Taxonomy experts at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) selected the top 10 from among the estimated 18,000 new species named during 2015 and released the list to coincide with the May 23 birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, an 18th century Swedish botanist who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.
Homo naledi, a species of extinct hominin whose fossil skeletons were discovered in the Rising Star cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa:
A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.
Fossil remains of Homo naledi represent at least 15 different individuals, the largest collection of remains of a single species of hominin ever discovered on the African continent.
Anatomical features of this species are a mixture of those of Australopithecus with other Homo species, combined with several features not known in any hominin species.
Features shared with other Homo species include complex functional locomotion, manipulation and mastication systems.
With humanlike hands and feet, Homo naledi had a tiny brain, about the size of an average orange (about 500 cubic cm).
The species stood approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) tall and weighed about 45 kg. Its teeth are described as similar to those of the earliest-known members of our genus, such as Homo habilis, as are most features of the skull. The shoulders, however, are more similar to those of apes.
The exact age of the remains, once determined, will have implications for the early history of the genus Homo.
The Eastern Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra ssp. donfaustoi), a subspecies of Galapagos giant tortoise:
The Eastern Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra ssp. donfaustoi). Image credit: Washington Tapia.
The Eastern Santa Cruz tortoise is found only on the island of Santa Cruz, Galapagos Archipelago.
The new subspecies was named in honor of Galapagos National Park ranger Fausto Llerena Sánchez, known to his friends and colleagues as Don Fausto, who worked 43 years to conserve the giant tortoises of Galapagos.
Lasiognathus dinema, a species of anglerfish from the deep waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico:
Lasiognathus dinema, female about 30 mm long. Image credit: Theodore Pietsch.
Different species of anglerfish can be distinguished visually only by details of the unusual structure called the esca that is projected over their heads like a fishing pole. This organ is located at the tip of a highly modified, elongated dorsal ray. The esca in some anglerfish is home to symbiotic bacteria that are bioluminescent.
Lasiognathus dinema lives at depths ranging between 3,280 and 4,900 feet (1,000 and 1,500 m).
Only three individuals of this species – all females – were collected. They ranged in size from 1.2 to 3.7 inches (3 to 9.5 cm) in length.
The ruby seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea), a species of seadragon from Western Australia:
The ruby seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea). Image credit: Western Australian Museum.
Seadragons are related to seahorses and are a unique combination of beautiful and bizarre.
The ruby seadragon, 10 inches (24 cm) in length, is a striking shade of ruby red with pink vertical bars and light markings on its snout.
It is only the third known species of seadragon and the first to be discovered in 150 years.
The holotype specimen was trawled east of the remote Recherche Archipelago in 51 m, additional specimens extend the distribution west to Perth in 72 m.
Scientists believe the species’ coloring suggests it inhabits deeper waters than other seadragon species, as the red shading would be absorbed at depth and effectively serve as camouflage.
Pliobates cataloniae, a species of small-bodied ape that lived about 11.6 million years ago in what is now Spain:
Pliobates cataloniae lived in what is now Spain during the Miocene epoch, approximately 11.6 million years ago. Image credit: Marta Palmero / Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont.
Fragments of female Pliobates cataloniae were discovered in a landfill in Catalonia, and the species has challenged a lot of assumptions about the origins of, and relations among, living apes, gibbons and humans.
According to paleontologists, Pliobates cataloniae was 4 to 5 kg in weight, suggesting a diminutive height of about 17 inches (43 cm).
The species lived before the lineage containing humans and great apes had diverged from its sister branch, the gibbons, and it appears to be sister to the three combined. The discovery suggests greater morphological diversity existed at that time, in the Miocene, than previously thought, and raises the possibility that early humans could have been more closely related to gibbons than the great apes.
