Southern Butterwort

Plants > Lamiales

The Southern Butterwort (Pinguicula primuliflora) is an enchanting perennial carnivorous plant endemic to the soggy pine flatwoods and bog margins of the North American Gulf Coast. Characterized by its glossy, greasy rosette of pale chartreuse leaves and delicate...

Taliang Knobby Newt

Amphibians > Caudata

The Taliang Knobby Newt (Tylototriton taliangensis) is one of the largest and most striking members of the Asian crocodile newts. Confined to high-elevation montane forests and subalpine marshlands in the Hengduan Mountains of southwestern China, this charismatic...

Henderson Crake

Birds > Gruiformes

The Henderson Crake (Zapornia atra), also known as the Henderson Island rail, is an endearing, completely flightless rail found only on Henderson Island, an isolated raised coral atoll in the South Pacific. Surviving in complete geographical isolation, this all-black...

Carnivorous Cave Sponge

Invertebrates > Porifera

The Carnivorous Cave Sponge (Asbestopluma hypogea) upended scientific paradigms when discovered in a shallow submarine cave near Marseille, France, in 1995. While all sponges were historically considered passive suspension filter-feeders, this remarkable species...

Eternal Light Mushroom

Fungi > Bioluminescent Fungi

The Eternal Light Mushroom (Mycena luxaeterna) is an enchanting bioluminescent agaric discovered in the mist-veiled coastal Atlantic Rainforest of southeastern Brazil. Named after Mozart’s Requiem (‘Lux Aeterna’ meaning eternal light), this...