[Taxacom] species statistic 2007 out: 18, 516 species in 2007, an increase on the 16, 969

[Donat Agosti]

Indpendent had a little contribution about the number of species published
in 2007. The original source has not been provided by Wheeler, although he
provides what looks like a precise count....

Donat

........

A seahorse the size of a pea (and the other bizarre species new to science)

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

Independent, Sat May 23, 2009
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-seahorse-the-size-of-a-pea-and-the-other-bizarre-species-new-to-science-1689776.html)

They include a tiny snake no more than four inches long, a snail with a
shell that twists in four directions and a palm tree that flowers itself
to death.

These are just some of the more than 18,500 species formally described as
new to science in 2007 – the latest year such information is available.

>From this inventory, researchers involved in the task of naming and
describing newly discovered species drew up a list of the "top 10"
animals, plants and microbes that illustrate the wondrous – and often
bizarre – diversity of life on Earth. They include a bacterium that lives
in hairspray, a stick insect that is nearly two feet long and a pea-sized
seahorse.

There are an estimated 1.8 million species that have been formally named
and described over the past 300 years since Swedish scientist Carolus
Linnaeus started his binomial system of taxonomic classification. But this
number is widely recognised as a gross underestimation of the true total
of lifeforms. Estimates for the number of living species on the planet
vary from two million to 100 million – although most scientists believe it
to be closer to 10 million.

Biologists named and described 18,516 species in 2007, an increase on the
16,969 species described in 2006. Of these, 75 per cent were invertebrate,
11 per cent were vascular plants and nearly 7 per cent were vertebrates,
such as the tiny snake. The scientists for the first time included
prokaryote bacteria, such as the microbe that Japanese researchers
discovered living in hairspray.

"Most people do not realise just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's
species is, or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that
diversity," said entomologist Quentin Wheeler, the director of the
International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State
University, which has compiled the annual report known as the State of
Observed Species.

"Charting the species of the world and their unique attributes are
essential parts of understanding the history of life. It is in our own
self interest as we face the challenges of living on a rapidly changing
planet," said Professor Wheeler.

An international committee of experts, chaired by Janine Caira from the
University of Connecticut, selected the "top 10" new species based on
assessment of each creature's unique attributes and surprising features.
Among the most intriguing plants on the list are a caffeine-free coffee
plant and a palm tree from north-western Madagascar that produces a huge,
spectacular inflorescence with countless flowers in a magnificent display
just before it collapses and dies.

The research centres involved in compiling the list of new species said
that of all the reasons to document life in this way, "perhaps the most
compelling is curiosity about the diversity of life analogous to our quest
to map the stars of the Milky Way and the contours of the ocean floor".

The decaffeinated coffee plant

Coffee charrieriana is the first recorded caffeine-free coffee plant from
Central Africa. It is named after coffee expert Professor Andre Charrier
of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in France, a centre of
coffee research.

The wild West:

The eerily white ghost slug, Selenochlamys ysbryda, was found in Cardiff.
Its discovery in such as in a densely-populated area was a surprise, said
scientists.

The oldest mother of them all

This is the oldest known vertebrate that can be shown to have given birth
to live young, as opposed to laying eggs. The species, Materpiscis
attenboroughi, lived about 380 million years ago and its fossil was
discovered at a site in Western Australia.

The pygmy of the seas

This tiny seahorse, Hippocampus satomiae, grows no bigger than a pea, with
a length of just over half an inch (13.8mm) and an approximate height of
0.45ins(11.5mm). This pygmy species was found near Derawan island off
Kalimantan in Indonesia and is named after the diver, Satomi Onishi, who
collected the samples.

The smallest snake on earth

The Barbados threadsnake, Leptotyphlops carlae, is just 4.1 inches long,
making it probably the world's smallest snake. It was discovered in St
Joseph's parish, Barbados.

The world's longest insect

The body of Phobaeticus chani can grow to 14 inches (36.6cm), which when
added to its legs gives it an overall length of more than 22 inches. The
insect, which resembles a stick, was found in Borneo, Malaysia.

The blue wonder This beautiful species of damselfish, Chromis abyssus, was
discovered in a deep-reef habitat off the coast of the Pacific island of
Ngemelis in Palau. Its discovery highlights just how little is known of
deep reefs.

The death-flower palm

Only 100 specimens of Tahina spectablilis, a gigantic species of palm that
dies soon after its flowers appear, have been found in its wild habitat in
Madagascar. Its seeds have since been distributed widely and it is now a
highly-prized ornamental plant.

Hair-raising bacteria

Unusual "extremophile" bacteria called Microbacterium hatanonis was found
living in hairspray by Japanese scientists.

The snail with a twist

This Malaysian snail, Opisthostoma vermiculum, is unusual in that its
shell twists along four different axes. It lives in the limestone hills of
Malaysia.