Lotsoflivingthings,bigandsmall,livetheirliveswithouteverbeingnoticedbyhumans.Sometrees,flowers,microbes,insects,andevenpigs,whales,andmonkeyscangounnoticedforcenturies!Someofthesenewspecies,likethesnub‑nosedmonkey,liveinremoteplacesthatarehardtogetto.Butmanyarefoundclose by.

There’salotofbiodiversityonEarth.Scientistshavecollected,studied,andputintoclassificationsmillionsofthem.Still,therearemanymoreouttherethathaveyettobediscovered.Andanyonecandiscover them.

Astreakofmovementcatchesyoureye.Aflashoforangelandsonabranchinyourbackyard.Youtakeacloserlook.It’sgotsixlegsandwingsandisthesizeofyourpinky.It’saninsect,butit’slikenothingyou’veeverseenbefore.Haveyoudiscoveredanewspecies?Maybe,maybe not.

There’saspecificprocessforhowtoidentifyandnameanewspecies,anditcantakeyears.First,aspecimenhastobecapturedandcollected.Thenithastobestudiedbyexpertstomakesureitdoesn’talreadybelongtoaknownspecies.Theycompareittosimilarspecies.Ifitlookslikesomethingthathasbeendocumented,adeeperlookmay beneeded.ScientiststakeapeekattheDNAofthenewlydiscoveredspecimenandcomparethattotheDNAofthesimilarspecies.Ifitisnotamatch,thenthefun begins.

Scientistsnextwriteupadetailedreport.Itincludesprecisedescriptions,labresults,photographs,anddrawings.Italsocallsforanewname.Allofthisissubmittedtoascientificjournalwhereexpertsfromaroundtheworldcanlearnaboutit.Iftheseexpertsagreethatthisnewspeciesisvalid,thenitofficiallybecomesanew species.

Thefirstpartofthenameiscalledthegenus.It’sanameforasmallgroupofrelatedorganisms.Thesecondpartisauniquedescriptionwordthatidentifiesthespecies.It’scalledthespecificepithet.Forexample,threesmallandroundspeciesoffungusbeetlesarenamedGelaebaen(sounding like“jelly bean”), Gelae balae (“jelly belly”),and Gelae donut (“jelly doughnut”).ThegenusisGelae.It showsthattheyarerelated.Together,thegenusplusthespecificepithetisthefullscientificname.IftheLatinistoohardtosay,peopleoftenjustusethecommonname,likethe“jellybelly” beetle.