its place in the world.

Regardless, Bennett said that “scientists estimate that we have identified only about one-tenth of all species on Earth.”

Here are some of the highlights of 2024.

Vampire hedgehog, a soft-skinned hedgehog with “fang-like teeth”

according to a WWF report234 species have been identified this year in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Among them was Hylomys macaronga vampire hedgehog The smooth-skinned hedgehog with fang-like teeth inspired its scientific name. The word Ma cà rồng is Vietnamese for “vampire”.

First photographed in 2009 in the wild in Vietnam by a team from the Russian Vietnamese Research Center, the vampire hedgehog was identified as a new species as part of an international effort to revise the taxonomy of lesser gymnosperms, said the WWF.

The specimens that helped describe the vampire hedgehog were housed at the Smithsonian, researcher Arlo Hinckley told WWF. He stressed the importance of keeping specimens collected from “poorly sampled regions” so that “the next generation” of researchers will make new discoveries that may have been overlooked.

Pygmy horse, found on the coast of South Africa

Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences knew they might discover something new after local divers in South Africa’s Sodwana Bay told them about an unknown species. But scientists were worried they wouldn’t be able to detect the tiny pygmy horse, about the size of a golf tee.

“South African reefs have notoriously difficult diving conditions with difficult weather and intense, choppy waves – we knew we only had one dive to find it,” said scientist and study co-author Richard Smith. in a press release earlier this month.

But Smith and Graham Short, the scientist who originally described the pygmy genus Cylix in 2021, they were not discouraged, according to the academy. The pygmy horse was originally found in the cool temperate waters surrounding the North Island of New Zealand. The discovery of a new species in subtropical waters expanded the group’s reach.

“Fortunately, we spotted a female camouflaged against some sponges about a mile offshore on the ocean floor,” Smith said in the news release.

They named the new species pygmy horse C. the kingafter the local Zulu word for “head,” the academy said.

Spotted head fish baffle researchers

Among the eight new species of fish identified in Peru’s Alt Mayor region this year, the most striking was the “spotted head fish.” seconds a report published this month by the non-profit group Conservation International.

In the summer of 2022, the group’s Rapid Assessment Program researchers conducted a biological survey of a largely unstudied area in the central Alto May region and found what were later determined to be at least 27 species new to science and 49 species threatened with extinction. , according to IUCN Red List.

Among those who were new it was a “fish with a spotted head” in the Chaetostoma genus, which includes the armored catfish. The team’s fish scientists had never seen a fish with a head like an enlarged blob before, Conservation International said.

“The function of this unusual structure remains a mystery,” the researchers said in a statement.

However, researchers said the species was already familiar to Awajun indigenous people working with the Rapid Assessment Program.