旋轉蜘蛛,豹紋鰻和紅珊瑚,年這些新物種值得關注

News about the natural world has not been great this year. Ice sheets are melting at unprecedented rates, greenhouse gas emissions are accelerating like “a speeding freight tRain,” insects appear to be disappearing. But in the midst of all this bad news, there’s a tiny bright spot: the scads of new species discovered in 2018.

今年自然界沒有什麼好消息。冰蓋正在以前所未有的速度融化，溫室氣體排放像“高速行駛的貨運列車”一樣在加快速度，昆蟲似乎正在消失。但在所有壞消息中也有個小亮點：2018年發現了大量新物種。

Scientists are finding tens of thousands of new species a year—there were 18,000 identified in 2016. But it’s also worth noting that we’re destroying species at an alarming rate. Because we know so little about what’s out there, it’s hard to quantify how much is being lost, but estimates vary from dozens to hundreds of species a day.

科學家每年都會發現數以萬計的新物種——2016年有1.8萬個。但同樣值得指出的是，我們也在以驚人的速度摧毀物種。由於我們對大自然知之甚少，所以很難對滅絕的物種進行量化，但估計每天滅絕的物種有幾十種到幾百種不等。

“Biodiversity scientists estimate that less than 10% of species on Earth have been discovered,” says Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

位於美國舊金山的加利福尼亞州科學院的科學主管香農·貝內特說：“據研究生物多樣性的科學家估計，地球上的物種被發現的只有不到10%。”

Flattie spiders with ultra-fast spin moves

旋轉擬扁蛛

Three new species in the spider family Selenopidae were discovered this year by researchers working with the California Academy of Sciences. These spiders, found in the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia, have the quickest pivot in the world, allowing them to change direction in an eighth of a second. Those quick moves enable them to catch prey, unlike their better-known house spider relatives, who use webs to catch food.

加利福尼亞州科學院的研究人員今年發現了擬扁蛛科的三個新物種。這些在美洲、非洲、澳大利亞和亞洲發現的蜘蛛擁有世界上最快的旋轉速度，能夠在1/8秒內改變方向。它們捕獲獵物靠的正是如此迅捷的動作，而它們的親戚、更爲人熟知的家蛛則通過結網捕食。

The leopard eel

豹紋鰻

Despite what you might think at first glance, Siren reticulata is a salamander, not an eel, but it does have distinctive, leopard-like spots. Discovered in waterways around the Florida panhandle, this new species is one of the largest to be found in the US over the last century—and confirms decades of rumored sightings by locals.

不管你第一眼看到它時是怎麼想的，豹紋鰻其實是一種蠑螈，而不是鰻魚，但它確實具有獨特的豹紋。在佛羅里達州走廊的河道中發現的這一新物種是近一個世紀在美國發現的最大物種之一，也證實了幾十年來有關當地人看到過這種生物的傳言。

New croc

新鱷魚

Mecistops leptorhynchus is the first crocodile species to be named in 80 years. The new species, also known as the Central African slender-snouted crocodile, was originally thought to be the same species as its cousin, Mecistops cataphractus, which lives in West Africa. Because the two species are now known to be distinct from one another, that means M. cataphractus is now critically endangered; there are only 500 of them left in the wild.

中非狹吻鱷是80年來第一個被命名的鱷魚物種。它最初曾被認爲與它的表親西非狹吻鱷是同一物種。由於現在已知這兩個物種並不相同，這就意味着西非狹吻鱷已經瀕臨滅絕，野生的西非狹吻鱷只有500只。

Genie’s dogfish

精靈狗魚

This deepwater shark’s official species name is Squalus clarkae, but it’s being colloquially named “Genie’s dogfish,” after “Shark Lady” Eugenie Clark, a marine biologist whose life work revolved around changing the public dialogue around sharks. This shark species was originally thought to be part of a different dogfish species called Squalus mitsukurii, but scientists discovered this year that it’s a species of its own. Squalus clarkae joins four fish species with the honor of being named after Clark.

這種深海鯊魚的正式物種名稱是太平洋尖吻星鯊，其俗稱爲“精靈狗魚”。這是以“鯊魚女士”尤金妮·克拉克的名字命名的——克拉克是一名海洋生物學家，她的畢生工作就是改變大衆對於鯊魚的誤解。這種鯊魚最初曾被認爲屬於另一種叫做“長吻角鯊”的星鯊物種，但科學家今年發現它其實自成一個物種。太平洋尖吻星鯊和另外4種魚一樣，成爲以克拉克的名字命名的物種。

A bright new coral

鮮豔新珊瑚

Scientists discovered Thesea dalioi this year off the coast of Panama. Unlike its drabber cousin, Thesea variabilis, which lives off the coasts of southern California and Costa Rica, T. dalioi is bright red. Amid frequent news of dying coral, the discovery of a new coral species reminds us of the importance of preserving our undersea wildlife: who knows how many other undiscovered species await us, if we don’t kill them first?

科學家今年在巴拿馬沿海發現了一種新珊瑚Thesea dalioi。與它生活在加利福尼亞州南部沿海和哥斯達黎加沿海的黃褐色表親Thesea variabilis不同，這種珊瑚是鮮紅色的。在衆多關於珊瑚死亡的新聞中，新珊瑚物種的發現提醒我們保護海底野生生物的重要性：誰知道還有多少未被發現的物種在等着我們？如果還沒被我們殺死的話。

The tree that went extinct before it was named

命名之前滅絕的樹

The official designation of Vepris bali was more than 70 years in the making. A member of the Nigerian Forestry Service collected a sample of the tree in Cameroon in 1951, but it wasn’t until this year that scientists identified the tree as its own species. In their paper detailing the discovery, researchers note that Vepris bali may already be extinct, since areas in which the tree would grow have been subject to heavy logging and clearing for agriculture. “It is hoped that naming this species will relaunch efforts to rediscover and protect this species from extinction,” the authors write.

Vepris bali的正式命名過程持續了70多年。早在1951年，尼日利亞林業局的一名工作人員就在喀麥隆採集到了這種樹的樣本，但直到今年，科學家才確定這種樹屬於獨立物種。在詳細介紹這一發現的論文中，研究人員指出，這種樹可能已經滅絕，因爲它生長的區域爲了農業生產而遭到了大量砍伐和清理。論文作者寫道：“人們希望，命名這一物種能讓人們重新投入精力去發現並保護這些物種免遭滅絕。”

Twelve unnamed species: Your name here?

12個未命名的物種：有你的名字嗎？

While a new species’ naming rights typically go to the researcher who discovered it, conservation non-profit Rainforest Trust is auctioning away naming rights for 12 new species discovered in South America. Among them are four orchid species, four frog species, and a legless amphibian. Some scientists have voiced concerns that the practice of auctioning naming rights focuses too much on photogenic or charismatic species, and that it could even motivate taxonomists to fraudulently claim new species in the name of profit. Others are more enthusiastic, pointing to the good that can come of the proceeds. The Rainforest Trust says money raised from their auction will be used to purchase and protect land in which the newly-named species can thrive.

一個新物種的命名權通常屬於發現它的研究人員，不過非營利性組織雨林基金會正在拍賣南美洲發現的12個新物種的命名權。這其中包括4種蘭花、4種青蛙和一種無腿兩棲動物。一些科學家表示，他們擔心拍賣命名權的做法會過度關注更上鏡或有魅力的物種，甚至有可能促使分類學家爲了獲得利益而詐稱發現新物種。另一些科學家則對此抱有熱情，認爲這樣做可以帶來好處。雨林基金會說，拍賣所得的資金將用於購買和保護新物種能夠繁衍生長的土地。