Top 10 new species announced

I'm not sure how one picks the Top 10 out of 18,000 species discovered in the past year, but the International Institute for Species Exploration has taken a shot.  In no particular order, they include one impossibly cute mammal (the Olinguito), one tree, one bizarre-looking lizard, and a microbe found - believe it or not - in two spacecraft-assembly clean rooms on different continents. Fish and birds lost out this year (they were discovered, but didn't rate placement on the list.  It is appropriate that the international committee involved made sure the invertebrates were dominant, since, in terms of total species and new species discovered, they always are.)

The list is released every year on the birthday of Carl Linnaeus, the creator of modern taxonomy.

Olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)

Kaweesak's Dragon Tree (Dracaena kaweesakii)

ANDRILL Anemone (Edwardsiella andrillae)

Skeleton Shrimp (Liropus minusculus)

Orange Penicillium (Penicillium vanoranjei)

Leaf-tailed Gecko (Saltuarius eximius)

Amoeboid Protist (Spiculosiphon oceana)

Clean Room Microbes (Tersicoccus phoenicis)

Tinkerbell Fairyfly (Tinkerbella nana)

Domed Land Snail (Zospeum tholussum)