We have updated our list of newly discovered animal species in order to add a number of new species either discovered or reported on for the first time since the beginning of the year.
New Animal Species
All of the species on our updated list of new animals were discovered by scientists in one of two ways. Some were turned up the old-fashioned way: by researchers tirelessly hunting through rain forests, along the sides of mountains, across desserts, and beneath the surfaces of oceans, rivers, and streams. But, increasingly, new species of animals are discovered in laboratories, far from their natural habitats. This happens through genetic testing, as scientists compare the genes of two or more similar specimens and find that they they are actually separate species. Or, scientists examine the genes of an animal species they thought they understood, only to learn that the family tree of the species in question is actually quite different than we humans had supposed.
One case of the latter type of new species discovery is that of a canid that had always been called the Egyptian jackal (photo, above). Genetic testing recently indicated that what we’d thought was a jackal is actually an African wolf.
Other interesting new animals on our updated list are a spider species that produces the world’s strongest spider silk, a leach with teeth that came from a Peruvian girl’s nose, a tiny antelope that turned up in a meat market, a bee with the longest tongue of any bee species on the planet, and a monitor lizard that until now has escaped the attention of scientists by hiding in trees.
There’s lots more in new animals species; just click the link at the top of the article!
