New Species News

November 1, 2024

Top Headlines

Evolutionary Paths Vastly Differ for Birds, Bats

Nov. 1, 2024 — New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as ...

Human Actions Likely Cause Insect Color Change

Oct. 24, 2024 — New Zealand's native stoneflies have changed colour in response to human-driven environmental changes, new research shows. The study provides arguably the world's most clear-cut case of animal evolution in response to change made by ...

Crustacean With Panda-Like Coloring Confirmed to Be a New Species

Oct. 24, 2024 — Decades after it was first found in Japan, a crustacean species with unique black-and-white coloring resembling a panda has been confirmed to be new to ...

Saving the Bats: Researchers Find Bacteria, Fungi on Bat Wings That Could Help Fight Deadly White-Nose Syndrome

Oct. 23, 2024 — Bacteria and fungi from the wings of bats could play a significant role in saving them from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease affecting the skin of wings and muzzle, which has nearly wiped ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:17pm EDT

Move Along, Moose: Study Reveals the 'Most Canadian' Animals

Oct. 25, 2024 — What is the 'most Canadian' animal? Spoiler: it's not the beaver, or the moose. A new study ranks species of terrestrial vertebrates in Canada by their level of Canadian evolutionary distinctness: ...

Marri Trees a Lifeline for Many Native Bee Species in Biodiversity Hotspot

Oct. 23, 2024 — New research has revealed Marri trees are critical to the survival of more than 80 species of native bee in Western Australia's South West region, which is one of the world's most biologically rich ...

From Catwoman to Han Solo, Newly Discovered Wasps Named After Famous Thieves

Oct. 22, 2024 — Twenty-two new species of gall wasps have been identified and named, thanks to new research. The study nearly doubles the number of known species in ...

Invasive Flathead Catfish Impacting Susquehanna's Food Chain

Oct. 22, 2024 — Flathead catfish -- native to the Mississippi River basin -- were first detected in the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania in 2002, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In the two decades since ...

Rare Fossils of Extinct Elephant Document the Earliest Known Instance of Butchery in India

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of animal butchery by humans in ...

One in Three Plants Call Islands Home: Many at Risk

Oct. 16, 2024 — From Tasmania to Madagascar to New Guinea, islands make up just over five per cent of Earth's land yet are home to 31 per cent of the world's plant species. A new study shows that of all plants ...

Simulated Mission to Mars: Survey of Lichen Species

Oct. 11, 2024 — A collection-based survey of lichen species at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, Canada was conducted as part of the Mars-160 ...

Seven New Frog Species Discovered in Madagascar: Sounds Like Something from Star Trek

Oct. 15, 2024 — Researchers have discovered seven new species of tree frogs that make otherworldly calls in the rainforests of Madagascar. Their strange, ...

How Playing Songs to Darwin's Finches Helped Biologists Confirm Link Between Environment and the Emergence of New Species

Oct. 10, 2024 — They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation -- which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological ...

New Species of Clearwing Moth from Guyana Discovered in Wales

Oct. 7, 2024 — A new species of clearwing moth was found in Port Talbot, Wales. A few moths had been accidentally brought into the UK from Guyana in a camera bag after a photography trip. They stood out as unusual ...

12 New Oriental Weevil Species Discovered Using Advanced Imaging Tools

Oct. 29, 2024 — Two of these new species are present in Japan: Aphanerostethus magnus (Oo-daruma-kuchikakushi-zoumushi) and Aphanerostethus japonicus (Nippon-daruma-kuchikakushi-zoumushi). One of these, ...

Newly Discovered Late Cretaceous Birds May Have Carried Heavy Prey Like Extant Raptors

Oct. 9, 2024 — Newly discovered birds from Late Cretaceous North America were hawk-sized and had powerful raptor-like feet, according to a new ...

The True Global Impact of Species-Loss Caused by Humans Is Far Greater Than Expected

Oct. 3, 2024 — The extinction of hundreds of bird species caused by humans over the last 130,000 years has led to substantial reductions in avian functional diversity -- a measure of the range of different roles ...

