Scientists announce top 10 new species,...( TEMPE Ariz. The International Insti...)

TEMPE, Ariz. The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists scientists responsible for species exploration and classification today announce the top 10 new species described in 2007.

On the list are an ornate sleeper ray, with a name that sucks: Electrolux; a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur; a shocking pink millipede; a rare, off-the-shelf frog; one of the most venomous snakes in the world; a fruit bat; a mushroom; a jellyfish named after its victim; a life-imitates-art Dim rhinoceros beetle; and the Michelin Man plant.

The taxonomists are also issuing a SOS State of Observed Species report card on human knowledge of Earths species. In it, they report that 16,969 species new to science were discovered and described in 2006. The SOS report was compiled by ASUs International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the International Plant Names Index, and Thompson Scientific, publisher of Zoological Record.

Photos and other information on the top 10 and the SOS report are online at species.asu.edu.

Among the top 10 picks is an ornate sleeper ray Electrolux addisoni whose name reflects the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray from the east coast of South Africa that may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets.

Also on the list is a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis discovered in southern Utah by a team from Alf Museum, a California-based paleontology museum on a high school campus.

From the plant kingdom is the Michelin Man™ plant Tecticornia bibenda a succulent plant in Western Australia that resembles the Michelin® tire man.

And, in the category of life imitating art is a Dim
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