You may think that humans have found every animal there is to find. Other than the monsters at the depths of the ocean, what animal could possibly be elusive enough to evade human reach? How can we still be finding out new and exciting things about the animal kingdom?
You may be surprised to know that roughly 15,000 and 18,000 new species are identified each year – with about half of those being insects. A new frog species was even found in NYC recently of all places. A lot of these discoveries happen in stages, especially in places like Africa or Cuba. Many areas can be non-accessible, sometimes for years, because of political tensions. When these areas open back up and are safe, they sometimes prove to be great hiding places for new species.
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These high numbers do involve some misleading discoveries, though. These ‘new species’ include the correction of taxonomic mistakes, movements from one family to another, and decisions that will end up being changed in years to come.
Some species resemble each other so closely, that their differences can only be detected through DNA testing. Atlas Obscura tells us of a misguided breeding attempt:
Zoologists at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. actually spent years being frustrated about their resident olinguitos’ inability to mate. But the olinguito is a small carnivore in the raccoon family, commonly confused with its identical-looking cousin the olingo. They were trying to mate the olinguito with an olingo, not realizing that it was an entirely different species.
Regardless, that’s a lot of new species. We don’t hear a lot about most of these, but one in particular was found in a very unusual manner. This new nope was found in the belly of another nope.
Or what brave herpetologists would say – a new species of snake was found in the belly of a coral snake, a species known for its adept ability at hunting other snakes, shown here:
National Geographic gives us the details: