The Earth is full of fascinating animals, most of them probably unknown to us. Some are adorable, some are creepy, and some of them we never heard of nor did we know they existed. Here are 8 newly discovered animals you can teach your little brother about.
1. Tuco-tuco
New species of these adorable rodents were discovered in Bolivia. Tuco-tucos live underground and they have very preeminent teeth. Their name is not only funny, but also very naturally driven from the sound they make when they communicate to one another, a sort of loud “tuc-tuc” sound. The discovery is very huge, since new species of mammals are rarely discovered, mostly because given their large size, they are hard to miss.
2. Transparent snail
This transparent snail has no eyes, no colored pigments and, also, has almost no ability to move. It was discovered in Croatia by scientists from Goethe University in a dark underground cave named Lukina-Jama Trojama, one of the deepest in the world. The cave systems have an unusual microclimate with various temperatures distributed in layers, which makes the possibly of new discoveries even greater.
3. Lesula
Lesula is a monkey discovered in Congo. As you can see, it has human eyes. Another distinctive sign is its blue bottom. You can find it in a small number so the possibility of the lesula of becoming an endangered species in a few years is very serious. Currently it’s enlisted as “vulnerable” because the monkey faces serious threats. Lesula looks really adorable with its human gaze and pose, so, maybe, besides the diversity threat caused by its disappearance would, it is so difficult not to feel that we are also threatened as human beings.
4. Olinguito
This sounds like something really small in Spanish. Olinguito is a “bear-cat”, an adorable one, which was discovered in Colombia and Ecuador. Olinguito eats fruits, nectar and small insects, but it also appears to be a shy animal, which makes it one of the most likeable from the newly discovered animals.
5. Pea-sized Frog
This frog was discovered in 2010 in Borneo, Southeast Asia. As you can see, it is really small and in the beginning, scientists thought they saw baby frogs. They later realized these were adults.To understand the scale, you need to know that the adult size of this frog is somewhere between 10.6 to 12.8 milimetres.
6. Vampire Frog
It is exactly what you think, a frog that eats hot blooded animals. This adorable looking frog actually eats birds and it was discovered in Southeast Asia. The male frogs are really aggressive. They fight each other and most of the time ending with limbs being cut or injured.
7. Caqueta monkey
What is so adorable about this monkey is that it purrs like a cat and it’s really tiny. Although it is a newly discovered animal according to international scientific community, its existence was somehow guessed back in 1976. Colombia, the country where the animal was first observed, was in conflict at the time, so the confirmation arrived much later. Now it’s enlisted as being critically endangered, with less than 250 individuals.
8. Blossom Bat
This little guy was discovered during an expedition in New Guinea, Indonesia. The cute looking bat feeds on nectar using the tongue to reach the trees for it. For this reason it is known as the “hummingbird of the bat world”. Because of their feeding behavior, blossom bats are very small, just 60 millimeters long, which means they can fit really nice in the palm of your hand. Their enemies are honey bees, for obvious reasons.
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