It's amazing to me that in 2018, we still continue to discover new species almost weekly

Florida scientists have just discovered an adorable, big-eyed species of dogfish shark, and the little creature looks like a mash-up of an alien and an anime character.

The newly identified species, Squalus clarkae, or Genie's dogfish, is named after the marine biology pioneer Eugenie Clark. It slinks around in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean. The sharks' monster peepers may look alarming, but these animals are relatively small, typically spanning no more than about an arm's length, from 20 to 28 inches long (50 to 70 centimeters).



There's a new species on the list of terrifying creatures of the Amazon: Calistoga crassicaudata. It's a tiny parasitoid wasp with a giant stinger that the female uses not only to paralyze her host but also to deposit eggs inside the unsuspecting creature (who will soon suffer a grueling death as the baby wasps burst out of its body).

Researchers published a striking image and detailed description of C. crassicaudata, along with six other new wasp species, in the journal Zootaxa. C. crassicaudata, which is just 9.8 millimeters long, boasts a somewhat phallic-looking stinger that is about half its body length.



Scientists have discovered a new species of "hobbit shrimp" that shares more than a feature or two with the protagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 children's fantasy novel.

The diminutive size and eight hairy limbs of the critter, dubbed Odontonia bagginsi, recall Bilbo Baggins, the reluctant halfling hero who found a magical ring, dueled giant spiders and plundered the hoard of a centuries-old dragon in Tolkien's "The Hobbit," according to Werner de Gier, a biology student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and his supervisor, Charles H. J. M. Fransen, a shrimp researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.The duo recently described their finding in ZooKeys, a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal.




A newfound species of tardigrade, or "water bear," with tendril-festooned eggs has been discovered in the parking lot of an apartment building in Japan.

The newfound tardigrade, Macrobiotus shonaicus, is the 168th species of this sturdy micro-animal ever discovered in Japan. Tardigrades are famous for their toughness: They can survive in extreme cold (down to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 200 Celsius), extreme heat (more than 300 degrees F, or 149 degrees C), and even the unrelenting radiation and vacuum of space, as one 2008 study reported.



Freddy Krueger, eat your heart out. A new species of parasitic wasp comes equipped with built-in saws, which the killer insect may use to slice its way out of its host's body.

In a new paper published Jan. 30 in Biodiversity Data Journal, researchers from Penn State and the Natural History Museum in London report the discovery of Dendrocerus scutellaris, a wasp less than 0.1 inches (3 millimeters) long that sports a series of jagged spines along its back.


More here, including new extinct animals discovered