Drosera magnifica, the largest New World sundew:
Drosera magnifica. Image credit: Paulo Gonella / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Drosera magnifica is believed to be the first new species of plant discovered through photographs posted on Facebook. It is also a record-setter, being the largest sundew ever seen in the New World, growing to 48 inches (1.23 m).
With nearly 200 species, the sundew genus is one of the most species-rich groups of carnivorous plants. Like other sundews, Drosera magnifica secretes thick mucus on the surface of its leaves that entraps unsuspecting insects that are then digested to compensate for the inadequate nutrition available in the soils in which it grows.
The species is a microendemic, known to exist only at the summit of a single mountain in Brazil, 5,000 feet (1,550 m) above sea level.
Iuiuniscus iuiuensis, a species of amphibious isopod from a cave in the State of Bahia, Brazil:
Iuiuniscus iuiuensis. Image credit: Leila A. Souza et al.
Iuiuniscus iuiuensis, a blind, unpigmented, multilegged animal, has a behavior never seen before in its family: it constructs shelters of mud.
The cave where the species was discovered has its only entrance at the bottom of a sinkhole and its inner chambers are flooded during the rainy season. Eight other caves in the region were explored, but the new species was found in only one.
Iuiuniscus iuiuensis, just over a third of an inch (9 mm) in length, builds spherical, irregularly shaped shelters in which it molts. While shedding its exoskeleton, it is especially vulnerable to predators. Some Palearctic isopods are known to build shelters, but this is a first for the New World.
The species is unique among its Brazilian cave-inhabiting relatives in having tapering plates at the base of its legs that give it a spiny appearance.
Phytotelmatrichis osopaddington, a species of beetle from Peru:
Phytotelmatrichis osopaddington. Image credit: Michael Darby / Caroline S. Chaboo.
Phytotelmatrichis osopaddington owes its charming Latin name to Paddington Bear, a lovable character who became a classic in children’s literature after he was introduced in 1958. As the story goes, he showed up one day in Paddington Station, London, with a sign that said, “Please look after this bear.” Like him, the new beetle hails from Peru.
Scientists hope the species’ name will draw attention to the threatened Andean spectacled bear that inspired the Paddington books.
Nearly 25 of these tiny beetles could line up, head to tail, before they reached the one-inch mark on a yardstick. They have a peculiar way of life. A little-studied world of animals, from insects to frogs, make their homes in pools of water that accumulate in hollows of plants, such as tree holes and the leaf bases of bromeliads; these water bodies are called phytotelmata. This species was discovered in such water, gathered in leaf rolls of a non-native, cultivated plant, sparking questions about its food, breeding and native hosts.
Sirdavidia solannona, a genus and species of flowering plant from Gabon:
Flower of Sirdavidia solannona. Image credit: Thomas Couvreur.
Sirdavidia solannona’s small size, less than 20 feet (6 m) high with a diameter of 4 inches (10 cm) might have caused it to be overlooked during inventories that focus on larger trees.
The species is endemic to Gabon, with only three known localities: two near the Kinguele dam in the Monts de Cristal National Park, and one south of the Ivindo National Park. It is so different from related members of the Annonaceae family, based on both morphology and molecular data, that it was described as a new genus, too.
The genus name, Sirdavidia, honors Sir David Attenborough, for his influence on the life and careers of the scientists who discovered it.
Umma gumma, a species of damselfly from Gabon:
Umma gumma, male. Image credit: Jens Kipping.
Umma gumma is just one of a staggering number of newly-discovered dragonflies and damselflies from Africa. 60 new species were reported in a single publication in the journal Odonatologica, the most for any single paper in more than a century and a surprising leap forward in knowledge for one of the better-known insect orders.
Most of the species are colorful and so distinct they are identifiable from photographs alone, emphasizing that not all unknown species are small, indistinct or cryptic in appearance or habits.
Given that the genus name is Umma, it was quick work to give this lovely and delicate damselfly a name that might be familiar to rock-and-roll fans: the band Pink Floyd named its 1969 double album Ummagumma.
