It's hard to imagine so many species going undetected or at least not being classified as a different species. If you click through the photos (there are only four, unfortunately) one is even from Cardiff, UK, as opposed to a remote jungle or reef somewhere far away. Interesting finds.
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.
