ASMA KHALID, HOST:
Each year, scientists add thousands of new species to the scientific record. Here to talk through a few of them is NPR's evolutionary biologist turned science correspondent, Jonathan Lambert. Good morning, Jon (ph).
JONATHAN LAMBERT, BYLINE: Good morning, Asma.
KHALID: So tell me what struck you as the most interesting species added to the roster.
LAMBERT: I want to start with clouded tiger cats, mostly because they're really cute...
KHALID: OK.
LAMBERT: ...But they're also this great reminder that there are these big, charismatic species out there that are still undiscovered.
KHALID: What do they look like?
LAMBERT: So they're about the size of a house cat, but they look kind of like little leopards. And scientists thought that there were only two species of them in South America, but in 2009, this biologist named Tadeu de Oliveira, who's like the expert on tiger cats, got an email that piqued his interest.
TADEU DE OLIVEIRA: When I saw, I was, like, kind of mesmerized by it.
KHALID: So how did he know that this was actually a different species, that it was any different than the other tiger cats out there?
LAMBERT: Yeah, so he's looked at a lot of tiger cats, and these ones seemed to just be a little different 'cause they had slightly different spots and their fur seemed thicker, and then on the video they looked like they were moving different. And so he had a hunch, but it took him and, like, 40 other scientists over a decade to actually prove that this was in fact a new species.
KHALID: Oh, wow.
LAMBERT: And so it just shows it can take a really long time to go from an observation that you've got a hunch about to describing a new species and putting it on the books.
KHALID: Jon, this is all fascinating to me 'cause I feel like I always hear about species that are endangered, and I don't really pay attention to new species being discovered, but, you know, it's a bit of a bright spot. So what else do you have for us?
LAMBERT: Yeah, yeah. I spoke with another biologist named Hugh Gabriel, who was an undergrad when he got on the path to naming a new species of frog in Madagascar.
HUGH GABRIEL: When I was doing a independent research project in the rainforest, I noticed these frogs that looked really different from anything I was seeing in the guidebook.
LAMBERT: He told me that these frogs were hidden within the leaves of these trees, and they just looked a bit smaller and their color was kind of off, sort of a coppery bronze. And so he wrote to the author of that guidebook, who agreed that these frogs did actually seem a little different, and they collaborated.
KHALID: That's cool. So he discovered a new species while an undergrad?
LAMBERT: Yeah. He actually discovered three new species, or described them. And all of these frogs spend their entire lives in these trees. They lay their eggs, they hatch, they eat little spiders all within the tiny pools of water that collect between the leaves. And this kind of lifestyle is unusual for frogs and pretty cool.
KHALID: Where are we headed next?
LAMBERT: So I want to stay in Madagascar 'cause it's such a richly biodiverse place...
KHALID: OK.
LAMBERT: ...And I want to add a plant to the list, specifically an orchid. Orchids are these plants that have these nectar spurs, which are like little tubes that feed nectar to pollinators. And this new species has one that's, like, a foot long, and that's actually the longest nectar spur relative to the flower size of any known plant. It's called Solenangis impraedicta, and it's pollinated by a moth with an equally long tongue.
KHALID: All right. So this is all really interesting, Jon, but these species are being found at a moment when a lot of biodiversity around the world is in trouble. So how do you square that?
LAMBERT: Yeah, there's climate change. There's deforestation. We risk losing these species just as soon as scientists are finding them. Each of these species is really an irreplaceable answer to the question of how to make a living on Earth, and scientists are racing to describe them before it's too late.
KHALID: All right. Well, thanks for walking us through this all, Jon.
LAMBERT: Thank you, Asma.
KHALID: That's NPR science correspondent Jonathan Lambert.
(SOUNDBITE OF NOBEL AND FRED PACI'S "SUNDAY SWAMP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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