Top Ten New Species of 2008

Every year the scientist from the the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) scour the world's ecosystem to reveal new species from the plant and animal kingdoms.


1. Pygmy Seahorse or Satomi's Pygmy Sea horse. A pea sized sea horse found in Derawan Island in Indonesian Borneo. (Hippocampus Satomiae)

2. Swirling Snail that twists itself around four axes.(Opisthostoma vermiculum)

3. Barbados Thread Snake as thin as spaghetti and with a total length of just ten centimetres.
(Worlds smallest snake) (Leptotyphlops carlae)


4. Decaf Coffee/Charrier Coffee. A plant, Coffea charrieriana is the first record of a caffeine free species from Central Africa.


5. Tahina Palm. A gigantic rare genus of palm tree found in Madagascar that literally flowers itself to death. (Tahina Spectabilis)

6. Spray-on species/Extra Hold Bacteria. A bacteria discovered in hairspray by Japanese Scientist.(Microbacterium hatanois)

7. Stick insects/Stretch Bug. The worlds longest insect, resembling a stick, with a length up to 57 cm. (Phoebaeticus chani)

8. Ghost slug/Spooky Slug. A carnivorous pale slug found in a garden in Wales. (Selecnochlamys ysbryda)

9. Damsel/True Blue. A species of blue damselfish found deep in the Pacific.(Chromis Abyssus)

10. Fossil/Live Birth Fish. A fossilies mother fish from Western Australia. (Materpiscis attenboroughi)