Taxonomy tells us how animals, plants and the planet are changing. But without better funding and more young scientists, we will be left with millions of anonymous species, says Roger Dobson
Roger Dobson
March 14, 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/taxonomy-the-naming-crisis-2240872.html
Ranitomeya amazonica, a frog with a remarkably colourful fan of orange and red flame patterns around its head, is one of 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates discovered in the Amazon biome over the last decade
It was under the last rock of the day, that scientists finally came face to antennae with the giant crayfish of Shoal Creek. Twice as big as its competitors, the hairy crayfish, which can grow to lobster proportions, was a new species not previously seen.
Scientists had begun the search for the creature, now named Barbicambarus simmonsi, after anecdotal reports and sightings in creeks around Tennessee. "It was the end of the day and we saw this big flat boulder underneath a bridge and so we said, 'OK. Let's flip this rock, just for the heck of it; this will be our last one','' says co-discovers Dr Guenter Schuster. "And sure enough, that's where we got the first specimen, a big male.'"
The hairy crayfish is one of an estimated 16,000 new species that have been found over the past 12 months, bringing the size of the known animal kingdom to some 1.4 million species. But there is still a long way to go. There are more than five million which remain to be found, according to new research, which warns that at the present rate of cataloguing them all will take 360 years.
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March 15, 2011