Monkey with 'human eyes' among top discoveries of 2012
A list of the oddest and most enigmatic new creatures to be discovered in the natural world last year has compiled by scientists.
From a snail-eating snake that pretends to be poisonous to a monkey with a blue bottom and human-like eyes, the new species provide a glimpse of how much scientists have still to learn about life on Earth.
They estimate that there are up to 10 million species still left to be discovered on our planet and are now calling for a major new push to identify them over the next 50 years.
Last year, there were 18,000 new species registered with the International Institute for Species Exploration, based at Arizona State University.
A committee of international scientists has now selected a top ten list of the most unusual and exceptional identified during 2012.
Among those they picked out is the Lesula monkey, a shy monkey discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The monkey has a loud call that can be heard at dawn across the rain forests where it lives and the scientists who discovered it describe the animal as having eyes that are human in appearance.
Adult males also have a distinctive patch of brilliant blue skin on their buttocks.
They also identified a striped snake from the highland rainforests of western Panama that eats snails, slugs and earthworms.
Called Sibon noalamina, it looks identical to the venomous coral snake, which may help protect it from predators.
"I don't know whether to be more astounded by the species discovered each year, or the depths of our ignorance about biodiversity of which we are a part," said Professor Quentin Wheeler, founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration.
Among the other species highlighted by the scientists is the world’s smallest vertebrate - a tiny species of frog discovered in Papua New Guinea, called Paedophryne amanuensis, that measures just seven millimetres.
A black stain fund growing on the walls of a cave decorated with prehistoric art has also been identified as a new species of fungus.
The fungus, called Ochroconis anomala, was found to be spreading over an area of Palaeolithic rock art in the Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne area of France.
Some of the creatures on the list were found decades ago but have only recently been recognised as new species, such as a large cockroach that glows in the dark called Lucihormetica luckae.
A specimen of this otherwise dark brown insect was collected 70 years ago in the shadow of the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador, but not recognised as a new species.
By looking at it in the dark, however, scientist found that it has two “lamps” in its head that are luminescent due to bacteria contained within special sacks there. It is thought to be mimicking a toxic species of luminescent beetle.
Unfortunately the cockroach may have already died out as the Tungurahua volcano erupted in 2010, destroying much of the insects’ habitat where it had been found.
The fate of the insect – to have become extinct before it was officially recognised as a new species – is helping to spur biologists into stepping up their hunt for life on our planet.
Scientists have now discovered approximately 1.2 million species but say there are up to 10 million left to be found, without including the countless bacteria and other microbes.
Many species are under threat from pollution, hunting and loss of their habitat.
They have proposed a new mission to send 2,000 taxonomists around the world to search for new species and are calling for funding for 300 biodiversity inventory projects.
Professor Wheeler added: “For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis.
“Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace.
“Until we know what species already exist, it is folly to expect we will make the right decisions to assure the best possible outcome for the pending biodiversity crisis."
