Scientists at the Natural History Museum had a busy year in 2024, describing a whopping 190 new species of animals, plants and minerals.
With the help of teams around the world, the discoveries were made in all sorts of environments, from the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean and the highest peaks of the Himalayas to a living room in South Wales.
The list of finds includes towering dinosaurs, fossilised dung, a piranha and even a snake named after actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
"In order to fix our broken planet, we need to keep learning about how life evolves and how vital its diversity is in keeping nature healthy," says Dr Tim Littlewood, Director of Science at the Museum. "Naming new species helps us do just that."
“This wonderfully varied list exemplifies the foundations of NHM science to unlock the past and protect the future. They can open doors to finding nature-positive solutions to the planetary emergency and inform policy and conservation efforts to protect the biodiversity on our planet.”
New animal species discovered in 2024
While looking into the evolutionary relationships of a group of horseshoe bats, researchers realised that there was a new species hidden among them. Now called Webala’s horseshoe bat after Africa’s foremost bat biologist Dr Paul Waswa Webala, it can be found in Kenya/Patterson et al. 2024Valettietta synchlys (top) and Valettietta trottarum (bottom) - two species of deep-sea scavenging amphipod (shrimp-like crustaceans). They were collected in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone which is threatened by deep-sea mining and are part of the museums efforts to document the biodiversity in this region/Steward et al. 2024Anguiculus dicaprioi – A new species and genus of snake from the Indian Himalayas named after actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio who “has been actively involved in creating awareness about global climate change, increased biodiversity loss, and human health issues through pollution.”/Virender K. BhardwajStefania imawari – Found living on the top of a tepuis of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World fame in Venezuela, it is named after the malicious spirits that are said to inhabit the top of these ‘sky islands’/Phillipe KokEro lizae – One of two new species of pirate spider described from the remote Atlantic island of St Helena. These spiders are known to violently take over the web of other spiders, killing the occupants in the process/Liza FowlerComptonatus chasei - This was a species of large herbivorous dinosaur related to Iguanodon discovered on the Isle of Wight. Its name means ‘the Compton thunderer’ after the beach on which it was found/John Sibbick
Liberonautes schubarti – a freshwater crab found living in the mountain streams that drain from Sugar Loaf Mountain near Freetown, Sierra Leone. It inhabits the sandy soil and forested wetlands next to the streams, and is probably semi-terrestrial/Ndongo et al. 2024Caecilia tesoro – one of two new caecilians described from the Tesoro Escondido Reserve, Ecuador. These are limbless, snake-like amphibians that typically live in the soil. This particular species seemingly comes into at least two colour morphs, including yellow colour/Sarah BockHemiceratoides avimolestum – one of two new species of bird tear-drinking moths from Madagascar. These insects sneak up on unsuspecting birds at night, before inserting their long proboscis into the birds eye to drink its tears/Leejiah J. DorwardMyloplus sauron – A species of vegetarian piranha (known as a pacu) from Brazil that was named after the Lord of the Rings villain due to its flame orange fins and black stripe reminiscent of the Eye of Sauron/Mark H. Sabaj
Diplomonorchis fallax – A type of parasitic flatworm, or fluke. Collected in the Gulf of Mexico, as an adult the flue is an intestinal parasite of the ‘spot croaker’, which is a species of marine fish/Pete OlsonCarmenta brachyclados - A beautiful new species of clearwing moth that is native to Guyana was described after it was discovered 7,000 kilometres away in Port Talbot, Wales, after an ecologist spotted the unusual insect fluttering around their living room/Mark SterlingParavandelia luna – A parasitic candiru catfish from the , which are renowned for swimming up the genitalia of people swimming in the Amazon and its tributaries/Dr Elisabeth HenschelPleurocryptella poseidon - named for the god of the sea because part of their larvae is three-pronged like poseiodons trident. This species is a type of isopod which parasitises squat lobsters - they make themselves at home in the gill cavity of the lobster which makes a noticeable swelling on the side/Williams et al. 2024Rattus ombirah - A new Moluccan rat that is only found on the Indonesian island of Obi. Only known from two immature individuals collected at a higher elevation, it is smaller than other related species, and has a long, dark tail/Pierre-Henry Fabre
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