It’s the time of year when scientific organizations look back at some of the most amazing new animals, plants, fungi and other species they’ve discovered over the past 12 months.
“Finding and describing new species is vital to understanding our planet’s biodiversity and protecting it against further losses,” Shannon Bennettchief scientist of the California Academy of Sciences, said in a press release reporting 138 new species discoveries by its scientists in 2024. They range from a fish called a goby that lives in sponges in Indonesian waters to an endangered dahlia from Oaxaca, Mexico.
Bennett said that so far only a tenth of the world’s species have been discovered, and many of these could be important to the ecosystems in which they occur. “We cannot protect or care about what we do not know exists.”
Scientists from the Natural History Museum in London declared to have discovered 190 new species in 2024but his list includes fossils in addition to living things such as a light-winged moth and a vegetarian piranha named for its resemblance to the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In the meantime, Kew Gardens in London and scientific editor Pensoft each posted their top 10 favorite discoveries over the past year.
The 2024 science press release also reveals some gems, including the world’s largest hummingbird and a new armadillo.
Here are some of the coolest finds.
“Starry Night” Gecko
This small lizard was found in the Southwestern Ghats, a mountain range in India. Announcing the discovery in March, Ishan Agarwal, a researcher at the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, said its back reminded researchers of a famous work by 19th-century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. “The new species’ striking coloration is reminiscent of one of its most iconic paintings, The starry night“.
The description of the new species, officially named Cnemaspis vangoghiwas published in the journal ZooKeys. Its publisher, Pensoft, ranked it first on its list of top 10 new species of 2024. He claims that they were chosen from new species described in his journals and not on the basis of any particular criteria, but that they were “entirely arbitrary” and “a fun way” to look back on the weird and wonderful discoveries of the ‘year.
Aphelandra “with a black soul”
Despite the spectacular pink flowers and spikes of up to 110 flowers each, Kew Gardens ranked it third in its top 10. Found in the dry forests of northwest Colombia, it is related to the zebra plant, a popular cultivated plant from Brazil. Like its relative, the new species, Aphelandra almanegre, “has a lot of potential as a houseplant,” wrote Sebastian Kettley and Martin Cheek of Kew Gardens, who compiled the list. “Unfortunately, the destruction of its habitat means it is at risk of extinction.”
Fish ‘Eye of Sauron’
The Natural History Museum’s list includes a number of interesting finds, including a vegetarian piranha called pacu from the Xingu River in Brazil. Museum scientists were on hand to document freshwater animals, some of which have not yet been discovered, that could be affected by the construction of the Controversial Belo Monte Dam. Rupert Collins, senior curator of fish at the museum, said one reason such dam projects get the green light 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 named Myloplus Sauron due to its resemblance to the Eye of Sauron, from Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of JRR Tolkien’s novel Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Cadet Moth
A girl named Daisy Cadet discovered this unusual butterfly in her living room in Port Talbot, Wales, and posted it on Instagram. One of her supporters suggested contacting a British charity called Butterfly Conservation, which put her in touch with the Natural History Museum. Some investigations eventually revealed that he was born from a pod fragment stuck in the boot of Cadet’s mother, Ashleigh, a professional photographer, as she returned home from an assignment in central Guyana. Mark Sterling, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, helped identify it as a light-winged butterfly 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, have discovered 35 new fish in 2024, including this goby from Indonesian waters. While its close relatives are fish living freely on shallow seabeds, less than 10 meters deep, the new species, Bathygobius merosettles in a large barrel-shaped sponge in deeper water, between nine and 30 meters below the surface.
The biggest hummingbird in the world
Although large animals are often easier to spot than small ones, we had to wait until 2024 to discover the southern giant hummingbird, the largest in the world. It turns out it was a different species of giant hummingbird that led scientists to this discovery. The known species, Gigas of Patagonabreeds along the Pacific coast of central Chile but disappears after the breeding season. Researchers from the University of New Mexico, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad in Peru decided to track them by attaching mini GPS backpacks. They discovered that the birds flew high in the Andes, as far north as Peru. There, they hang out among an even larger giant hummingbird, the new species, which lives year-round at high altitudes. The new species was named Patagonian chaski according to the Chaski messenger of the Inca empire.
New Andean glass frog
A translucent green frog with lavender eyes was one of two new species of glass frogs found in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Glass frogs are a group of amphibians whose hearts can be seen beating through their translucent bellies. The most widespread Buckley’s glass frog was thought to occur across much of the tropical Andes. But new research published in August showed that what was thought to be a single species was actually several, with distinct physical characteristics, calls, and genetics. One of the new species, pictured above, has been named the Marco Reyes glass frog, Centrolene marcoreyesinamed after a well-known herpetologist from the National Biodiversity Institute of Ecuador.
Guiana long-nosed armadillo
New species for 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 wide range. But genetic testing shows that they are actually four species, including one that is a bit larger than the other three and lives in a part of northeastern South America called the Guiana Shield – the Guyanese long-nosed armadillo, Dasypus guianensis.
New parasitoid wasp from Texas
Although many of these new species have been discovered in quite exotic locations, new creatures are waiting to be discovered even in North American cities. A new species of wasp, Chrysonotomyia susbelliwas discovered on the campus of Rice University in Houston. “You don’t need to travel to a distant rainforest to find new and beautiful things — you just have to go out and look,” said Scott Egan, associate professor of biosciences. The wasp was found inside galls, tumor-like growths, created by a gall wasp called Neuroterus bussaeon the leaves of southern holm oaks. It belongs to a group of parasitoid wasps, which feed on the larvae of other insects, but is the first of its kind known to target this type of gall wasp.
