News about the natural world has not been great this year. Ice sheets are melting at unprecedented¹ rates, greenhouse gas emissions² are accelerating like “a speeding freight train,” insects appear to be disappearing. But in the midst of all this bad news, there’s a tiny bright spot: the scads of new species discovered in 2018.

今年自然界没有什么好消息。冰盖正在以前所未有的速度融化，温室气体排放像“高速行驶的货运列车”一样在加快速度，昆虫似乎正在消失。但在所有坏消息中也有个小亮点：2018年发现了大量新物种。

Scientists are finding tens of thousands of new species a year—there were 18,000 identified in 2016. But it’s also worth noting that we’re destroying species at an alarming rate. Because we know so little about what’s out there, it’s hard to quantify how much is being lost, but estimates vary from dozens to hundreds of species a day.

科学家每年都会发现数以万计的新物种——2016年有1.8万个。但同样值得指出的是，我们也在以惊人的速度摧毁物种。由于我们对大自然知之甚少，所以很难对灭绝的物种进行量化，但估计每天灭绝的物种有几十种到几百种不等。

“Biodiversity scientists estimate that less than 10% of species on Earth have been discovered,” says Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

位于美国旧金山的加利福尼亚州科学院的科学主管香农·贝内特说：“据研究生物多样性的科学家估计，地球上的物种被发现的只有不到10%。”

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Flattie spiders with ultra-fast spin moves

旋转拟扁蛛

Three new species in the spider family Selenopidae were discovered this year by researchers working with the California Academy of Sciences. These spiders, found in the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia, have the quickest pivot³ in the world, allowing them to change direction in an eighth of a second. Those quick moves enable them to catch prey⁴, unlike their better-known house spider relatives, who use webs to catch food.

加利福尼亚州科学院的研究人员今年发现了拟扁蛛科的三个新物种。这些在美洲、非洲、澳大利亚和亚洲发现的蜘蛛拥有世界上最快的旋转速度，能够在1/8秒内改变方向。它们捕获猎物靠的正是如此迅捷的动作，而它们的亲戚、更为人熟知的家蛛则通过结网捕食。

The leopard⁵ eel⁶

豹纹鳗

Despite what you might think at first glance, Siren reticulata is a salamander, not an eel, but it does have distinctive⁷, leopard-like spots. Discovered in waterways around the Florida panhandle, this new species is one of the largest to be found in the US over the last century—and confirms decades of rumored⁸ sightings by locals.

不管你第一眼看到它时是怎么想的，豹纹鳗其实是一种蝾螈，而不是鳗鱼，但它确实具有独特的豹纹。在佛罗里达州走廊的河道中发现的这一新物种是近一个世纪在美国发现的最大物种之一，也证实了几十年来有关当地人看到过这种生物的传言。

New croc

新鳄鱼

Mecistops leptorhynchus is the first crocodile species to be named in 80 years. The new species, also known as the Central African slender-snouted crocodile, was originally thought to be the same species as its cousin, Mecistops cataphractus, which lives in West Africa. Because the two species are now known to be distinct from one another, that means M. cataphractus is now critically endangered; there are only 500 of them left in the wild.

中非狭吻鳄是80年来第一个被命名的鳄鱼物种。它最初曾被认为与它的表亲西非狭吻鳄是同一物种。由于现在已知这两个物种并不相同，这就意味着西非狭吻鳄已经濒临灭绝，野生的西非狭吻鳄只有500只。

Genie’s dogfish

精灵狗鱼

This deepwater shark’s official species name is Squalus clarkae, but it’s being colloquially⁹ named “Genie’s dogfish,” after “Shark Lady” Eugenie Clark, a marine¹⁰ biologist whose life work revolved¹¹ around changing the public dialogue around sharks. This shark species was originally thought to be part of a different dogfish species called Squalus mitsukurii, but scientists discovered this year that it’s a species of its own. Squalus clarkae joins four fish species with the honor of being named after Clark.

这种深海鲨鱼的正式物种名称是太平洋尖吻星鲨，其俗称为“精灵狗鱼”。这是以“鲨鱼女士”尤金妮·克拉克的名字命名的——克拉克是一名海洋生物学家，她的毕生工作就是改变大众对于鲨鱼的误解。这种鲨鱼最初曾被认为属于另一种叫做“长吻角鲨”的星鲨物种，但科学家今年发现它其实自成一个物种。太平洋尖吻星鲨和另外4种鱼一样，成为以克拉克的名字命名的物种。

A bright new coral

鲜艳新珊瑚

Scientists discovered Thesea dalioi this year off the coast of Panama. Unlike its drabber cousin, Thesea variabilis, which lives off the coasts of southern California and Costa Rica, T. dalioi is bright red. Amid frequent news of dying coral, the discovery of a new coral species reminds us of the importance of preserving our undersea wildlife: who knows how many other undiscovered species await us, if we don’t kill them first?

科学家今年在巴拿马沿海发现了一种新珊瑚Thesea dalioi。与它生活在加利福尼亚州南部沿海和哥斯达黎加沿海的黄褐色表亲Thesea variabilis不同，这种珊瑚是鲜红色的。在众多关于珊瑚死亡的新闻中，新珊瑚物种的发现提醒我们保护海底野生生物的重要性：谁知道还有多少未被发现的物种在等着我们？如果还没被我们杀死的话。

The tree that went extinct before it was named

命名之前灭绝的树

The official designation of Vepris bali was more than 70 years in the making. A member of the Nigerian Forestry¹² Service collected a sample of the tree in Cameroon in 1951, but it wasn’t until this year that scientists identified the tree as its own species. In their paper detailing the discovery, researchers note that Vepris bali may already be extinct, since areas in which the tree would grow have been subject to heavy logging and clearing for agriculture. “It is hoped that naming this species will relaunch efforts to rediscover and protect this species from extinction,” the authors write.

Vepris bali的正式命名过程持续了70多年。早在1951年，尼日利亚林业局的一名工作人员就在喀麦隆采集到了这种树的样本，但直到今年，科学家才确定这种树属于独立物种。在详细介绍这一发现的论文中，研究人员指出，这种树可能已经灭绝，因为它生长的区域为了农业生产而遭到了大量砍伐和清理。论文作者写道：“人们希望，命名这一物种能让人们重新投入精力去发现并保护这些物种免遭灭绝。”

Twelve unnamed species: Your name here?

12个未命名的物种：有你的名字吗？

While a new species’ naming rights typically go to the researcher who discovered it, conservation non-profit Rainforest Trust is auctioning¹⁴ away naming rights for 12 new species discovered in South America. Among them are four orchid¹⁵ species, four frog species, and a legless amphibian¹⁶. Some scientists have voiced concerns that the practice of auctioning naming rights focuses too much on photogenic or charismatic species, and that it could even motivate taxonomists to fraudulently claim new species in the name of profit. Others are more enthusiastic¹⁷, pointing to the good that can come of the proceeds. The Rainforest Trust says money raised from their auction¹³ will be used to purchase and protect land in which the newly-named species can thrive.

一个新物种的命名权通常属于发现它的研究人员，不过非营利性组织雨林基金会正在拍卖南美洲发现的12个新物种的命名权。这其中包括4种兰花、4种青蛙和一种无腿两栖动物。一些科学家表示，他们担心拍卖命名权的做法会过度关注更上镜或有魅力的物种，甚至有可能促使分类学家为了获得利益而诈称发现新物种。另一些科学家则对此抱有热情，认为这样做可以带来好处。雨林基金会说，拍卖所得的资金将用于购买和保护新物种能够繁衍生长的土地。