SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A cute-as-a-Teddy bear mammal, a 40-foot tree and a sea anemone that lives under a glacier are among thousands of new species discovered last year.
And today, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) is releasing a list of its favorites. The IISE is a group of taxonomists - scientists who name, describe and classify the world's plants, animals and microorganisms. It was founded by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry President Quentin Wheeler to highlight bio-diversity and the risks of extinction.
Species are going extinct faster than they are being identified, Wheeler notes. Without a baseline of what exists, humans will not know if something disappears, relocates in response to climate change or invades new habitats, he said.
Related story: A sample of past strange new creatures.
The IISE has been releasing a list of top species each year since 2008.
Scientists believe 10 million species await discovery, five times the number already known to science.
This year's top 10 were selected from among roughly 18,000 new species named during the previous year.
The list is being released today to coincide with the May 23 birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish botanist who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.
Here are the top 10 species of 2014:
Scientific name: Bassaricyon neblina
The olinguito, which resembles a cross between a slinky cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear, lives secretively in cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Colombia and Ecuador. It is the first new carnivorous mammal described in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.
It is an arboreal carnivore that belongs to the family Procyonidae, which includes the raccoon. The olinguito is smaller though, typically topping out at about 4.5 pounds. Its apparent dependence on cloud forest habitat means deforestation is a threat.
Kaweesak's Dragon Tree
Scientific name: Dracaena kaweesakii
Standing nearly 40 feet tall, it's hard to believe the dragon tree went unnoticed for so long. Sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream-colored flowers with bright orange filaments are the hallmarks of this impressive plant.
The dragon tree grows on limestone mountains in Thailand and may also be found in nearby Burma. With perhaps 2,500 trees growing on limestone that is extracted for the manufacture of concrete, it is considered endangered.
Scientific name: Edwardsiella andrillae
A species of sea anemone that lives under a glacier on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, the Andrill Anemone is the first species of sea anemone reported to live in ice.
It was discovered when the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program (ANDRILL) sent a remotely operated submersible vehicle into holes that had been drilled into the ice. This revealed the presence of the small creatures, less than one inch long. Most of the anemone's pale yellow body is burrowed in the ice and its tentacles dangle in the frigid water.
Scientific name: Liropus minusculus
This tiny shrimp, the smallest in the genus, was identified from among specimens originally collected from a cave on sunny Santa Catalina, off the coast of southern California.
Part of a marine family known as skeleton shrimp, this crustacean is the first of its genus to be reported in the northeastern Pacific. The new species has an eerie, translucent appearance that makes it resemble a bony structure. The male's body measures just an eighth of an inch; the female is less than a tenth of an inch.
Scientifc name: Penicillium vanoranjei
Distinguished by the bright orange color it displays when produced in colonies, this fungus was named as a tribute to the Dutch royal family, specifically His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange. It was reported in a journal published by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands. The new penicillium was isolated from soil in Tunisia. This species also produces a sheet-like extra-cellular matrix that may function as protection from drought.
Scientific name: Saltuarius eximius
It's not easy to see this gecko, which has an extremely wide tail as part of its camouflage. Its mottled coloration allows it to blend in with its surroundings.
Native to rain forests and rocky habitats, this gecko is active at night on vertical surfaces of rocks and trees as it waits for prey. The leaf-tailed gecko was discovered on rocky terrain in isolated rain forests of the Melville Range of eastern Australia.
Location: Mediterranean Sea
This one-celled organism is 1.5 to 2 inches high, making it a giant in the world of single-celled creatures.
This Amoeboid Protist gathers pieces of silica spicules, which are actually sponge fragments, from its surroundings and uses them like Lego blocks to construct its shell. It extends pseudopods (a protist's version of arms) outside its shell to feed on invertebrates that have become trapped in the spiny structures. This species was discovered in underwater caves 30 miles off the southeast coast of Spain.
Clean Room Microbes
Scientific name: Tersicoccus phoenicis
Found in rooms where spacecraft are assembled, this microbial species could potentially contaminate other planets that spacecraft visit. Tersicoccus phoenicis was independently collected from the floors of two separate clean rooms around 2,500 miles apart - in Florida and in French Guiana.
Although frequent sterilization reduces the microbes found in clean rooms, some resistant species persist that can tolerate extreme dryness, wide ranges of pH, temperature and salt concentration, and exposure to UV light or hydrogen peroxide.
Scientific name: Tinkerbella nana
Location: Costa Rica
The tiny size and delicately fringed wings of the parasitoid wasp family Mymaridae led to their common name, fairyflies.
Tinkerbella nana, named for Peter Pan's sidekick, measures just 0.00984 inches and is among the smallest insects. The new species was collected by sweeping vegetation in secondary growth forest at LaSelva Biological Station in Costa Rica.
Domed Land Snail
Scientific name: Zospeum tholussum
This Domed Land Snail lives in complete darkness nearly 3,000 feet below the Earth's surface in the Lukina Jama-Trojama caves of western Croatia. It has no shell pigmentation, giving it a ghost-like appearance.
Even by snail standards, Zospeum tholossum moves slowly, creeping only a few millimeters or centimeters (roughly an inch) a week.
Contact Dave Tobin at 470-3277, firstname.lastname@example.org or via Twitter: @dttobin