Scientists who study new species sometimes refer to their field, taxonomy, as the world’s oldest profession. That moniker — which usually refers to prostitution — might not be accurate but underscores the field’s driving purpose.
“Taxonomy is the process of trying to sort into our filing system what is known versus what is new. It’s about us recognizing things that could be potentially harmful or beneficial,” Christopher Mah, a marine biologist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, told McClatchy News.
Scientists around the world are constantly trying to separate the known from the new. In doing so, they routinely discover new species of animals. Whether a lizard, fish or spider, new species catch our attention. But they can also cause confusion.
Why are there so many new species being discovered? Are these newly evolving? Has there been a sudden surge in new species?
And how many are left to discover?
Ten experts explain.
What is the process for discovering a new species of animal?
The discovery process varies by species but experts generally list five steps: collect, analyze, compare, describe and share.
First, scientists collect a particular animal, often referred to as a specimen. Sometimes one is enough, but typically several are needed.
Second, scientists analyze the animal. This includes its physical features, often referred to as its morphology, such as color, body shape, genitalia and skeleton; its behavior; its call sound, often for frogs, crickets or birds; its life stages, and its DNA. The more data, the better.
Next, scientists compare this data to past records and decide if the animal matches. Most of the time, animals will fit within a broader group, scientifically referred to as a genus, even if they don’t match a known species.
When that happens, scientists consider the animal to be a new species and write a study describing it. This is the fourth step. At this point, researchers also choose a name for the new species.
Finally, scientists publish their study to share the discovery with the scientific community and, sometimes, the broader public.
Are new species recently evolved? Or recently described?
“The vast, vast, overwhelming majority of the newly described species are not newly evolved,” Henrik Enghoff, a taxonomist specializing in millipedes, told McClatchy News. These species are “just newly discovered or recognized.”
“Species do not originate spontaneously,” Thomas Ziegler, a reptile and amphibian expert, said. The formation of a new species is a long evolutionary process that generally involves an animal’s population being split, then each group slowly adapting to its unique environment.
Zeeshan Mirza, a biologist focused on India, told McClatchy News that this process “takes millions of years and is ongoing.”
“The term ‘new species’ is a bit misleading,” evolutionary biologist Philippe Kok said. “Sometimes locals might know them for long.”
To avoid this confusion, some experts prefer the phrases “new to science” or “new to Western science.”
Why are so many new species still being discovered?
Experts give three main reasons why new species are still being discovered.
The most straightforward is that some animals are simply being encountered for the first time. These animals might live in remote areas, such as mountaintops or deep seas, or are generally just hard to find, according to K.P. Dinesh, a taxonomist specializing in crabs.
Alternatively, some animals were found on past expeditions, but the specimens “just languish for a decade or more in museums” until someone decides to study them, Mah said. “There are some groups (of animals) nobody studies.”
The world is wide, and taxonomy is a small, underfunded field. According to Kok, scientists simply don’t have the time, resources or people to classify every creature.
Second, some new species were previously misidentified and only recognized recently because of DNA data. Visually similar but genetically distinct species are referred to as “cryptic” and considered notoriously hard to classify.
“A lot of people would just describe (new species) because they thought, in their opinion, (the animals) were different,” Eli Greenbaum, a biologist focused on central Africa, told McClatchy News. “DNA really was powerful because you had this completely objective data set.”
Finally, scientists today have better technology than their 19th-century counterparts. From microscopes to helicopters and DNA collection kits to submarines, improved technology aids in the discovery of new species. Similarly, the internet helps researchers collaborate, enables museums to share their archives and allows construction of large-scale taxonomy databases.
Has there been a surge in new species discoveries?
Experts are divided over this question because the rate of species discovery varies by country, animal group and decade. Still, all agree taxonomy experienced a turning point in the 1990s when DNA analysis became widespread.
“The number of new species described each year has stayed more or less the same, even in well-studied areas like Europe,” Ishan Agarwal, an amphibian and reptile researcher, told McClatchy News. This is because “more difficult-to-study groups are being targeted.”
The general impression of an uptick in new species discoveries likely stems from increased news coverage of the topic, Mah and Kok said. Social media has also helped disseminate previously niche academic findings.
Why is it important to identify new species?
“One cannot conserve what one doesn’t know,” Evan Quah Seng Huat, a biologist specializing in amphibians and reptiles of southeast Asia, told McClatchy News. “By knowing what species we are dealing with and studying their ecology, we can then formulate better conservation strategies to safeguard them or even manage them.”
Experts stress that animals around the world face growing survival risks due to human activity. This ranges from small-scale deforestation to large-scale climate change but generally adds up to what scientists call the sixth mass extinction.
K.P. Dinesh told McClatchy News that “as amphibian researchers, it is our prime interest to avoid nameless extinction by describing all the new species.”
How many new species of animals are left to find?
No one knows for sure, but experts agree there are many. Even conservative estimates suggest there are tens of thousands of undescribed species living in the oceans, tropical rainforests and other habitats.
Sameer Kumar Pati estimates that in just his topic area, freshwater crabs in India, there are “some 500 new species” left.
“There is currently no sign of a slowdown in new (species) descriptions,” Ziegler said.
So far, Ziegler’s research group has discovered over 150 new species from Vietnam. Mah has described about 125 new species of marine life. Enghoff has published 11 studies on millipedes in one mountain range of Tanzania. Roughly 20 years into their careers, their work is unfinished.
But “you don’t have to travel to remote forests to discover new species,” Mirza said. “They might just be in your backyard. Start exploring and be curious.”
