Vampire hedgehog, Pygmy pipehorse, “blob-headed” fish among new species identified in 2024

A vampire hedgehog, a pygmy pipehorse and a”blob-headed” fish were among the hundreds of new species identified in 2024. 

The variety of species identified was quite eclectic and names for the new species crossed a broad spectrum of locations and formations — some even inspired by politicians or celebrities. 

A new plant bug species was named after Vice President Kamala Harris (P. kamalaharrisae) and another after Harrison Ford (P. harrisonfordi) for their commitments to climate and conservation science, said California Academy of Sciences researcher Brad Balukjian, who introduced 17 new species in the Pseudoloxops family from French Polynesia.

Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio had a new species of snake named after him. Researchers discovered the small copper-colored snake in the Himalayas and named the species Anguiculus dicaprioi.

Locations where scientists discovered these species included Peru, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Greater Mekong region in South Asia. The California Academy of Sciences said their scientists made findings across six continents and three oceans, which led to describing 138 new animal, plant and fungi species.

“Finding and describing new species is vital for understanding the biodiversity of our planet and protecting it from further loss,” said virologist Shannon Bennett, chief of science for the California Academy of Sciences.

The number of new species identified in 2024 cannot be tallied or determined by one list. Researchers present their findings in various papers, conferences and among the scientific community. Inclusion is made tricker because discoveries can be made by anyone, anywhere, but describing and identifying a new species requires a scientific process. 

That process involves study and analysis of the new specimen and similar organisms, and then assigning the species a new name. A species can be discovered, but may not necessarily be described until years later.

Bennett told CBS News that when scientists describe a new species, they liken it to “a coming out ball.” For the first time, Bennett said, the species is correctly identified and finally has its place in the world. 

Regardless, Bennett said “scientists estimate that we’ve identified only one-tenth of all species on Earth.”

Here are some of the 2024 highlights. 

Vampire hedgehog, a soft-furred hedgehog with “fang-like teeth”

According to a report from WWF, 234 species were identified this year in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Among them was Hylomys macarong, a vampire hedgehog. The soft-furred hedgehog with fang-like teeth inspired its scientific name. The word Ma cà rồng is Vietnamese for “vampire.”

First photographed in 2009 in the wild in Vietnam by a team from the Russian Vietnamese Research Centre, the vampire hedgehog was identified as a new species as part of an international effort to revise the taxonomy of lesser gymnures, the WWF said. 

Specimens that helped lead to the description of the vampire hedgehog were housed in the Smithsonian, researcher Arlo Hinckley told WWF. He stressed the importance of maintaining collected specimens from “poorly sampled regions” in order for “the next generation” of researchers to make new discoveries that may have been overlooked. 

Pygmy pipehorse, found off the coast of South Africa

Researchers at the California Academy of Scientists knew they might discover something new after local divers in South Africa’s Sodwana Bay told them about an unfamiliar species. But scientists were worried they would not be able to spot the tiny pygmy pipehorse — about the size of a golf tee. 

“South African reefs present notoriously difficult diving conditions with rough weather and intense, choppy waves — we knew we only had one dive to find it,” said scientist and study co-author Richard Smith in a news release earlier this month.

But Smith and Graham Short — the scientist who originally described the pygmy pipehorse genus Cylix in 2021 — were undeterred, according to the academy. Originally the pygmy pipehorse was found in the cool temperate waters surrounding the North Island of New Zealand. Discovering a new species in subtropical waters expanded the range of the group.

“Luckily we spotted a female camouflaged against some sponges about a mile offshore on the sandy ocean floor,” Smith said in the news release. 

They named the new pygmy pipehorse species C. nkosi, after the local Zulu word for “chief,” the academy said. 

“Blob-headed” fish baffles researchers

Among eight new species of fish identified in Peru’s Alto Mayor region this year, the most shocking was the “blob-headed fish,” according to a report published this month by the nonprofit group Conservation International.   

In the summer of 2022, researchers with the group’s Rapid Assessment Program conducted a biological survey across a largely unstudied area in Alto May’s central region and found what was later determined to be at least 27 species new to science and 49 species that are threatened with extinction, per the IUCN Red List. 

Among those that were new was a “blob-headed fish” in the Chaetostoma genus, which includes bristlemouth armored catfish. The team’s fish scientists had never seen a fish with an enlarged blob-like head, Conservation International said. 

“The function of this unusual structure remains a mystery,” researchers said in a statement. 

However, the species was already familiar to Indigenous Awajun people who were working with the Rapid Assessment Program, researchers said.