The Natural History Museum identified 552 new species this year, including six new dinosaurs, an Indian beetle named after Larry the cat, and dozens of crustaceans critical to the planet's carbon cycle.
In the year of 2021, researchers described a pair of giant dinosaurs known as spinosaurs, as well as five new snakes, including the Joseph's racer, which was identified with the help of the researchers.
Scientists at the London-based museum focused on describing existing collections and species that were present millions of years ago.
Two new species of spinosaur dinosaurs were discovered on the Isle of Wight. Anthony Hutchings is pictured.
The year has been a great one for the description of new dinosaurs, especially from the UK, according to Dr. Maidment, a senior researcher in paleobiology at the museum. The application of new techniques and new data from around the world is helping to uncover a hidden diversity of British dinosaurs.
The earliest known dinosaur from the UK, Pendraig milnerae, was among four UK dinosaur species described by researchers.
More than half of the new species identified at the museum this year were copepods, small shrimp-like creatures found in salt and fresh water. They form a large part of zooplankton on which fish and other animals feed, playing a vital role in the planet's ecology and carbon cycle.
The copepods are among the biggest carbon sinks in the oceans. The scientists described
The museum's department of life sciences has a researcher who identified the crustaceans with a South Korean colleague.
The huge Monniot collection was made available to us, and we had time to go through it, as we were both recently retired. The collection was so large that completing the series of papers became my lockdown project.
There is a new species of jewelweed discovered in east Africa. Eberhard Fischer is pictured.
There were 52 wasp, 13 moths, seven crabs, six flies and five amphipods. In 2020, there were 90 new species described. There were a pair of metallic beetles from India, a beetle with a large pair of jaws from the Philippines, and a beetle named after Larry the cat.
A specimen of a new bush-cricket from south-east Asia that was known for its song before it was ever seen was finally determined to be a species found in Singapore, which has been sitting in the museum since 1984.
Five new plants from eastern Africa are known as jewelweeds or touch-me-nots, they produce delicate pink or white flowers, except for a few species which have switched to red flowers to attract birds rather than butterflies for pollination.
The plants, as well as the new species of algae, six parasites and three diatoms were identified.
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