Science Prospectors Find 300 New Species

Biologists from the California Academy of Sciences and its counterpart in the Philippines have found over 300 new species of animal life, both on land and in the sea.

Ranging from a starfish that only eats sunken driftwood to an inflatable shark, scientists say that over 90% of the world species have yet to be discovered.

But the purpose of this expedition of discovery to the Philippine island of Luzon was to find unique habitats and species in an effort to preserve land that is being rapidly developed and to expand protected marine sanctuaries.

Using sophisticated DNA sequencing and old-fashioned looking under a microscope, scientists will compare the new candidate species to vast databases of existing species to see just how many are really new to science.

Terrence Gosliner, the head of research collections at California Academy of Sciences says, “The Philippines is one of the hottest of the hotspots for diverse and threatened life on Earth.”

On a six-week expedition this spring, biologists hiked through the land and dove beneath the waves in search of new species. Despite being known for its rich biodiversity, the area is relatively unstudied. The Philippines is one point of the Coral Triangle, an area rich is sea life biodiversity stretching from Indonesia to New Guinea.

For all the scientists involved in the project, the most shocking revelation was the amount of garbage the teams found. They repeatedly said they found more trash than life. Divers even found barnacles that had apparently adapted to an underwater plastic environment. Even in 6,000 feet of water, they found plastic coating the ocean floor.

According to MSNBC.com’s Alan Boyle, “Among the suspected new species are dozens of types of insects and spiders, deep-sea corals, sea pens, sea urchins and more than 50 kinds of sea slugs.”

Scientists say they also came across a new kind of cicada that makes a distinctive “laughing” call.

In addition to protecting as yet undiscovered species from extinction before their existence is recognized, many species, including several sea slugs have been identified as key ingredients in future commercial drugs. Other species hold unknown solutions to problems we can only just imagine, which makes protecting biodiversity a key goal of this project.

Poisonous Sea Urchin in Philippines, photo by Terry Gosliner