A minnow with fangs. A carnivorous sponge. A deep-sea worm that releases green luminescent “bombs” when it is threatened.

These are just a few of the top 10 most interesting new species discovered in 2009, announced by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University.

An international committee of taxonomists–scientists who classify species–selected the winners out of the thousands of new species discovered last year.

Psychedelic frogfish. Image ©David Hall/seaphotos.com

The other winners include a golden orb spider, a sea slug that eats insects, a flat-faced frogfish with a psychedelic pattern, a two-inch mushroom, a banded knifefish, a plant that traps insects in pitchers the size of a football, and an edible yam that sports multiple lobes instead of just one. The top 10 new species come from all around the world, including Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States and Uruguay. 

The taxonomists also report that 18,225 living species new to science were described in 2008, the most recent year for which complete data are available. In addition, 2,140 new fossil species were described 2008.

Photos and other information about the top 10 new species, including the explorers who made the discoveries, are online at http://species.asu.edu. Also at the site is a Google world map that pinpoints the location for each of the top 10 new species.

“Each year, an international committee of taxon experts, helps us draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens in a fun-filled way by selecting the top 10 new species,” says Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of the International Institute for Species Exploration.

“Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth’s species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted,” says Wheeler.

The annual top 10 new species announcement commemorates the May 23 birthday of Carolus Linnaeus. Linnaeus started the modern system of plant and animal names and classifications. May 23, 2007 marked the 300th anniversary of his birth.

Since Linnaeus started the modern systems for naming plants and animals in the 18th century, about 1.8 million species have been named, described and classified. Scientists estimate there are between 2 million and 100 million species on Earth, though most set the number closer to 10 million.

Attenborough's Pitcher. Image courtesy of Alastair Robinson (University of Cambridge)