June 26, 2013
On average, 18,000 new species are discovered each year. Senior Sustainability Scientist Quentin Wheeler and his colleague Sara Pennak recognize the top 10 of these species each year in their Top 10 New Species List. In the past, these new organisms have included night-blooming orchids, glow-in-the-dark cockroaches, kite-shaped jellyfish, and sneezing monkeys.
These lists are now compiled in a new book, "What On Earth? 100 of Our Planet’s Most Amazing New Species" by Wheeler and Pennak.
"One thing that makes us human is our innate curiosity about ourselves, our origins, and our place in the universe," says Wheeler. "A critically important part of the answer lies in the complex story of evolution. As we piece together the history of Earth’s species, we begin to appreciate our status as a species within evolutionary history."