It may be Darwin's year, with the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species", but recently another prominent figure in the history of biology, Carl Linnaeus, got his day. Linnaeus is credited with laying the foundations of the way we organize species, known as 'taxonomy,' and scientifically name them with a two-word naming system called 'binomial nomenclature.' Although the approach to taxonomy has changed a lot since Linnaeus' time, his contributions to the study of life remain important. His birthday is now marked each year by the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE), which releases its top 10 list of the past year's newly discovered species each May 23rd, honoring Linnaeus and continuing his interest in the incredible variety of living and extinct species.
This swirling shell is from an Opisthostoma vermiculum snail, first described in 2008.
The list released recently to mark Linnaeus' 302nd birthday is a particularly cool one, featuring the world's longest insect, tiniest snake, and an ancient fish which gives birth to live young, among others first found in 2008. You can check out more pictures and commentary on the list at Popular Science and Scientific American.
It's mind-boggling that, even with about 1.8 million species officially named since 1758, most estimates indicate that at least 90% of living organisms remain undiscovered and unstudied. According to the IISE, 18,516 species were scientifically named and described for the first time in 2007, and there's no sign of our discoveries slowing down anytime soon.
As the video below argues, understanding biodiversity - the variety of living species - is important to our understanding of evolution and our approach to conserving earth's species.
Planet Bob
There are plenty more new species out there to find, many of which are sure to be even cooler than those on this year's list. Linnaeus is sure to have some pretty exciting birthday presents in the years to come.
-Tim
Author's Note: This was submitted to the blog by Tim, one of our corespondents.
Sources:
http://www.species.asu.edu/
http://species.asu.edu/Top10
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-05/years-coolest-new-species
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-new-species
Editor's Note: For more blogs from Dr. Rabiah, visit Science Chicago's website at: http://www.sciencechicagoblog.com
