Reptiles > Gekkonidae & Geckos
The Bumblebee Gecko (Nactus kunan) is one of the most vividly patterned and visually striking reptile discoveries of recent decades. Unveiled to science in 2012 by herpetologists exploring the remote Admiralty Islands of Papua New Guinea, this remarkable slender-toed...
Fish > Pleuronectiformes & Flatfishes
The Hydrothermal Vent Tonguefish (Symphurus thermophilus) represents one of the most astonishing evolutionary feats of vertebrate extremophile resilience on Earth. First described by marine ichthyologists in 2008, this small, tear-shaped flatfish thrives along active...
Birds > Gruiformes & Rails
The Calayan Rail (Aptenorallus calayanensis) is an extraordinary flightless rail discovered in 2004 on the rugged island of Calayan in the Babuyan archipelago of northern Philippines. Its discovery stunned the global ornithological community, representing one of the...
Birds > Strigiformes & Owls
The Long-whiskered Owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi) is an extraordinary, diminutive nocturnal raptor endemic strictly to the misty, epiphyte-draped cloud forests of the northern Peruvian Andes. Occupying its own monotypic genus, Xenoglaux (meaning ‘strange owl’),...
Mammals > Tarsiidae & Tarsiers
Wallace’s Tarsier (Tarsius wallacei) is a nocturnal, arboreal primate described in 2010 from the rugged interior of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Named in honor of legendary 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who co-discovered the theory of evolution...
