Monday, December 24, 2018

More Biological Discoveries

The International Institute for Species Exploration offers this list of the most interesting finds of 2018.


Protist (Ancoracysta Twista)
Atlantic Forest Tree (Dinizia Jueirana-Facao)
Amphipod (Epimeria Quasimodo)
Baffling Beetle (Nymphister Kronaueri)
Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo Tapanuliensis)
Swire's Snailfish (Pseudoliparis Swirei)
Heterotrophic Flower (Sciaphila Sugimotoi)
Volcanic Bacterium (Thiolava Veneris)
Marsupial Lion (Wakaleo Schouteni)
Cave Beetle (Xuedytes Bellus)
The "Best Name" Award goes to the Baffling Beetle, witch is exactly the size and shape of an ant's abdomen and rides on the real abdomen for transportation.  The new protist made the list because no one knows where it's from (it was found in an aquarium) and it was very hard to classify, having survived from some point way back in the one-celled evolution business.  The new orangutan was a reclassification, being both distinct and very rare (maybe 800 survive). new species of the extinct marsupial lion was another cool discovery (I'm not entirely convinced this lineage has gone extinct: reports of the mysterious yarri keep cropping up...) .  And the tree? Well, it's huge (40m tall) but overlooked in part because there are only about 25 of this Brazilian species in existence.

A whole lotta Nature is still out there... 

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