The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University has published their annual list of the Top 10 New Species. Among them is a leaf shaped bug, monkey with human-like eyes, meat-eating sponge, penny-sized plant and a glowing cockroach.
Other species on the list include a snail-eating snake, black fungus staining the walls of the Lascaux Cave in France, the world's smallest vertebrate, endangered magenta flowers and a butterfly discovered using social media.
This is the sixth year the list has been published and it has once again been announced on the birth-date anniversary of Carolus Linnaeus---an 18th century botanist who created the modern system for naming and classifying new species. The list was gathered from over 140 nominated species named in 2012.
"We look for organisms with unexpected features or size and those found in rare or difficult to reach habitats," said Antonio Valdecasas, a biologist and research zoologist with Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and the committee chair for the list.
"We also look for organisms that are especially significant to humans those that play a certain role in human habitat or that are considered a close relative."
The committee states that finding and identifying these species is critical, especially to the ones that are threatened or endangered.
"For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace," said Quentin Wheeler, the founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University.
"We are calling for a NASA-like mission to discover 10 million species in the next 50 years."
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