Vampire hedgehog, pygmy horse, drophead fish among new species discovered in 2024

The vampire hedgehog, pygmy horse and drophead fish were among hundreds of new species discovered in 2024.

The range of species identified was quite eclectic, from plants to mammals, and the names of the new species covered a wide range of places and formations – some even inspired by politicians or celebrities.

A new species of plant beetle has been named after Vice President Kamala Harris (P. kamalaharrisae) and another after Harrison Ford (P. harrisonfordi) for their commitment to climate and conservation science, said California Academy of Sciences researcher Brad Balukjian, who presented 17 new species in Pseudoloxops a family from French Polynesia.

A new species of snake has been named after actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio. Researchers discovered a small copper colored snake in the Himalayas and named the species Angiculus DiCaprio.

Places where scientists have found these species have included Peru, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the Greater Mekong region of South Asia. California Academy of Sciences said that their scientists have concluded on six continents and three oceans, which led to the description of 138 new species of animals, plants and fungi.

“Finding and describing new species is vital to understanding our planet's biodiversity and protecting it from further loss,” said virologist Shannon Bennett, chief science officer at the California Academy of Sciences.

The number of new species identified in 2024 cannot be counted or determined by a single list. Researchers present their results in various papers, at conferences and in the scientific community. Activation is made by a trigger because discoveries can be made by anyone and anywhere other than describing and identifying a new species requires a scientific process.

This process involves studying and analyzing the new specimen and similar organisms, and then assigning the species a new name. A species can be discovered but not necessarily described years later.

Bennett told CBS News that when scientists describe the new species, they liken it to a “coming out ball.” For the first time, Bennett said, the species has been correctly identified and finally has its place in the world.

Despite this, Bennett said, “according to scientists' estimates, we have identified only one-tenth of all species on Earth.”

Here are some of the highlights of 2024.

Vampire hedgehog, a hedgehog with soft fur and “fang-like teeth”

According to WWF report234 species were discovered this year in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

He was among them Macaroni Hylomysvampire hedgehog. A hedgehog with soft fur and fang-like teeth, it inspired its scientific name. The word Ma cà rồng means “vampire” in Vietnamese.

First photographed in the wild in Vietnam in 2009 by a team from Russia's Vietnam Research Center, the vampire hedgehog was identified as a new species as part of an international effort to revise the taxonomy of the small hymens, according to WWF.

The specimens that helped lead to the description of the vampire hedgehog were in the Smithsonian Museum, WWF researcher Arlo Hinckley said. He stressed the importance of preserving collected samples from “poor samples” so that the “next generation” of researchers can make new discoveries that may have been forgotten.

A dwarf horse found off the coast of South Africa

Researchers from the California Academy of Sciences knew they were on to something new after local divers in South Africa's Sodwana Bay told them about an unfamiliar species. But scientists were worried they wouldn't be able to spot the tiny pygmy horse – about the size of a golf tee.

“The South African reefs make for notoriously difficult diving conditions with rough weather and strong, choppy waves – we knew we only had one dive to find it,” said scientist and study co-author Richard Smith in a news release earlier this month.

But Smith and Graham Short are the scientists who originally described the breed of dwarf horses Cilix in 2021 – they couldn't hold back, the academy believes. The pygmy horse was originally found in the cool, temperate waters around the North Island of New Zealand. The discovery of a new species in subtropical waters has expanded the range of the group.

“Fortunately, we spotted a female camouflaged against the sponges about a mile offshore on the sandy ocean floor,” Smith said in a news release.

They named a new species of dwarf horses C. the kingafter a local Zulu word meaning “leader,” the academy said.

“Butterhead” fish baffles researchers

Among the eight new species of fish that have been identified this year in Peru's Alta Mayor region, the most shocking was the “drophead fish.” in accordance with report published this month by the non-profit group Conservation International.

In the summer of 2022, researchers from the group's Rapid Assessment Program conducted a biological survey of a largely unexplored area in the central Alta Maya region and found that at least 27 species new to science and 49 threatened species were later identified, according to IUCN Red List.

Among those that were new was an “ugly drop” in st Hetastoma the genus to which the bristle-mouthed armored catfish belongs. The team's scientists had never seen a fish with an enlarged, blob-like head, Conservation International said.

“The function of this unusual structure remains a mystery,” the researchers said in a statement.

However, the species was already familiar to the Awajun natives who worked with the Rapid Assessment Program, the researchers said.