Recent Animal Discoveries

A little yellow bat, known as Rhogeessa tumida, is native to Mexico, Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Researchers discovered that several populations of this bat represent unique, previously unknown species.

Professor John Bickham, Purdue University / AP

A baby slender loris is seen in this photo released by the Zoological Society of London in 2007. The slender loris is about the size of a chipmunk, with long, pencil-thin arms and legs. They are nocturnal primates found only in the tropical rainforests of Southern India and Sri Lanka. They eat a wide variety of insects as their primary food.

AP

A new fish species (photo) has been found in Bali Fish Market in Indonesia. Twenty new species of sharks and rays have been discovered in Indonesia at local fish markets. The study carried out at 11 ports across Indonesia including Bali's fish market, resulted in 130 species being studied. Indonesia is generally considered to have one of the most diverse array of sharks and rays in the world.

CSIRO, Getty Images

The African Crowned Crane rests in its enclosure at the Zoological park in New Delhi, India in 2007. The National Zoological Park is spread over an area of some 214 acres and is a home to more than 2000 species of animals and birds from Africa, America, Australia and Asia.

Manan Vatsyayana, AFP / Getty Images

Baby Corroboree Frogs walk across the gloved palm of reptile keepei at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Around 130 of the critically endangered Corroboree frogs are being housed in a facility at the zoo to keep a safe population for genetic diversity. Only about 200 Corroboree frogs exist in the wild in their natural habitat in New South Wales - the only place in the world where they are known to exist. The deadly Chytrid Fungus, which attacks the frogs' skin eventually causing suffocation, is having a devastating impact on the species, leading to rising fears that they will become extinct in the wild within 5 years.

Ian Waldie, Getty Images

A frogfish (antennarius spp.) braces itself between a rock and it's tank in the Aquarium of the Pacific in California. The frogfish uses its fins to hold still for long periods of time on the ocean floor, usually perched between rocks and mimicking their appearance, as it waits for its prey. The frogfish can eat prey much larger than itself because it has an expandable stomach.

Robyn Beck, AFP / Getty Images

A new giant Antarctic amphipod crustacean nearly 100 mm long, belonging to the genus Eusirus, was found in baited traps off the Antarctic Peninsula. The collapse of two ice shelves in Antarctica has exposed an exquisite seabed ecosystem, including species of crustaceans and marine anemones that had never been identified.

Cedric d'Udekem d'Acoz, AFP / Getty Images

Paleontologists have discovered the fossil of a new species of tiny prehistoric flying reptile in northeastern China, a study released Monday said. The miniature reptile lived about 120 million years ago and was about the size of a sparrow, with a wingspan less than a foot across. The Nemicolopterus Crypticus was found in Luzhougou, China during searches developped by Brazilian and Chinese paleotologists.

Antonio Scorza, AFP / Getty Images

A spotted hermit crab ( Dardanus tinctor ), walks below the Mediterranean sea in Turkey coast. The body of most crustaceans is covered with a strong protective shell which, being rigid, does not grow as the animal develops. Thus they must substitute the old carapace with a new one, a delicate period as the new protection is not quite hard, so they are at the mercy of predators. Hermit Crabs have soft and undefended abdomens and have to find a shell in which to establish their home. The spotted hermet crab, often carries a few sea anemones and seaweeds on its shell, as their stinging tentacles keep away many predators.

Tarik Tinazay, AFP / Getty Images

A white blind scorpion, about five centimeters (two inches) long, is one of eight new aquatic species found in a cave in the Ramle region close to Tel Aviv, Israel. Species of blind scorpions are known to live in South America but it is the first time they have been discovered in the Middle East region.

Menahem Kahana, AFP / Getty Images