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In 2023, nearly 1,000 new species were discovered by scientists at the Natural History Museum of London and the California Academy of Sciences; This proves that the Earth is still home to many undiscovered wonders.
The discoveries were made in a year marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which provides protections for threatened plants and animals and helped save hundreds of species, according to Scott Sampson, executive director of the California Academy of Sciences.
“But one million more species remain endangered due to human-caused activities such as habitat destruction, climate change and pollution,” Sampson said in a statement. “We need to document Earth’s biodiversity so we can work to preserve it, and the California Academy of Sciences is honored to take part in this critical global effort.”
The extensive list of 968 new species includes previously unknown dinosaurs and extinct creatures, insects, moths, sea slugs, lizards, fish, frogs, spiders, plants, fungi, worms and a legless skink.
Pest control-wasps
Scientists will probably remember 2023 as the year of the bumblebee. Of the 815 new species identified this year by Natural History Museum researchers, 619 were different types of pollinating, predatory and parasitic wasps.
The extraordinary number of discoveries was made possible by scientific partners of the Museum of Natural History, Dr. It was further increased thanks to the work of John Noyes and Christer Hansson.
“It’s important to continue to identify new species because many of them will have profound impacts on their environments, and we can’t convey any information about them unless we know what to call them,” Noyes said.
Some of the new bumblebee species display a variety of metallic hues, including blue, purple and orange. Noyes, a “Doctor Who” fan who paid homage to the British television series celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023, named a species of wasp after the show’s fictional mutant villains and creators called Daleks.
While wasps may seem like nuisances armed with their stingers, the insects help control pest populations that can damage agricultural crops.
“Three types of issues have been incredibly important over the past 60 years. One is to prevent the possible starvation of nearly 300 million people in Africa, the second is to prevent the destruction of rainforests in Thailand, and the other is to prevent the collapse of Togo’s economy.” said Noyes.
A legless lizard
A new species of legless lizard was found on the slopes of Serra da Neve, Angola’s second highest mountain. The legless lizards, known as skinks, resemble snakes and hide among leaves on the forest floor to hunt insects and other small prey.
Skinks differ from snakes in that they have external ear openings and movable eyelids, according to the Virginia Zoo.
While most skinks are the same color, the newly identified Acontias mukwando has a pink ring around its neck.
Serra da Neve provides a unique ecosystem for unusual plants and animals that live only on the isolated summit. The mountain is located at the northern end of the Namib Desert and has a cool, moist environment.
“Each new species we identify on this mountain, and others like it, is proof that places like these deserve some form of conservation consideration,” Academy of Sciences research fellow Aaron Bauer said in a statement. “We’re still finding new species on these isolated ‘islands’, which tells us it’s not too late for conservation.”
amazing plants
Scientists from the National Polytechnic Institute in Durango, Mexico, worked with Academy of Sciences researchers to study a rare succulent plant in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range.
The plant, which grows on the edge of the cliffs, has long been known to the local O’dam Native community. The O’dam people call the plant with bald leaves and stems da’npakal, which means bald, bare or slippery in their language.
The researchers named the succulent Pachyphytum odam to maintain the connection between the plant and the community living in the soil where it grows.
Meanwhile, scientists have solved a case of mistaken identity for a flowering plant in Costa Rica. For more than 150 years, the plant was thought to belong to a similar but separate species in Mexico.
The newly identified plant Stenostephanus purpureus is different from the plant Stenostephanus silvaticus found in Mexico. The flowers are different colors, and the Costa Rican plant is missing a flat petal that often serves as a landing site for pollen-collecting butterflies and other insects. Hummingbirds are likely to pollinate Stenostephanus purpureus instead.
“I never questioned the identification of the Costa Rican specimens until I made a side-by-side comparison with images of living plants in Mexico,” Academy of Sciences researcher Ricardo Kriebel said in a statement. “When working with dead, dry specimens in collections, the differences between the two are very subtle.”
A new look at the past
Researchers at the Natural History Museum have identified four new extinct bird species by examining fossils, including those that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. One of the most intriguing discoveries of the year was Kumimanu fordycei, the largest penguin to ever exist on Earth. The flightless birds lived 60 million years ago and weighed an estimated 330 pounds (150 kilograms).
A previously unknown species of armored dinosaur has also been found on the Isle of Wight. Known as the Dinosaur Isle, the Isle of Wight is considered one of the best places to find dinosaur fossils in the UK.
The ankylosaur that lived on the island 140 million years ago was named Vectipelta barretti in honor of Natural History Museum professor Paul Barrett.
Examining new species in the museum, paleontologist Dr. “Paul has been incredibly influential in our discipline,” Susannah Maidment said in a statement. “He is incredibly high-profile and has made tremendous contributions to the field. But he also had an absolutely tremendous impact on our entire career and we wanted to thank him for that. “So we decided to name a small, slow-moving, spiny organism after him.”
Researchers also named an ancient mushroom after beloved children’s book author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. The 400-million-year-old Potteromyces asteroxylicola, which was found to infect the roots of fossilized plants, is the oldest known disease-causing fungus. In addition to writing the Peter Rabbit books, Potter was an avid mycologist who researched and created detailed depictions of mushrooms.
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