It’s that time of year when scientific organizations take a look at some of the most amazing new animals, plants, fungi and other species they discovered in the past 12 months.
“Finding and describing new species is vital to understanding our planet’s biodiversity and protecting it from further loss,” said Shannon Bennett, chief scientist at the California Academy of Sciences. news release reporting 138 new species discoveries by its scientists in 2024. They range from a goby fish that lives in sponges in Indonesian waters to an endangered dahlia from Oaxaca, Mexico.
So far, only one in 10 of the world’s species have been discovered, Bennett said, and many of them may be important to the ecosystems in which they are found. “We cannot protect or care for what we do not know exists.”
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London reported the discovery of 190 new species in 2024but her list includes fossils in addition to living things, such as a scavenger moth and a vegetarian piranha named for its resemblance to the Eye of Sauron from lord of the rings trilogy.
Meanwhile, Kew Gardens in London and scholarly publisher Pensoft Each released top 10 lists of their favorite discoveries in the past year.
The science news release from 2024 also reveals some gems, including the world’s largest hummingbird and a new armadillo.
Here are some of the most interesting findings.
‘starry night’ gecko
This small lizard was found in the southwestern Ghats, a mountain range in India. In announcing the discovery in March, Ishan Agarwal, a researcher with the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, said its back reminded researchers of a famous work by 19th-century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. “The striking coloring of the new species is reminiscent of one of his most iconic paintings, Starry night.”
Description of the new, officially named species Cnemaspis vangoghiwas published in ZooKeys magazine. Her publisher, Pensoft, gave her the no. 1 on his list 10 Newest Species of 2024. He says they were chosen from new species described in her journals and not based on any particular criteria, but were “totally arbitrary” and “a fun way” to look back at the year’s weird and wonderful discoveries.
Aphelandra ‘black-souled’
Despite this plant’s spectacular pink flowers and spikes of up to 110 flowers each, Kew Gardens ranked it only third on its top 10 list. Found in the dry forests of northwestern Colombia, it is related to the zebra plant, a popular cultivated plant from Brazil. Like its relative, the new species, Aphelandra almanac, “has a lot of potential as a houseplant,” wrote Sebastian Kettley and Martin Cheek of Kew Gardens, who compiled the list. “Unfortunately, the clearing of its habitat means it is threatened with extinction.”
‘Eye of Sauron’ Fish
The Natural History Museum’s list includes a number of interesting discoveries, including a vegetarian piranha called pacu from the Xingu River in Brazil. Museum scientists were there to document the freshwater animals, including some as yet undiscovered, that may be affected by construction. the controversial Belo Monte dam. Rupert Collins, a senior curator of fish at the museum, said one of the reasons such dam projects get approval is because the number of unique species that would be affected is underestimated. “Basically, we don’t really know what lives in these places,” he said. The new pacu has been appointed Myloplus sauron due to its resemblance to the Eye of Sauron, from Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of JRR Tolkien lord of the rings trilogy.
Cadet cleaner moth
A girl named Daisy Cadet discovered this unusual moth in her living room in Port Talbot, Wales and posted it on Instagram. One of her followers suggested she get in touch with a British charity called Butterfly Conservation, who put her in touch with the Natural History Museum. Some sleuthing eventually revealed that it had sprung from a fragment of a seed pod stuck in the boot of Cadet’s mother, Ashleigh, a professional photographer, when she flew home from an assignment in central Guyana. Mark Sterling, a Natural History Museum researcher, helped identify it as a scavenger moth and name the new species Carmenta brachyclados, announcing the discovery in October.
A fish that lives in a sponge
Scientists at the California Academy of Sciences, based in San Francisco, discovered 35 new fish in 2024, including this goby from Indonesian waters. While its closest relatives are free-living fish that live on shallow sea floors less than 10 meters deep, the new species, Bathygobius meromakes its home in a large barrel sponge in deeper waters, between nine and 30 meters below the surface.
The largest hummingbird in the world
While large animals are often easier to spot than small ones, it took until 2024 to discover the southern giant hummingbird, the world’s largest. It turns out that a different species of giant hummingbird led scientists to the discovery. Known types, Giga Patagonabreeds along the Pacific coast of central Chile, but disappears after the breeding season. Researchers at the University of New Mexico, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad in Peru decided to track them by attaching mini GPS backpacks. They found that the birds fly high in the Andes, as far north as Peru. There, they hang out among an even larger giant hummingbird, the new species, which lives at high altitudes year-round. The new species has been named Patagonia chaski after the chaski messenger of the Inca empire.
New Andes glass frog
A translucent green frog with lavender eyes was among two new species of glass frog found in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Glass frogs are a group of amphibians whose hearts can be seen beating through their transparent abdomens. The most widespread was thought to be Buckley’s glass frog, found throughout much of the tropical Andes. But new research published in August showed that what was thought to be one species was actually several, with distinct physical traits, calls and genetics. One of the new species, pictured above, has been named the Marco Reyes glass frog. Centrolen marcoreyesiafter a late renowned herpetologist at Ecuador’s National Biodiversity Institute.
Guiana long-nosed armadillo
The new species of 2024 include a number of mammals, including rats, mice and the first new species of armadillo in 30 years. Like Buckley’s glass frogs, nine-banded armadillos were thought to have a large range. But genetic testing shows they are actually four species, including one that is slightly larger than the other three and lives in a part of northeastern South America called the Guiana Shield — the Guiana long-nosed armadillo. Dasypus guianensis.
New parasitoid wasp from Texas
While many of these new species were found in fairly exotic locations, there are new creatures waiting to be discovered in North American cities as well. A new species of wasp, Chrysonotomyia susbelliwas found on the campus of Rice University in Houston. “You don’t have to travel to a remote rainforest to find new and beautiful things — you just have to go out and look,” said Scott Egan, an associate professor of biosciences. The wasp was found inside galls, tumor-like growths created by a gall wasp called Neuroterus bussaein southern live oak leaves. It belongs to a group of parasitoid wasps, which prey on the larvae of other insects, but is the first of its genus known to target that type of gall wasp.
