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        Glow-in-Dark Roach, World's Smallest Frog Among Top New Species

   A cockroach that glows in the dark, a black fungus that`s ruining
   prehistoric cave art and a frog smaller than a child`s fingernail.
   These are three in a top-ten list of newly discovered species for 2012.
   An international committee of taxonomists announced their annual picks
   this week.
   Committee chairman Antonio Valdecasas, a Spanish biologist and research
   zoologist, says the committee looks for organisms with "unexpected
   features or size, and those found in rare or difficult-to-reach
   habitats." Committee members also weigh the species` significance to
   humans. This is the sixth year the International Institute for Species
   Exploration at Arizona State University has selected the Top Ten New
   Species.
   Also on this year`s list are a tiny violet, a harp-shaped carnivorous
   sponge, the lesula monkey, a snail-eating snake and a flowering shrub
   from the endangered Madagascar forest. The committee also included an
   extinct hangingfly identified in a 165 million-year-old fossil, and a
   lacewing identified from an image a photographer shared on the
   Internet.
   An average of 18 thousand plant and animal species are discovered each
   year, but scientists have identified only about 2 million of the
   earth`s 10 to 12 million living species -- and that`s not counting most
   of the teeming microbial world. Quentin Wheeler, founding director of
   the Institute, called for "a NASA-like mission to discover 10 million
   species in the next 50 years." He said such an achievement could
   provide important new evidence about the origins of life on Earth, and
   new insights into how humans can live more sustainably on the planet.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/glowindark-roach-worlds-smallest-frog
   -among-top-new-species/1667936.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/glowindark-roach-worlds-smallest-frog-among-top-new-species/1667936.html