New discovery - Artensterben

Some of the rarest animal species in the world: from the nearly extinct vaquita to the red wolf, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, the Okinawa spiny rat, and the northern white rhino. These species now survive only in tiny populations.

8. May 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Fewer than 50 individuals: These animal species have almost disappeared

There are animal species worldwide whose populations have now shrunk to just a few dozen or even only single individuals. Many of them stand on the brink of extinction and survive only in small refuges or through elaborate conservation programs. The main cause of their decline is humans, for example

Tokara-Laubsänger / Tokara leaf warbler (Phylloscopus tokaraensis)

A singing male Tokara leaf warbler (Phylloscopus tokaraensis). The species is restricted to a few islands of Japan's Tokara Archipelago south of Kyushu. Such island endemics often occupy only very small habitats and are therefore especially vulnerable to environmental change. Image: Per Alström, Uppsala University, CC BY, via EurekAlert!

28. April 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Hidden diversity: Four newly recognized bird species from 2026

Even today, new bird species are still being discovered and described, although birds are among the comparatively well-studied animal groups. In many cases, however, these are not completely unknown animals, but species that were overlooked or misclassified for a long time. Only modern methods such as genetic analyses and bioacoustic

The northern pudu (Pudella mephistophila) is closely related to the newly discovered Pudella carlae from the Peruvian Andes—the first living deer species from the New World to be described in more than 60 years. (© Wikabyel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

30. November 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

From pygmy squids to giant hummingbirds: Newly discovered animals in 2024

While biodiversity loss threatens our planet’s biological diversity at alarming rates of up to 58,000 animal and plant species per year, there are also positive developments: every year, scientists describe thousands of new species. On average, around 18,000 new life forms are documented—including not only living organisms, but also extinct

The newly discovered scarab beetle species Semanopterus kingstoni was named after entomologist Tim Kingston, who had collected the only known specimen in 1979. (© Reid, Chris & TEES, NATALIE. (2023). A new, but possibly extinct, species of Semanopterus Hope, 1847 from Lord Howe Island, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae). Zootaxa. 5306. 563-570. 10.11646/zootaxa.5306.5.4.)

5. December 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

New beetle species with unique trait discovered on island

Australian researchers recently discovered a previously unknown species of scarab beetle (Scarabaeidae) in the insect collection of the Australian Museum in Sydney. The specimen in question, a female, was collected on January 30, 1979 on Lord Howe, a small island of only 14 square kilometers in the southwest Pacific. The

Neu entdeckte Tiere 2023: Krokodilsmolch Tylototriton ngoclinhensis

The species name ngoclinhensis refers to the type locality of the newly discovered Ngoc Linh crocodile newt (Tylototriton ngoclinhensis): Ngoc Linh Mountain in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. (© Phung TM, Pham CT, Nguyen TQ, Ninh HT, Nguyen HQ, Bernardes M, Le ST, Ziegler T, Nguyen TT (2023) Southbound – the southernmost record of Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam represents a new species. ZooKeys 1168: 193-218.)

9. November 2023 Doreen Fräßdorf

Newly discovered animals 2023

It is said that between 11,000 and 58,000 animal and plant species irreversibly go extinct each year, but there is also good news: around 18,000 new species are described and named by taxonomists each year; this number includes extinct or fossilized organisms, as well as bacteria and viruses. Even in

The Subantarctic rayadito, described as a new bird species in August 2022 from the Diego Ramírez archipelago, differs visually, behaviorally, and genetically from its mainland relatives. (© Rozzi, R., Quilodrán, C.S., Botero-Delgadillo, E. et al., via Wikimedia Commons)

3. September 2022 Doreen Fräßdorf

New bird species discovered on treeless archipelago

About 100 kilometers south of Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America, lie the one-square-kilometer Diego Ramírez Islands. They are home to the Subantarctic rayadito (Aphrastura subantarctica), which until recently was thought to be the thorn-tailed rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda), a species widespread in Chile and adjacent regions. A clue