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62噸大樹、大型類人猿……這些是2018十大新物種

Sarah Gray 2018-06-02

每年新命名約1.8萬個物種，但估計每年至少有2萬個物種滅絕。

62噸重的瀕危大樹、美國加州圣地亞哥水族館里發現的原生動物、瀕臨滅絕的大型類人猿，這都是入選第11屆年度十大新物種榜單的神奇生物。

該榜單由紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院旗下物種考察國際研究所（IISE）編制，每年5月公布，以紀念瑞典生物學家卡爾·馮·林奈的誕辰。林奈被譽為現代生物分類學之父，加州大學伯克利分校表示，“他對生物的命名、排序和分類系統至今仍在廣泛使用（有一些改進）。”

包括植物、細菌、魚類和接近滅絕的哺乳動物在內，每年IISE評選的十大物種只是部分代表，由跨國甄選委員會從新物種之中挑選。

“每年命名約1.8萬個（物種），但估計每年至少有2萬個物種滅絕。”IISE的創始董事、紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院院長昆汀·惠勒在聲明中表示。

惠勒稱：“有很多物種如果找不到，及時命名并描述，將永遠不為人知。通過各種新物種我們才能明白到生態系統有多么復雜，從中了解生物演化的具體情況。面對生存競爭、環境和氣候條件的不斷變化，每個物種都在頑強生存。由于人類也面臨充滿不確定的未來環境，可以通過這些例子學習一些經驗。”

接下來，就讓我們來認識一下今年的十大物種：

An endangered 62-ton tree, a protist found in an aquarium in San Diego, an “imperiled” great ape: These are just three of the fascinating new species to make the 11th annual Top 10 New Species List.

The list is compiled by the International Institute of Species Exploration, which is part of State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and it is released in May each year to honor Carolus Linnaeus’s birthday. Linnaeus is known as the “Father of Taxonomy,” and according to the University of California, Berkeley, “his system for naming, ranking, and classifying organisms is still in wide use today (with many changes).”

The top 10 organisms — plants, bacterium, fish, and even extinct mammals — are just a sampling of new species discovered, and they are chosen by members of an international selection committee.

“We name about 18,000 [species] per year but we think at least 20,000 per year are going extinct,” Quentin Wheeler, ESF president and founding director of the IISE, said in a statement.

“So many of these species — if we don’t find them, name them and describe them now — will be lost forever,” Wheeler continued. “And yet they can teach us so much about the intricacies of ecosystems and the details of evolutionary history. Each of them has found a way to survive against the odds of changing competition, climate and environmental conditions. So each can teach us something really worth knowing as we face an uncertain environmental future ourselves.”

Here are the top 10 species:

1. Ancoracysta twista

圖中可見電子顯微鏡下觀看Ancoracysta twista細胞的超薄切片。中央核位于兩個帶深黑色的卵狀射出體（原核生物）之間，正在捕捉獵物。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

Ancoracysta twista是一種新發現的單細胞原生生物，發現地在圣地亞哥海洋研究所Scripps Institution of Oceanography的一個熱帶水族館。目前尚不清楚起源何處。

Ancoracysta twista is a new single-celled protist, which was discovered in a tropical aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Calif. Its origins in the wild remain unknown.

2. Dinizia jueirana-facao

圖中是一棵標準的Dinizia jueirana-facao樣本。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

Dinizia jueirana-facao 在巴西發現，是極度瀕危的一種樹。目前這種樹在全球只發現了25棵（其中一半都在保護區內），可以長到130米高，重約62噸。

Dinizia jueirana-facao is a critically endangered tree that is found in Brazil. There are only 25 known trees (half of which are in a protected area). It can be up to 130 feet tall and weigh around 62 tons.

3.Quasimodo側甲鉤蝦

圖見成年活體Epimeria quasimodo的副模標本。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

可能你已經猜到，Epimeria quasimodo 得名于法國文豪維克多·雨果在《巴黎圣母院》中的駝背主人公卡西莫多，因為同樣弓著背。環境科學與林業科學學院稱，這是南極洲海域新發現的26個側甲鉤蝦屬片腳類物種之一。

As you may have guessed, Epimeria quasimodo was named after Victor Hugo’s hunchbacked character Quasimodo, because of its shape. According to ESF, it is one of “26 new species of amphipods of the genus Epimeria from the Southern Ocean.”

