Tiny seahorse, ghost slug on list of top 10 new species
Mon May 25, 2009 12:55pm EDT
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A pea-sized seahorse, a "ghost" slug and the world's smallest snake measuring just 104 mm (4.1 inches) were among the top 10 new species discovered in 2008, according to a committee of international scientists.
The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists compiled the list from thousands of species found across the globe last year.
Also in the top 10 were a caffeine-free coffee plant from Cameroon, a bacteria that lives in hairspray found by Japanese scientists, a gigantic palm from Madagascar that flowers itself to death, and a deep blue damselfish.
Rounding out the 10 were a snail with a shell that twists around four axes found in limestone hills in Malaysia, the world's longest insect from Borneo that stretches 56.7 cms (22.3 inches) and looks like a twig, and a fossilized specimen of the oldest known life-bearing vertebrate from Western Australia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE54O3LZ20090525