The world has millions of animal species, scientists discover new animal species more often, adding to the world’s incredible biodiversity. Researchers have already discovered plenty of new species in 2021, and here are few species which are on the newbie list.
Rice’s whale
January 2021, NOAA researchers used genetic data to identify a variant of the baleen whale in the northern Gulf of Mexico as a new species. Earlier there had only been one species of the baleen whale, aka Bryde’s?like whale, along with two subspecies. The species was previously known as the Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whale; but now that it’s been identified as its own species, it has been named Rice’s whale, Balaenoptera ricei. There are fewer than 100 Rice’s whales in the wild.
Yellow king penguin
In February 2021, wildlife photographer Yves Adams finally published photos of an incredible sight he spotted in South Georgia, a small island north of Antarctica: a yellow king penguin. The creature was waddling along with a massive group of king penguins, who were black and white with some yellow plumage. this penguin doesn’t necessarily represent an entire new species, it’s still am incredible discovery. You can see the photo.
Yellow lobster
In February 2021, a lobsterman caught a rare yellow lobster, he donated it to the University of New England for research. He may not be the world’s first yellow lobster, the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine stated that the chances of catching a yellow lobster is about 1 in 30 million. The institute added that the yellow color comes from a pigment in the lobster’s shell. So while this also may not technically be a new species, it’s still an exciting new discovery.
Fleshy verdigris lichen, Cora timucua
In January 2021, scientists from the Florida Museum of Natural History announced the discovery of a new species of fleshy verdigris lichen called Cora timucua. According to their report published in ScienceDaily, the people who originally collected this species, between 1885 and 1985, misidentified the specimens. The Florida Museum of Natural History researchers conducted a recent DNA analysis from the museum, and have identified them as a new species called Cora timucua. The researchers believe these lichen are critically endangered, but possibly extinct, because no one has seen any evidence of them in the wild since 1985.
Black-browed babbler, Malacocincla perspicillata
Two Indonesian men on Borneo photographed a bird they’d never seen before — and recently, ornithologists identified the bird as the black-browed babbler, aka the black-browed wren babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata), a species that has not been seen in more than 170 years. Local ornithologists were able to confirm that the bird was in fact a black-browed babbler by its “strong bill, chocolate colouring, and distinctive black eye-stripe” as well as its “striking” maroon iris.”
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