A sea anemone that lives under an Antarctic glacier and a translucent snail from Croatia are among the top 10 new species of 2014 named by an international team of scientists on Thursday. The list comes from the nearly 18,000 species that were newly discovered last year.
The top 10 list, compiled this year by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s (ESF), has been released each year since 2008 to coincide with the birthday of 18th century Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.
The list should not be viewed as a ranking (there are no "losers" or "runners-up"), but instead to draw attention to the "biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of earth’s plants, animals and microbes," Quentin Wheeler, president of ESF, said in a statement.
Scientists estimate that there are 10 million species that still haven't been identified, five times the number that have already been named.
The following gallery includes photos of the top 10 new species and a few others suggested by Wheeler that didn't make the cut.
The skeleton shrimp was found in a cave on Southern California's Santa Catalina Island.
The olinguito is the first carnivorous mammal discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. It lives in the Andes cloud forests.
The domed land snail lives 3,000 feet underground in the caves of western Croatia and has no eyes. Only one living specimen has been collected.
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