For the last ten years, two new species a week have been identified in the Greater Mekong, a swath of diverse ecosystems along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. In a new World Wildlife Fund report [pdf], scientists say they have documented at least 1,068 new species since 1997.
These aren’t run-of-the-mill species, either. Take Desmoxytes purpurosea, a bubble-gum pink “dragon” millipede that looks like a Halloween prop. Scientists found the thumb-sized centipede just sitting around on rocks and palm trees. Its shocking pink color is actually a warning to would-be predators: get too close and they’ll have to contend with the deadly cyanide that the millipede secretes. This millipede won a spot in Arizona State University’s annual Top Ten New Species.
The new species also include 88 types of spiders. The report says the “most remarkable” of these is the colossal cave-dwelling Heteropoda maxima. With a legspan of 30 centimeters (12 inches), it is the largest huntsman spider in the world.
Not all the species make your skin crawl. The Greater Mekong has also been a hotbed for new mammal species, which are usually quite rare. Among these are a brown and black striped rabbit, a woolly bat, the Laotian rock rat, and what may be the world’s tiniest deer, a munjac deer weighing only 15 kilograms. One researcher even said working in the Greater Mekong made him feel like Charles Darwin.
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Image: World Wildlife Fund
December 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
[...] source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com [...]
December 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] *IISE actually announced the list back in May, but what the hey. Tis the season for top tens. (via Discover) [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
[...] The Telegraph has eleven pictures of the new species here. You can also find more information at Discover Magazine, BBC, WWF, Sky News and TheStar.com. Posted in Animals Permalink | Recent Headlines | News [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
[...] had no idea so many new species are found so frequently, and one cannot forget about Aptostichus [...]
January 16th, 2009 at 1:20 am
[...] had but let me take a stab at one example. According to World Wildlife Fund report mentioned in Discovery magazine more than 1,068 new species have been discovered since 1997. Imagine how many have been [...]
January 19th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Colossal*
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
[...] a thousand species have been discovered over the past ten years in the Mekong River area of southeast Asia. They [...]