Top 10 new species of 2012

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University that has just come out with the top 10 new species of 2012! This is the 5th year they have come out with such a list. If you would like to nominate your favorite new species discovered in 2013, click here.

Here are my favorites from the 2012 list:

The snub nose monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri) from Myanmar that sneezes when it rains:

Photo reconstruction credit: Thomas Geissmann / Fauna & Flora International)

The Spongebob Squarepants sponge (Spongiforma squarepantsii), just because I LOVE that cartoon!:

Photo credit: Thomas Bruns, Interior (left) and exterior (right) views of Spongiforma squarepantsii; center: Dennis E. Desjardin & Andrew Ichimura, SEM photograph of spores of Spongiforma squarepantsii

...and lastly a blue tarantula, Sazima’s Tarantula (Pterinopelma sazimai):

Photo credit left: Caroline Fukushima; center and right: Rogerio Bertani/ Instituto Butantan

To see the other species that made the list, or to learn more about these species, click here.

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Woah! amazing, that Tarantula spider is so beautiful <3 and the monkey is super cute.

So how many of these "new species" evolved from another species, or doesn't that happen anymore, ...or ever? Fact is these aren't new species at all but old species, newly discovered.

By Tsad Jatko (not verified) on 26 Jan 2013 #permalink

"So how many of these “new species” evolved from another species"

All of them - of course..