Hello, welcome to wild suzhou. Today I will be talking about the discovery of new species.

With there being over 2 million discovered and recorded species on earth, it may seem like scientists are getting close to documenting every single one, but this is far from the truth. It’s impossible to know exactly how many species there are and this number would be fluctuating constantly. Scientists are still discovering new species all the time. Scientists debate the estimate of how many total species there are on earth, guesses ranging from about 9 million to even tens of millions. A large part of this ambiguous number is because places like the deep ocean or the amazon rainforest are just so inaccessible and difficult to navigate.

Another question that might come up is how are researchers able to tell if a specimen they find is new, or already part of the immense amount of other species. The first thing they do after finding a species is by taking a detailed analysis of its biology and characteristics to see what it could be, and if they find it is unique enough, other scientists will weigh in and confirm or counter. A new technology is DNA sequencing, which is an even more accurate way to determine the makeup of an animal's genealogy.

Some of the most recently discovered animal species include the bright blue tarantula found in the mangroves of Thailand. The spider is not actually blue but it appears to be because of the way it’s hairs reflect light. Its venom is not enough to kill humans and since being discovered, people have started collecting them as pets.

Another is a collection of 6 slightly different species of pygmy chameleons, discovered in the mountains of Tanzania. The eastern Arc mountains are very biodiverse, and although the species were discovered in the same range, they are all slightly differently adapted to their unique biome. These chameleons can be as small as 1.5 centimeters.

Additionally, a new frog was discovered with a quality that scientists had never seen before, this being that the frog does not croak at all and is actually silent. It is called the Ukaguru spiny throated reed frog, and researchers have theorized that the spines on the throat serve as an identifier between them.

For wild suzhou I’m Elysia and thanks for listening.