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Male and female Kongobatha spinosistyla in North Queensland. Image by Maurice Allan.

Three new ‘planking’ praying mantis species found in Australia and Papua New Guinea

Megan Strauss 8 Jun 2026
Microeledone galapagensis, a tiny blue octopus, was found in the deep sea in the Galapagos. Image courtesy of the Charles Darwin Foundation.

New golf-ball sized blue octopus species now identified in the Galapagos

David Brown 5 Jun 2026

Tiny ‘sesame’ sea slug discovered in Taiwan is first of its genus named in 30 years

Naina Rao 4 Jun 2026

New species of ghost pipefish named after Sesame Street character found in Australia

Naina Rao 28 May 2026
A new species of carnivorous “death ball” sponge from the genus Chondrocladia, discovered off the South Sandwich Islands. Image courtesy of ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Ghost shark, carnivorous sponge among 1,000+ newly discovered marine species

Shreya Dasgupta 20 May 2026
Pit viper (trimeresurus lii)

New animals discovered in Cambodian caves

Shanna Hanburry 20 May 2026
image of Attenboroughnculus tau, courtesy of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum.

Scientists mark Attenborough’s 100th birthday with newly named wasp

Shreya Dasgupta 14 May 2026

In Mozambique, four isolated mountains yield four new chameleon species

Naina Rao 8 May 2026
A newly described species of skink named Kungaka

Indigenous knowledge helps identify new, highly threatened skink in Australia

Megan Strauss 24 Apr 2026
New-to-science microsnail, Clostophis udayaditinus. Image courtesy of Somsak Panha, the lead author of the species description.

Translucent microsnail discovered in Cambodia: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 21 Apr 2026

A new bird species has been discovered in Japan after 45 years

Naina Rao 13 Apr 2026

New mahogany species found in Zanzibar — but fewer than 30 trees remain

Ryan Truscott 9 Apr 2026
Collage of the 24 new Amphipod species identified in Clarion-Clipperton Zone, CC BY, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

24 new species found in ocean zone eyed for battery metals mining

Liz Kimbrough 9 Apr 2026
A new species of pit viper was discovered and is still in the process of being described. Image courtesy of Fauna & Flora.

New species discovered in Cambodia’s rare rocky ecosystems

Shanna Hanbury 2 Apr 2026

Working together, Indigenous peoples & researchers describe new Amazonian palm

Sofia Moutinho 1 Apr 2026
Lake Victoria in Kenya. Image by Jozef020 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

World Water Day: Earth’s freshwater reveals new species & faces mounting threats

Mongabay.com 22 Mar 2026
The Ranitomeya aetherea poison dart frog. Image courtesy of Alexander Mônico.

An ‘ethereal’ new-to-science poison dart frog from the Amazon: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 19 Mar 2026

Two marsupials thought extinct for 6,000 years found alive in Indonesian Papua

David Brown 17 Mar 2026

A fish a day: More than 300 freshwater species described in 2025

Spoorthy Raman 13 Mar 2026

Photos: Kew Gardens’ top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025

Liz Kimbrough 12 Jan 2026
Rhinophis siruvaniensis was recently described in a paper based on specimens first collected by a tour guide 10 years ago on a coffee farm in India. Image courtesy of Umesh P.K.

New species of burrowing snake described from coffee farm in India

Mongabay.com 12 Jan 2026
Purisima Creek, California in December 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The conservation ledger: What we lost and what we gained in 2025

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jan 2026

Deep-sea ‘hotels’ reveal 20 new species hiding in Pacific Ocean twilight zone near Guam

Liz Kimbrough 31 Dec 2025
O. shunkusacha

A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk

Astrid Arellano 30 Dec 2025
Myotis nimbaensis, shown here, is a new species of bat named for the mountain range in which it is found, the Nimba Mountains in West Africa. Photo © Kendra Snyder / Bat Conservation International.

Rare bats at risk as iron ore mine advances in Guinea’s Nimba Mountains

Victoria Schneider 30 Dec 2025
Newly described hooded jewel-babblers (Ptilorrhoa urrissia) from Papua New Guinea. Image courtesy of I. Woxvold/B. Gamui.

New species of jewel-babbler from Papua New Guinea may be endangered

Shreya Dasgupta 30 Dec 2025
Photos of Nepenthes megastoma, a newly described critically endangered species endemic to Palawan in the Philippines, showing its lower pitcher (a) and two distinct variant forms of its upper pitcher (b-c). Image courtesy of Altomonte et al., 2025 (CC BY-NC-ND).

New pitcher plant found in the Philippines may already be critically endangered

Shreya Dasgupta 24 Dec 2025
The newly described Brachycephalus lulai. Image courtesy of Luiz Fernando Ribeiro.

New miniature bright-orange toadlet found in southern Brazil and named after Lula

Mongabay.com 23 Dec 2025
A fungi in the family Hygrophoraceae. This fungi, which may represent a new genus, is rare and restricted to California’s coastal regions, says Singer.

Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map

Sean Mowbray 20 Dec 2025
Thismia selangorensis, courtesy of Gim Siew Tan.

A new ‘fairy lantern’ species is found at a Malaysian picnic site

Shreya Dasgupta 9 Dec 2025

Peru’s Río Abiseo park yields new marsupial, hinting at more undiscovered species

Yvette Sierra Praeli 2 Dec 2025
Female Megachile lucifer. Image by Prendergast et al., 2025 (CC0).

Newly described ‘lucifer’ bee found visiting critically endangered plant in Australia

Shreya Dasgupta 14 Nov 2025

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