In addition to the Top 10 new species chosen by the International Institute for Species Exploration this year (which included a penicillium fungus, a large dragon tree, and a new carnivorous mammal), dozens of other organisms were recognized by science for the first time this year. These discoveries proffer a welcome break from stories of threatened populations and impending extinctions. Here’s a selection of notable new species identified in 2014:
Mammals abound
An antechinusFLICKR, ALAN COUCHAlthough there are always one or two newly discovered mammals that capture the public’s attention each year, 2014 seems to stand out with several new species of saki monkeys, three new species of marsupials, four new species of gopher-like rodents, and a tiny elephant shrew. “It’s a very exciting time to be a mammalogist,” the Queensland University of Technology’s Andrew Baker, who led the research that identified the three marsupials, told The Guardian. “Typically there’s only a couple of new species of mammals found worldwide each year. So to find three new species of this marsupial, all in South East Queensland is really exciting.”
One of the three new marsupial species, the black-tailed antechinus (Antechinus arktos), had formerly been confused with a mainland form of the dusky antechinus (A. swainsonii mimetes), but mitochondrial DNA sequencing confirmed that A. arktos is, in fact, a distinct species. A similar story yielded the discovery of 16 distinct saki monkey species, ...
