What haven't YOU discovered yet?
Housed at Arizona State University, the International Institute for Species Exploration (yes you read it right - cool, eh?) just released their annual list of top 10 new species. Among the proud recipients for 2008 are a 14" long insect (the world's longest), a species of coffee that is naturally decaffeinated, and a snail with a shell that pivots around four separate axes (pictured).
The list is compiled every year to highlight how incomplete our knowledge of our earth, really is. Since modern taxonomy and classification began in the 18th Century, an estimated total of 1.8 million species has been catalogued, which many scientists believe is a fraction of the number of living species on our planet; some estimate there may be as many as 100 million species alive today, of which of course, humbly we are but one.
And so this got us thinking. It would appear that when you think you've exhausted all avenues, and thought through every possible idea, there are still undiscovered ones that exist - you just don't know about them yet - and sometimes they're as elusive as a half-inch long seahorse.
