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Terry Gosliner / California Academy of Sciences
This species of Nembrotha nudibranch (also known as sea slug) was found during the California Academy of Sciences' 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition. Click through a slideshow featuring the new species.
Researchers say they identified 300 species that they think are new to science this spring during a biological prospecting expedition to the Philippines, organized by the California Academy of Sciences.
“The Philippines is one of the hottest of the hotspots for diverse and threatened life on Earth,” Terrence Gosliner, dean of science and research collections at the California Academy of Sciences and leader of the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition, said today in a news release about the findings. “Despite this designation, however, the biodiversity here is still relatively unknown, and we found new species during nearly every dive and hike as we surveyed the country’s reefs, rainforests, and the ocean floor."
The 42-day expedition was launched in late April and focused on Luzon, the largest island in the Philippine archipelago, as well as the surrounding waters. In cooperation with more than two dozen colleagues from the Philippines, the academy's scientists surveyed a wide range of ecosystems and shared their findings with local communities and conservationists.
Among the suspected new species are dozens of types of insects and spiders, deep-sea corals, sea pens, sea urchins and more than 50 kinds of sea slugs. Scientists say they came across a new kind of cicada that makes a distinctive "laughing" call, a starfish that eats only sunken driftwood, and a deep-sea swell shark that sucks water into its stomach to bulk up and scare off predators.
When the expedition ended, the scientists combined their data and identified their top conservation priorities — expansion of marine protected areas, plus reforestation to reduce sedimentation damage to coral reefs. The academy said reduction of plastic waste was also a priority, because plastic litter was pervasive throughout the marine environment, even on the ocean floor at depths of more than 6,000 feet.
Over the coming months, the expedition's scientists will be analyzing their specimens with the aid of microscopes and DNA sequencing equipment to confirm their discoveries.
The academy's expedition is one of many efforts around the globe to document and safeguard biodiversity — in part because yet-to-be-discovered species may point the way to commercially useful drugs or technologies, in part because they may turn out to be key to an ecosystem's health, and in part because they're beautiful, exotic or just plain odd.
"The species lists and distribution maps that we created during this expedition will help to inform future conservation decisions and ensure that this remarkable biodiversity is afforded the best possible chance of survival," Gosliner said.
Be sure to check out our slideshow featuring the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition, and then click through these other galleries of new species:
- Madagascar offers treasure trove of new species
- Scientists spot biological beauties in Bali
- RAP stars rock the animal world
- Lost frogs found in Haiti
- Three new frogs leap into spotlight
- Amphibians wanted ... alive
- New species from New Guinea
- Scientists finish first sea census
- Deep-sea creatures of the Coral Sea
- The top 10 new species from 2009
- Beautiful biodiversity in Brazil
- New Guinea's 'Lost World' revisited
- Indonesia's 'Garden of Eden'
- Papua New Guinea's new species
- Marine marvels from Papua New Guinea
- Biological treasures from Borneo
- Celebrities of the Celebes Sea
- 12 froggy finds from India
- Fantastic frogs from Colombia
- Aliens lurk in Antarctic depths
- The strange species of Suriname
- Vulnerable new species in Brazil
- Discoveries from Vietnam's 'Green Corridor'
- Endangered species of the Mekong Delta
- New species from Australia's coral reefs
- Thousands of new species in ocean's depths
- Hundreds of new species amid the Himalayas
- New species found Down Under .. underground
- Eight 'extinct' species found alive and kicking
The 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition was funded by a gift from Margaret and Will Hearst. The academy has planned an "Expedition NightLife" celebration at its San Francisco headquarters at 6 p.m. PT June 30, featuring a display of specimens from the expedition and Filipino music and dance. For more information about the schedule and tickets, check the academy's website. Can't make it to San Francisco? You can still click through the academy's YouTube video playlist for the expedition.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
And 250 of those species will be extinct in 5 years because of humanity....so sadly true.
I was just about to comment "awesome" but you are probably right. So sad and so true.
Wow... how did Noah find them first?
; )
How do you "think" you found new species. How is that scientific? Why release an article before you actually did the hard work required to identify new species? This is promotion and not science.
You underestimate the expertise of specialists who were on the expedition. Several of these researchers have spent most of their lives studying these organisms, and are so familiar with certain groups of them that they can often be pretty certain that they are looking at something that is undescribed. At the same time, you are correct in that this is not true for every group of organisms. For example, with insects and spiders, it requires a lot more work before you can say with much confidence that you have an undescribed species. Unfortunately, media wants results right away, when realistically, many of the new specimens may sit for years before someone comes along to investigate more closely. An article would be far less interesting if it came out 10 or 20 years after the expedition. The issue here is not about the scientists, it's about the media.
What I don't understand is why existing species are said to become extinct, which is consistent with the concept of evolution, but all new species are said to be discovered. Why don't scientists ever say that new species evolve? Do they think evolution no longer occurs? In the 150 years since Darwin, I have never heard of a scientist refer to anything currently having evolved. Don't they believe in evolution?
That is because true evolution takes hundreds of years. Any of the quick paced evolution possibly talked about is actually mutation via some contagion.
Millions to tens of millions of years is more like the scale for major evolutionary changes. Happens very slowly, much slower than the timescale of a human life.
I was thinking the same thing, we are always at a point in time when a new species could appear, seems like the ongoing process of evolution to me.
They just say "discovered" because they're new to humanity or Western science. Sort of like how Columbus "discovered" the Americas, and how Benjamin Franklin "discovered" electricity.
It would be more interesting if they had found Bigfoot......
Everything said, that sea slug is pretty cool looking.
True science at its best. We still know so little about the world in which we live and those plants and animals that share it with us.
Kill it!!! It will create jobs!!!
And, tasty.
hmmm lets see before mammary glands, they must have some other way to feed the young, so while the mammary glands evolved, what ever pre existed it De Volved.. right? so then you have the Mid point where neither works, so then following the above that evolution needs millions of years How did the young survive without food ;-))
only mammals have mammary glands genious. A lot of organisims have thrived without feeding their young their milk. Wow I can't stand how dumb some people are.
So True some are so Dumb, they do not understand an example, yes they are so brain dead, they do not get the " Point even if they are given a Needle" ;-))
Magic!!!! Faith!!! err they Just DID donot ask!!!!
there are two typs of evolution amd only one has been proven. it is hard to prove that one apecies has evolved from another.
They keep finding more and more new species. But then they turn around and claim that everything is threatened and going extinct. If everything is going extinct then how do they keep finding new species?
And notice that they have never been able to produce any list that shows recent extinctions of species we do know about. Is man somehow able to only kill off species we haven't discovered yet while not killing off the ones we do know about?
Actually, yes, "recent" species have gone extinct. The ivory-billed woodpecker, the Tasmanian tiger, the moas, etc. And besides, they're really only "recent" to Western science.