71 New Plant and Animal Species Identified in 2019

Let’s start with a few stats about the little blue dot we call Earth.

• The total surface area of Earth is roughly 197 million square miles

• About 71 percent is covered by water and 29 percent by land

• The radius is 3,958.8 miles and its diameter is roughly 8,000 miles

• Earth is round because gravity pulls matter into a ball, though, it’s not a perfect sphere. The technical term for Earth is an "oblate spheroid"

While the earliest fossils of anatomically modern humans are from the Middle Paleolithic period (source), about 200,000 years ago, you might assume that humans have acquired a fairly comprehensive catalog of life on Earth.

Sadly, the truth is that humans have barely scratched that proverbial surface.

“To date, a total of 1.3 million species have been identified and described, but the truth is that many more live on Earth. The most accurate census, conducted by the Hawaii’s University, estimates that a total of 8.7 million species live on the planet.” (source)

If accurate, that means that humans have only identified ~15% of all the organisms on Earth. And, with commentary by many that we’re in the midst of the planet’s Sixth Mass Extinction (AKA: the Holocene Extinction), we better pick up the pace before it’s too late.

Fortunately, many scientists have refused to sit on their laurels. As a result, humanity can now draw reference to 71 new plant and animal species on the record as 2019 comes to a close.

“In 2019, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 71 new plant and animal species to our family tree, enriching our understanding of Earth’s complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 17 fish, 15 geckos, eight flowering plants, six sea slugs, five arachnids, four eels, three ants, three skinks, two skates, two wasps, two mosses, two corals, and two lizards. More than a dozen Academy scientists—along with many more international collaborators—described the new species discoveries. “

Read more at the California Acadamy of Sciences.

So long, and thanks for the fish.

-Adam

The newly described cat-eyed cardinalfish. [© 2019 Mark Erdmann]