4. Nymphister kronaueri

圖中為正面看附著在一只行軍蟻上的Nymphister kronaueri。圖片來自：克羅瑙爾博士，紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

這種小甲蟲生活在哥斯達黎加，16只疊在一起才有約2.5厘米長。它們寄居在工蟻背上，大小、形狀和顏色都和工蟻的腹部相同，騎在工蟻背上旅行。環境科學與林業科學學院發布的文章解釋說：“這種甲蟲利用口器抓住宿主腹部比較緊的表面然后掛住，跟著螞蟻從一處移動到另一處。”

These tiny beetles live in Costa Rica, and it would take 16 of them lined up to reach the length of an inch. They live amongst a species of worker ants and hitchhike on the back of the ants to travel — their bodies are the same size, shape and color of the ants’ abdomen. “The beetle uses its mouthparts to grab the skinny portion of the host abdomen and hang on, letting the ant do the walking as they move from place to place,” an ESF release explains.

5.Pongo tapanuliensis

Pongo tapanuliensis是嚴重瀕危的大型類人猿，估計現存僅800只，零散分布在蘇門答臘島的棲息地。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院。攝影者：安德魯·沃姆斯利?

Pongo tapanuliensis又名tapanuli orangutan，是一種居住在蘇門答臘島的瀕危大型類人猿，目前全球僅剩800只。

Pongo tapanuliensis, or the tapanuli orangutan, is an endangered great ape that lives in Sumatra. There are only around 800 of them left.

6.Pseudoliparis swirei

圖中為Pseudoliparis swirei，是生活在馬里亞納海溝的獅子魚。圖片來自：華盛頓大學麥肯齊·格林格、紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院海洋研究所

這種獅子魚生活在西太平洋馬里亞納海溝的最深處，身長約0.1米，形狀像蝌蚪，卻可能是附近海域的頭號捕獵者。

The swire’s snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei) lives in the deepest part of the ocean the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, where this four-inch tadpole-shaped fish appears to be a top predator.

7. Sciaphila sugimotoi

圖中可見Sciaphila sugimotoi的雌花。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

Sciaphila sugimotoi直徑0.1米，在日本的石恒島上發現。和大多數通過光合作用維持生存的植物不同，Sciaphila sugimotoi是一種異養生物，也就是說其養分來自其他生物。環境科學與林業科學學院解釋說：“這種植物和一種真菌共生，雖然不斷吸取營養，但不會造成傷害。”

This four-inch-high flower is found on Ishigaki Island in Japan. Unlike most plants, which sustain themselves through photosynthesis, Sciaphila sugimotoiis heterotrophic meaning it gets its nutrients from other organisms. “In this case, the plant is symbiotic with a fungus from which it derives nutrition without harm to the partner,” ESF explains.

8. Thiolava veneris

圖中可見聚居在海底火山巖的Thiolava veneris細部。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

2011年，海底火山Tagoro出現在臨近加那利群島中耶羅島的海面上，三年后，人們在Tagoro發現了Thiolava veneris 。環境科學與林業科學學院稱，這種變形菌門的生物“結構類似頭發，由鞘層包裹一些細菌細胞構成。”

Thiolava veneris was discovered three years after the submarine volcano Tagoro, located off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands, erupted in 2011. This proteobacteria form “long, hair-like structures composed of bacterial cells within a sheath,” according to ESF.

9.Wakaleo schouteni

圖中展示了科學家想象Wakaleo schouteni挑戰迪森袋狼的情形，背景是澳大利亞化石遺址里弗斯利的一片漸新世晚期森林。圖片來自：紐約州立大學環境科學與林業科學學院

和上榜的其他物種不同，科學家只在化石里找到了Wakeleo schouteni曾經存在的證據。這種有袋類獅子生活在距今約2300萬年前的漸新世晚期，棲息地在澳大利亞昆士蘭的西北部地區。

Unlike others on this list, scientists only have fossil evidence of the Wakeleo schouteni. Around 23 million years ago, during the late Oligocene era, this marsupial lion roamed in northwestern Queensland, Australia.

10.麗穴盲步甲