An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach¹（蟑螂）, a harp-shaped carnivorous（食肉的） sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. A global committee of taxonomists -- scientists responsible for species exploration and classification -- announced its list of top 10 species from 2012 today, May 23. The announcement, now in its sixth year, coincides with the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus -- the 18th century Swedish botanist² responsible for the modern system of scientific names and classifications.

 

Also slithering（滑动） it way onto this year's top 10 is a snail-eating false coral snake, as well as flowering bushes from a disappearing forest in Madagascar, a green lacewing that was discovered through social media and hangingflies that perfectly³ mimicked⁴ ginkgo tree leaves 165 million years ago. Rounding out the list is a new monkey with a blue-colored behind and human-like eyes, a tiny violet and a black staining fungus⁵ that threatens rare Paleolithic cave paintings in France.

 

"We have identified only about two million of an estimated 10 to 12 million living species and that does not count most of the microbial world," said Quentin Wheeler, founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at ASU and author of "What on Earth? 100 of our Planet's Most Amazing New Species" (NY, Plume⁶, 2013).

 

"For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace," Wheeler added.

 

"We are calling for a NASA-like mission to discover 10 million species in the next 50 years. This would lead to discovering countless⁷ options for a more sustainable future while securing evidence of the origins of the biosphere（生物圈）," Wheeler said.

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