Among the hundreds of new species discovered in 2024 are the vampire hedgehog, the pygmy horse and the head fish.

The variety of species discovered was quite eclectic, and the names of the new species crossed a wide spectrum of localities and formations, with some even inspired by politicians or celebrities.

The new plant species is named after Vice President Kamala Harris (P. kamalaharrisae) and after Harrison Ford (P. harrisonfordifor their commitment to climate and conservation science, said Brad Balukjian, a California Academy of Sciences researcher who introduced 17 new species. Pseudoloxops family from French Polynesia.

Actor and conservationist Leonardo DiCaprio has a new species of snake named after him. Researchers A small copper-colored snake was discovered in the Himalayas and named the species Anguiculus dicaprio.

Places where scientists have found these species include Peru, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the Greater Mekong region of South Asia said their scientists had made discoveries on six continents and three oceans, resulting in the description of 138 new species of animals, plants and fungi.

“Finding and describing new species is vital to understanding our planet's biodiversity and protecting it from further loss,” said Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences.

The number of new species discovered in 2024 cannot be calculated or determined by a single list. Researchers present their results in various papers, conferences, and among the scientific community because discoveries can be made by anyone, anywhere, but by describing and identifying a new species requires a scientific process.

That process involves studying and analyzing the new specimen and similar organisms, then giving the species a new name. A species may be discovered but not necessarily described until years later.

Bennett told CBS News that when scientists describe a new species, they liken it to a “coming out ball.” For the first time, Bennett said, a species is correctly identified and finally has a place in the world.

Regardless, Bennett said, “scientists estimate that we have discovered only about one-tenth of all the species on Earth.”

Here are some of the highlights of 2024.

Vampire hedgehog, a soft-furred hedgehog with “fang-like teeth”

By: WWF reportThis year, 234 species were found in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

It was among them Hylomys macarongvampire hedgehog. The soft-furred hedgehog with fang-like teeth inspired its scientific name. The word Ma cà rồng means “vampire” in Vietnamese.

The vampire hedgehog was first photographed in the wild in Vietnam in 2009 by a team from Russia's Vietnam Research Center, and was recognized as a new species as part of an international effort to revise the classification of the small reptiles, WWF said.

The specimens that helped lead to the description of the vampire hedgehog were housed at the Smithsonian, researcher Arlo Hinckley told WWF, stressing the importance of preserving specimens collected from “poorly sampled regions” so that the “next generation” of researchers can make new discoveries that may have been overlooked.

A pygmy horse found off the coast of South Africa

Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences knew they might be on to something new after local divers in South Africa's Sodwana Bay told them about the unfamiliar species, but scientists were worried they wouldn't be able to spot the tiny pygmy horse, about the size of a golf paddle :

“South Africa's rock reefs present notoriously difficult diving conditions with adverse weather and intense, choppy waves; we knew we only had one dive to find it,” said scientist and study co-author Richard Smith. in a news release earlier this month.

However, Smith and Graham Short are the scientists who originally described the pygmy horse breed. Cylix: In 2021, the pygmy horse was originally found in the cool waters surrounding New Zealand's North Island.

“Fortunately, we spotted a female camouflaged against some sponges about a mile out on the sandy ocean floor,” Smith said in a news release.

They named the new breed of pygmy horses C. the kingafter the local Zulu word for “chief”, the academy says.

“Head” fish baffles researchers

Among the eight new species of fish discovered this year in the Alto Mayor region of Peru, the most shocking was the “head fish”. according to report published this month by the nonprofit group Conservation International.

In the summer of 2022, researchers from the group's Rapid Assessment Program conducted a biological survey of a largely unexplored area of ​​the central Alto Mai region and found what were later determined to be at least 27 species new to science and 49 species threatened with extinction. according to IUCN Red List.

Among those that were new was a “donut-headed fish”. Chaetostoma a genus that includes armored catfishes. The group's fish scientists had never seen a fish with an enlarged bulbous head before, Conservation International said.

“The function of this unusual structure remains a mystery,” the researchers said in a statement.

However, the species was already familiar to the indigenous Awaju people working with the Rapid Assessment Program, the researchers said.