Imagine a spider about the size of a standard-sized CD!  Researchers have discovered a rare super-sized spider.

Once thought to be extinct, the first Nephila komaci spider was first found in an old museum collection in South Africa in 2000.  A few years later, another specimen was found at a museum in Austria.  No other specimens were found until two females and one male were found in the Tembe Elephant Park in Africa.  The discovery is the first new Nephila species since 1879.

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In the Australian outbacks, 18 scientists have just discovered over 850 new species living underground.

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A team of biologists and filmmakers have discovered new species of rats, spiders, fish and frogs on a recent expedition deep inside the jungle of Papua New Guinea.  The team discovered many exotic creatures, including a ginormous rat, while filming the BBC’s Lost Land of the Volcano.  

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There are all kinds of amazing creatures under the sea.   Scientists have discovered a strange new species of worm-like creatures that put on quite a colorful display when threatened.   Scientists believe the worms, nicknamed “green bombers,” release fluid-filled balloons or spheres from their body as a defense mechanism to distract or confuse prey. 

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Ecologists and biologist who study the world’s flora and fauna have been reporting a species decline amongst amphibians for over a decade or more. This decline has been attributed to a combination of habitat loss and diseases (a fungus pandemic, a virus). A 2007 paper (Becker, et al) made a case for “habitat splitting” wherein certain Brazilian, Amazon frog species that are born in water, but then occupy land ecosystems as adults, are “cut off” from making this transition, due to human road building and development.

And yet, despite this trend, there remain biological (or biodiversity) “hot spots” around the globe in which a great many amphibian species are found to be thriving in the same ecosystem. In some cases, such hot spots offer potentially hundreds of new species for discovery and analysis. One such hot spot is the island of Madagascar. It is an “Eden” for amphibians.

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Isalo National Park, Madagascar (photo: Bernard Gagnon)

160 million years ago, what is now called Madagascar–the world’s fourth largest island–broke free from its parent continent (Africa), allowing evolution to do some of its most creative work.

The Island, located just off the Southeast coast of Africa and roughly the size of California, is home to an amazing array of life-forms found no where else: bats (with suction cup “elbows”), the Silky Sifaka lemur (an ancient line of primate relatives), dozens of “new” species of scorpions and spiders, and an estimated 200 - 400 new species of frog (most of which have yet to be named). There are also numerous, unique species of plants. An estimated 80% of these new species (especially the frogs) exist only in protected areas of Madagascar’s remaining rain forests.

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A new species of monitor lizard closely related to the Komodo dragon has been discovered by German scientists in Indonesia.

The discovery was made after close examination of the new specimen using morphological characteristics and DNA analysis. Taxonomically classified as Varanus lirungensis, the new species “illustrates the high diversity of monitor lizards in Indonesia,” according to André Koch, who found the lizard.

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A new species of Samoan fruit bat or ‘flying fox’ was discovered at the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia by Kristofer M. Helgen, a Research Zoologist and Curator of Mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Helgen, the lead author of the paper published in American Museum Novitates, noticed the bat within one hour of being on the premises of the Academy of Sciences. (There are about 17 million biological specimens housed at the Academy.)

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University of Georgia researchers discovered a two inch long salamander near Toccoa, Georgia. It is reportedly the first discovery of a new four-footed species in the US in fifty years. 

It was in the spring of 2007 that the salamander was first discovered, but the details have not been published until this year, in the Journal of Zoology. The first one to be spotted was a female, and later the researchers returned to the creek area of the first discovery, and found a male.

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Phallus drewesii, named after Dr. Robert Drewes of the California Academy of Sciences, is a 2 inch long phallus-shaped mushroom that grows on wood, smells like rotting meat and curves awkwardly downward.

Upon discovering that the new species would be named after him, Drewes remarked: “It is a wonderful honour and great fun to have this phallus-shaped fungus named after me. I have been immortalized in the scientific record.”

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A publication from the Botanical Insitute of India reported that over 100 new plant species were discovered in India. One hundred and thirty seven are new to science, and 30 were discovered in India for the first time. “The Indian flora is mainly concentrated in three major centres of diversity namely Himalayas, the Western Ghats and Andaman and Nicobar islands. The discoveries reflect the potential of the country’s plant heritage which is yet to be explored,”  said BSI director M Sanjappa.

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species from the animalia kingdom

The Top Ten List of New Species

The Top 10 New Species List is chosen by a twelve person panel of international taxon experts chaired by Dr. Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut. The species in the list is selected from the thousands of species that were fully described in the calendar year. Nominations from the public, IISE staff and committee members are judged by the committee which has complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria. The object though is to cover a breadth of species attributes and importance.

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A tree that used to have a No Parking Sign nailed to its trunk has been discovered to be a new species.

Fourteen new trees have been discovered by botanists from Wales and England. The former No Parking sign tree lives in Devon between two close villages, Lynmouth and Lynton.

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World Species Survey details gloomy outlook for many animal species.In early October of 2008, the results of a global species  survey, conducted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, were released.  The numbers are startling:

• At least a quarter of mammal species are headed toward extinction in the near future.
• Nearly 80 percent of the primate species in southern and southeastern Asia are immediately threatened.
• At least 22 percent of reptile species are at risk of extinction.
• Perhaps 40 percent of North American freshwater fish are threatened.
• In Europe, 45 percent of the most common bird species are rapidly declining, and so are the most common bird species in North America.

But perhaps these figures are a bit too abstract. Here’s a more precise way to look at the present state of bio-diversity on Earth.

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The astounding discoveries of creatures never thought to have existed were found in waters up to 3,000 metres deep, among scores of extinct volcanoes whose great mountains and canyons provide vital, thriving habitats.

Image: Wikimedia Commons