The Rate of Climate Change Threatens to Exceed the Adaptive Capacity of Species

Oct. 2, 2024 — A recent study focusing on the Arctic Siberian primrose underscores the critical need to curb climate change to allow species time to adapt through ...

Megadiverse Flowering Plant Family on Isolated Islands

Sep. 30, 2024 — Asteraceae, a family of flowering plants which includes daisies, sunflowers and asters, are the most diverse group of flowering plants in the world. This plant family comprises around 34,000 species, ...

South African Rock Art Possibly Inspired by Long-Extinct Species

Sep. 18, 2024 — A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a new ...

Even Marine Animals in Untouched Habitats Are at Risk from Human Impacts

Sep. 18, 2024 — Climate change and a range of other human impacts are putting marine animals at risk of extinction -- even those living in almost pristine marine habitats and diverse coastal regions -- reports a new ...

Another New Wasp Species Discovered

Sep. 18, 2024 — A newly identified wasp species, Chrysonotomyia susbelli, has been discovered in Houston, Texas. The discovery, the fourth wasp species found on the university grounds in seven years, reveals the ...

Improved Epidemic Monitoring Via Sewage

Sep. 17, 2024 — Analyzing wastewater has the potential to alert authorities about thousands of health threats at once, from antimicrobial resistance to cholera, according to new ...

New 'Grumpy' Fish Species Discovered in the Red Sea

Sep. 16, 2024 — Scientists have discovered a new species of fish, the 'grumpy dwarfgoby'. Found among coral reefs in the Red Sea, it has large canines and a fierce expression, even though it is only 2 cm ...

Giant Fanged Frog Went Unrecognized in Philippines Because It Was Nearly Identical to Even Larger Species

Sep. 9, 2024 — Researchers published findings describing a new species of fanged frog, named Limnonectes cassiopeia, from the Philippine island of ...

New Species of Paua (Abalone) Found

Sep. 3, 2024 — Biologists have discovered a new species of paua mollusk (also known as abalone) off New ...

New Species of Antarctic Dragonfish Highlights Its Threatened Ecosystem

Aug. 30, 2024 — A new species of Antarctic dragonfish, Akarotaxis gouldae or Banded Dragonfish, has been discovered in waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula. The species, named in honor of the recently ...

Number of Fish Species at Risk of Extinction Fivefold Higher Than Previous Estimates, According to a New Prediction

Aug. 29, 2024 — Researchers predict that 12.7% of marine teleost fish species are at risk of extinction, up fivefold from the International Union for Conservation of Nature's prior estimate of 2.5%. Their ...

Moths May Use Disco Gene to Regulate Day/night Cycles

Aug. 28, 2024 — How does one species become two? A new study shows what happens when individuals of a moth species become separated in ...

Will Climate Change Lead to the Extinction of a Newly Discovered Tarantula Species?

Aug. 21, 2024 — Biologists have discovered a new species of tarantula from the Madrean Sky Island biodiversity hotspot in southeastern Arizona. This remarkable new species is endemic to the Chiricahua Mountains and ...

A Belly Full of Jelly

Aug. 14, 2024 — For a long time, scientists assumed that jellies (commonly known as jellyfish) were a dead-end food source for predatory fish. However, a team has now discovered that fish in Greenland waters do ...

Giant Fossil Seeds from Borneo Record Ancient Plant Migration

Aug. 14, 2024 — Ancient fossil beans about the size of modern limes, and among the largest seeds in the fossil record, may provide new insight into the evolution of today's diverse Southeast Asian and ...

The Race to Discover Biodiversity: 11 New Marine Species and a New Platform for Rapid Species Description

Aug. 6, 2024 — A new paper describes a ground-breaking experiment that united 25 independent taxonomists from 10 countries. The initiative boasts the discovery of 11 new marine species from all over the globe, ...

Catching a New (Sea) Star

Aug. 5, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new species of sea star (also known as starfish). The discovery came about thanks to collaborative work among researchers, fishers, and aquarium and museum staff. The ...