And paleontologists (scientists studying extinct species from different geological eras) are also describing new species that they\u2019ve studied from bones, fossils, amber and even fossilised dung.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The concept of a species is arguably the most fundamental in biology. It is surprising, then, that it has caused scientists so much head-scratching. Charles Darwin wanted to do away with the concept altogether, considering\u00a0it to be defining the indefinable.<\/p>\n The most used definition centres on interbreeding, stating that a species is\u00a0a group within which two individuals can breed to produce fertile offspring.<\/p>\n In general, this definition holds water, but it can lead to surprising groupings. For example, due to climate change, polar bears and grizzly bears have been coming into contact and producing fertile young. Should we consider these bears one species?<\/p>\n The focus on sex also leaves out organisms that reproduce asexually. Other definitions consider ancestry, though where the\u00a0lines should be drawn is unclear \u2013 are we the same species as our water-dwelling ancestors? Further definitions focus\u00a0on ecology, geography and physiology.<\/p>\n This Q&A originally appeared in <\/em>BBC Wildlife Magazine<\/a>, and was answered by Leoma Williams<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This is impossible to answer precisely. New species appear all the time and can go extinct before they\u2019ve even been described, and estimates as to the rates of extinction very enormously. One approach to working it out would be to first take the yearly \u2018natural extinction rate\u2019 \u2013 the rate at which species would go extinct if we humans weren\u2019t around. This is often stated as one per million (or 0.00001%) per year \u2013 but again, opinion on this varies.<\/p>\n Experts now believe that current rates of extinction have soared to between 1,000 and 10,000 times this natural rate. So, take the natural rate as one per million and that brings current rates to between 0.01 and 0.1% per year. There are said to be 1.6 million described species on our planet, but some experts believe there could be as many as 100 million. So, work out the worse- case scenario maths and the daily rate of extinction comes in at 273 species per day.<\/p>\n We are said to be in the midst of a sixth extinction. Unlike previous mass extinction events, which were the result of climatic shifts, geological activity and a very large asteroid, responsibility for the current losses is down to us.<\/p>\n This Q&A originally appeared in <\/em>BBC Wildlife Magazine<\/a>, and was answered by Sarah McPherson.<\/em><\/p>\n Here we feature a few of the extant species that have been described so far this year, from impressive spiders in Papua New Guinea named after the activist Greta Thunberg to a tiny chameleon in Madagascar. We have also provided links to the taxonomic papers in which the new species have been described.<\/p>\n A new species of dragon-like lizard called Enyalioides feiruzae has been formally described, following seven years of field studies, which involved hand-picking sleeping individuals from plants at nights.<\/p>\n The lizards, particularly the males, can come in a variety of colours ranging between turquoise, green, grey and brown, with lines on their backs and spots on their sides.<\/p>\n Part of the wood lizard genus, Enyalioides, they\u2019re found in northern South America and Panama, and are very similar to the geographically separated E. rudolfarndti. E. feiruzae<\/em> is found in the basin of the Huallaga River in the Peruvian Andes, an understudied area due to various conflicts with terrorist organisations and drug traffickers in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n The name comes from Feiruz, a female green iguana, whose owner Catherine Thomson supported the taxonomic research through the BIOPAT initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the full paper in Evolutionary Systematics<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n This wild tobacco plant is one of seven newly described species in the Nicotiana<\/em> genus<\/a>. The \u2018killer tobacco plant\u2019 (N. insecticida<\/em>) was so-named as it\u2019s covered in sticky glands that capture and kill small insects \u2013 the first wild tobacco plant to do so. It is not known if it gains nutritional benefit from the insects and thus isn\u2019t yet classified as carnivorous.<\/p>\n All the new species are found in the Australian arid zone. N. insecticida<\/em> was found by a truck stop on the Northwest Coastal Highway in Western Australia.<\/p>\n Read the paper in Curtis\u2019s Botanical Magazine<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n This brittlestar is the only living representative of a lineage that split from its closest relatives180 million years ago, just as the dinosaurs were starting to go full tilt. Not only does Ophiojura exbodi<\/em> get a genus all to itself, but a whole new family was created to accommodate it. Its most obvious distinguishing feature is its eight arms rather than the usual five.<\/p>\n Collected from a seamount \u2013 a submarine mountain \u2013 called the Durand Bank, near New Caledonia in the Pacific, its distinctive skeletal features are strikingly similar to fossils found in early Jurassic rocks from Normandy.<\/p>\n Read the paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n This underground-dwelling frog is one of three new Synapturanus<\/em> species. The call of the male can only be heard during or after heavy rainfall. To find the animals, scientists need to dig them out of the ground using their\u00a0bare hands (usually getting soaked in the process). It\u2019s this rather eerie scenario that has given rise to the name Synapturanus zombie<\/em>.<\/p>\n All three frog species are found in an incredibly biodiverse region of South America known as the Guiana Shield. The scientists believe there may be six times as many Synapturanus species than have been described so far.<\/p>\n Read the paper in Zoologischer Anzeiger<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n When a species is named after a person, convention holds that the name ends in the suffix ae (after females) or i (males). But what if the person being honoured identifies as neither male nor female? The solution, in the case of this trap-jaw ant named after artist Jeremy Ayers, was to use \u2018they\u2019 as the suffix.<\/p>\n Just a single specimen has been collected so far, in tropical forest in northern Ecuador. Extensive efforts to find more proved fruitless, suggesting it is very rare. Its spring-loaded jaws may be a specialisation for catching nimble springtails.<\/p>\nRecent reclassification of species and subspecies:<\/h4>\n
What is a species?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How many species go extinct each day?<\/h2>\n
New species described in 2021:<\/h2>\n
Feiruz wood lizard, Peru: Enyaliodies feiruzae<\/em><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Killer tobacco plant, Australia: Nicotiana insecticida\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Brittlestar, southwest Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia: Ophiojura exbodi<\/em><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Frog, Guinea Shield: Synapturanus zombie<\/em><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Ant, Ecuador: Strumigenys ayersthey<\/em><\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2021\/04\/Thunberga-wasserthali-L.T.-Wasserthal-3aalphagalileo-e1bba91.jpg?quality=90&resize=336%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"\/")
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