Bug-eating slugs, fanged fish, and killer sponges (oh my)

May 26, 2010 11:16 AM

Attenborough's Pitcher, an "Udderly Weird Yam," a two-inch phallic mushroom already immortalized on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and the "Bombardier Worm" ("Chaff worm" would seem a more accurate name) are just four of the newly described species making the International Institute for Species Exploration's totally arbitrary Top 10 New Species list.

Unsurprisingly given the human impact on extinctions (previously, previously, previously), some of the "new" species (the list is culled from "the thousands of species fully described and published in calendar year 2009") are already endangered. As the less-explored corners of the world continue to yield new species, we see what the "diversity" in "loss of diversity" really means. Who could live in a world without the Ninja Slug, which "makes use of so-called 'love darts' in courtship to inject a hormone into its mate that may increase its reproductive chances"; the dwarf wallaby; this applause-worthy group of handfish; or the double-penis lizard?

posted by dust of the stars (6 comments total)

Am I missing something? This thing looks way more like a vagina than a penis to me.
posted by nathancaswell at 11:41 AM on May 26, 2010

NM, I figured it out. Those commas are confusing.
posted by nathancaswell at 11:42 AM on May 26, 2010

I'm sorry, but I feel I should have been warned in a much more forcefully about the existance of carnivorous sponges
posted by rtimmel at 12:53 PM on May 26, 2010

Yes, I was wondering how a mushroom was growing yams.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:48 PM on May 26, 2010

More species should be named after David Attenborough. That is all.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:10 PM on May 26, 2010

Phallus drewesii

"Named (with permission) in honor of Dr Robert C. Drewes (California Academy of Sciences) who initiated extensive multi-orgasm organism biodiversity studies on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe and who has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to research in Africa."

Now you know how I briefly misread that.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:22 AM on May 28, 2010