NEW DELHI: Researchers added 133 new plant and animal species to the family tree in 2016, enriching our understanding of Earth’s complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions, according to at a release issued by the California Academy of Sciences.
The new species include one bee fly, 43 ants, 36 beetles, one sand wasp, four spiders, six plants, 23 fishes, one eel, one shark, seven nudibranchs, five fossil urchins (and one fossil sand dollar), one coral, one skate, one African lizard, and an alarming new bird virus.
Proving that our planet contains unexplored places with never-before-recorded plants and animals (with their own set of evolving viruses), the scientists made their finds over five continents and three oceans, ventured into vast deserts, plunged beneath the sea, and scoured thick rainforests and towering mountain ranges.
“Biodiversity scientists estimate that we have discovered less than 10 per cent of the species on our planet,” says Dr Shannon Bennett, Academy Chief of Science. ”
Even the tiniest organism,” she adds, “can be beautiful and important.” Among the 133, an interesting species is a pink-and-yellow fish, Grammatonotus brianne — an eye-popping species of groppo which is the deepest new fish discovery ever made by human hands.
It was captured on film 487 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. Another was the discovery of a whopping 43 new ants species (and a crowd of blood-sucking “Draculas”) Called Stigmatomma — “Dracula ants” build tiny, few-chambered colonies (generally no larger than a dime) beneath the soil.
In a bizarre but fascinating means of distributing nutrients throughout the colony, ants from this group are known to wound their colonies’ babies before drinking their blood – a substance called “hemolymph” in insects.
An elongated jaw with two large pincers also allows the ants to grasp prey mostly comprised of centipedes, but also beetle larvae. All around us, insects flit, hover, and buzz about, but one family – the bee flies (Bombyliidae sp) -may cause passersby to look twice.
The nearly 5,000 species that make up this fly group imitate a wide range of relatives, from delicate honey bees to menacing wasps and spiders.
A new species discovered from Madagascar and named Thevenetimyia spinosavus (which translates to “thorny grandfather”) is a gray-haired bee fly.
This year, scientists uncovered a fascinating new clue in the global mystery surrounding wild birds with grossly deformed beaks.
A team of researchers identified a new virus that has been linked to Avian Keratin Disorder (AKD), a disease responsible for debilitating beak overgrowth and whose cause has remained elusive despite more than a decade of research.
And amid outcroppings of granite in the arid, sloping lowlands of southern Angola, a newly discovered species of lizard wedges itself into particularly tight crevices, head-first.
Only threatening spines are left exposed along its body and tail to deter approaching predators.
Despite this clever maneuver, there was no escaping discovery by Dr Edward Stanley, Academy herpetology research associate, who suspected this particular lizard might differ from known species in the area.
Stanley formally described this new species of armored lizard with the aid of CT scans, a type of imaging technology that combines a series of x-rays to reveal information about the lizard’s uniquely armored body.
Scans revealed that the tiny, bony spikes of Cordylus namakuiyus are actually embedded in the lizard’s skin rather than attached to the skeleton itself. (AGENCIES)
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