--- title: The Top 10 New Species for 2014 description: The list includes a dragon tree, a skeleton shrimp, a gecko and a microbe found in the clean rooms where spacecraft are assembled. canonical: https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/ author: Bryan Walsh article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-22T11:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:22.072Z article:section: Science og:title: Top 10 New Species for 2014 og:description: A roundup of some of the most fascinating new forms of life og:url: https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteea8ebad31d96b48/6986905e361760143890c1d0/olinguito-basssaricyon-neblina-new-species-2014.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Top 10 New Species for 2014 twitter:description: A roundup of some of the most fascinating new forms of life twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteea8ebad31d96b48/6986905e361760143890c1d0/olinguito-basssaricyon-neblina-new-species-2014.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Top 10 New Species for 2014  by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/)  ## Bryan Walsh May 22, 2014 11:00 AM UTC  Olinguito Bassaricyon neblina Olinguito Bassaricyon neblinaMark Gurney—Smithsonian/Getty Images  by [Bryan Walsh](https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/)  ## Bryan Walsh May 22, 2014 11:00 AM UTC It may seem a bit early to [declare the top 10 new species](http://science.time.com/2013/12/04/science-and-space/slide/top-10-new-species/) of 2014—after all, the year is less than half over. But keep in mind that scientists [discover an average of 40 new species _a day_](http://news.discovery.com/animals/new-species-111213.htm), so there have already been plenty of freshly uncovered life to choose from. This year the list is being released by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s International Institute for Species Exploration—and the timing isn’t coincidental. Tomorrow is the 307th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish botanist Carl Linneaus, who laid down the groundwork for classifying life. And as the list shows, life is diverse. The collection includes a dragon tree, a skeleton shrimp, a gecko and a microbe that likes to hang out in the clean rooms where spacecraft are assembled. But there is still far more life to be discovered—scientists estimate that there are 10 million species remaining to be named and classified, five times the number we already know about. We’d better hurry though—while we discover about 15,000 new species a year, we may be losing up to [100,000 annually to extinction](http://wwf.panda.org/about%5Four%5Fearth/biodiversity/biodiversity/).  Tinkerbell Fairyfly Tinkerbella nana Jennifer Read  Skeleton Shrimp Liropus minusculus SINC  Domed Land Snail Zospeum tholussum Jana Bedek  Leaf-tailed Gecko Saltuarius eximius Conrad Hoskin—Reuters  Olinguito Bassaricyon neblina Mark Gurney—Smithsonian/Getty Images  Kaweesak's Dragon Tree Dracaena kaweesakii Dr. Paul Wilkin  ANDRILL Anemone Edwardsiella andrillae Dr. Frank R. Rack—ANDRILL Science Management Office/ University of Nebraska-Lincoln  Clean Room Microbes Tersicoccus phoenicis NASA/JPL-Caltech  Amoeboid Protist Spiculosiphon oceana Manuel Maldonado—CEAB-CSIC  Orange Penicillium Penicillium vanoranjei Cobus Visagie—CBS-KNAW ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/"},"headline":"Top 10 New Species for 2014","datePublished":"2014-05-22T11:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:22.072Z","description":"The best of the best when it comes to new life","url":"https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/","keywords":["Environment","climate change","Wildlife","monkeys","Extinction","Species","microbes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteea8ebad31d96b48/6986905e361760143890c1d0/olinguito-basssaricyon-neblina-new-species-2014.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bryan Walsh","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bryan-walsh/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteea8ebad31d96b48/6986905e361760143890c1d0/olinguito-basssaricyon-neblina-new-species-2014.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina","caption":"Olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina","creditText":"Mark Gurney—Smithsonian/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/107563/top-10-new-species-2014/","name":"Top 10 New Species for 2014"}}]}] ```