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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
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: Top new species from 2025

Liz Kimbrough 29 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
A Southern giraffe in Africa.

New study splits giraffe experts on future wild captures for zoos

Shradha Triveni 18 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

Sea anemones and hermit crabs form a mutualistic relationship in Japan

Bobby Bascomb 13 Nov 2025
Murina baletei. Image courtesy of D. Balete.

Six new tube-nosed bats described from the Philippines

Mongabay.com 31 Oct 2025
Pipistrellus etula. Image courtesy of Laura Torrent

World’s 1,500th known bat species confirmed from Equatorial Guinea

Shreya Dasgupta 14 Oct 2025
Newly described B. kanadii growing on a fir tree in a forest in Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India. Image courtesy of Arvind Parihar.

Massive fungus from India is newly described species

Mongabay.com 6 Oct 2025
The newly described pink bumpy snailfish. Image courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

Researchers describe three new-to-science snailfish species off California coast

Mongabay.com 11 Sep 2025
The newly described Himalayan long-tailed myotis. Image courtesy of Rohit Chakravarty.

New bat species described from Western Himalayas

Mongabay.com 1 Sep 2025
Flowers and leaves of the Vanda thwaitesii.

After 160 years, an old drawing leads scientists to a long-lost Sri Lanka orchid

Malaka Rodrigo 28 Aug 2025
A Mobula yarae, or Atlantic manta ray. Image courtesy of Maitê Baratella/Barracuda Imagens.

Third manta ray species confirmed in western Atlantic

Shreya Dasgupta 14 Aug 2025
Banner image of the black dwarfgoby courtesy of M.V. Erdmann.

Darkest-ever dwarfgoby fish gets named after Darth Vader

Kristine Sabillo 21 Jul 2025
Banner image of experts using NIR technology for laboratory analyses. Image by Miguel Monteiro.

‘Revolutionary technology’ uses scanners for easier species detection in the wild

Mongabay.com 15 Jul 2025
Mark Erdmann releasing a thresher shark. Photo courtesy of Mark Erdmann.

Sharks didn’t rebound—so Mark Erdmann is putting them back

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Jul 2025
Tyler Kartzinel’s research highlighted the gaps in DNA reference databases in tropical biodiversity hotspots.

DNA sequencing to meet global biodiversity goals: Interview with Tyler Kartzinel

Abhishyant Kidangoor 25 Jun 2025
Dendrelaphis melanarkys or black net tree snake. Photo by Fred Kraus.

Four new snake species discovered in Papua New Guinea

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Jun 2025
A Blyde rondawels flat gecko. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.

‘Absolutely ecstatic’: Scientists confirm survival of rare South African gecko

Ryan Truscott 20 May 2025
Banner image of Lily-Arison René de Roland, courtesy of The Indianapolis Prize.

Malagasy wildlife champion wins top global conservation award

Kristine Sabillo 15 May 2025
Bats may comprise at least 40% of the overall mammal diversity in Rwanda. Image courtesy of Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association – RWCA.

Discovery of critically endangered bat in Rwanda leads to conservation talks

Aimable Twahirwa 25 Apr 2025
Researchers find a new killifish species, Nothobranchius sylvaticus, in an an ephemeral swamp in the Gongoni Forest Reserve in Kenya. Image by Dirk Bellstedt.

Researchers find new killifish species in Kenya

Gilbert Nakweya 27 Mar 2025
An individual  of a newly discovered gecko species in Nepal now named Karan's bent-toed gecko after veteran Nepali herpetologist Karan Bahadur Shah. Image courtesy of Santosh Bhattarai,

Three new gecko species described in Nepal: Interview with herpetologist Santosh Bhattarai

Abhaya Raj Joshi 21 Mar 2025
The 2024 paper proposes Leopardus pardinoides, or the clouded tiger cat, as a new species. This small wildcat is found in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, south to Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. Image courtesy of Johanes Pfleiderer. Article title - A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain

Photos: Top new species from 2024

Liz Kimbrough 26 Dec 2024
Hylomys macarong, a smooth hedgehog

Greater Mekong serves up 234 new species in a year, from fanged hedgehog to diva viper

Carolyn Cowan 16 Dec 2024

Four of a kind: King cobra is a quad of species, not one, study finds

Shreya Dasgupta 21 Oct 2024

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