First published 30 December 2020
Despite an uncertain year, Natural History Museum scientists have described 503 new species to science.
This year has seen much activity at the Museum slow down and some of it come to a halt, as the Museum closed its doors to the public for the longest time since the Second World War. But through all this, researchers and scientists have been continuing their crucial work when and where they can.
Over the last 12 months, many have continued working and publishing with Museum scientists - including researchers, curators and scientific associates - managing to describe 503 new species. from almost all kingdoms of life, ranging from lichen, wasps and barnacles to minerals, miniature tarantulas and a monkey.
A monkey on a mountain
The highlight this year was a new species of monkey found living on the side of an extinct volcano in Myanmar. It was identified using skins and bones of the primate which had been in the Museum s collection for over 100 years.
The new monkey, now called the Popa langur (
Trachypithecus popa) after the mountain on which it is found, is already considered to be critically endangered with only 200-260 individuals left in the wild. We hope that the naming of the species will help in its conservation, says Roberto Portela Miguez, the Senior Curator in Charge of Mammals at the Museum who helped describe the new species.
Wed 30 Dec 2020 02.00 EST
Scarab beetles from New Guinea, seaweed from the Falklands and a new species of monkey found on an extinct volcano in Myanmar are among 503 species newly identified by scientists at the Natural History Museum.
The museum’s work in 2020 describing species previously unknown to science includes naming new lichens, wasps, barnacles, miniature tarantulas and a lungless worm salamander.
“In a year when the global mass of biodiversity is being outweighed by human-made mass it feels like a race to document what we are losing,” said Dr Tim Littlewood, executive director of science at the Natural History Museum. “Five hundred and three newly discovered species reminds us we represent a single, inquisitive, and immensely powerful species with the fate of many others in our hands.”
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