Something New Under the Sun

the carniverous Chondrocladia lyra, discovered in 2013                 2013 MBARI

We hear a lot about how species are dying out. According to the World Wildlife Fund, although exact numbers are impossible to come by, scientists can say with certainty that the species loss we're experiencing now is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate, or the rate at which species would die out if humans were not present (http://bit.ly/1yePPsI). That's a huge range, but even the lower number is significant. At the other end of the spectrum, we are finding new species all the time ~ 15,000-20,000 per year, in fact: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141124-new-species-found-under-our-noses and http://www.livescience.com/topics/newfound-species/