New Species

Top 10 new fish species of 2014

The last few years have been really hot ones for the discovery and description of new reef fish species and 2014 was no slouch either. Sometimes it seems like new species descriptions are dominated by dwarf gobies of the Eviota and Trimma genera,…

Teardrop ‘maxima’ clams are now a distinct species, Tridacna noae

Tridacna noae is a newly recognized species of giant clam which reefers have been enjoying in our aquariums for many years now. We’ve always been told that the morphology of the shells of giant clams is the key to identifying…

Eviota algida is cute new species of nano goby from the heart of Indonesia

A short distance off the southeast coast of Bali, there lies a smallish island called Nusa Penida which is the discovery site for a new species of nano goby. Eviota algida joins a parade of new species to be described in…

Three new species of dwarf gobies from the Cayman Islands

A new paper recently published in the Journal of Ocean Science Foundation is a doozy of an article with an incredible wealth of information on the dwarf gobies of the Cayman Islands. The primary intent of the paper was to…

Monotypic no more – Two possible new Navigobius species

Navigobius dewa is a beautiful and sensational species of Ptereleotrine dart fish that was first discovered and described in 2009, with specimens coming from Kagoshima Bay, in the south of Japan. The distinct features of Ptereleotrine fish is seen in its slender body…

Cirrhilabrus squirei finally gets an official description

Cirrhilabrus squirei is a new species of fairy wrasse from the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea which was first discovered and collected by Cairns Marine of Australia. The new fairy wrasse species is named after Lyle Squire and…

Pachyseris inattesa is a newly described coral from the Red Sea

Pachyseris inattesa is a new species of plating stony coral recently described from several locations around the Red Sea up and down the coast of Saudi Arabia. Colonies of the newly described Pachyseris inattesa was previously confused as belonging to the Leptoseris genus…

Ovabunda adamanensis is a new species of soft coral from Thailand

Ovabunda is a Xeniid genus of soft coral which was just endowed with a new species from Thailand, Ovabunda andamanensis. The genus Ovabunda was created to split off a number of Xenia species into this separate grouping of soft corals which are different…

Sousa sahulensis is a new species of Australian humpback dolphin

Sousa sahulensis is a new species of Australian humpback dolphin which was recently described from what is now a pool of four species of the marine mammals. Fore nearly two centuries questions existed about the exact nature of the population…

Potential new species of seahorse collected in New Zealand

An unknown seahorse has been discovered in the shallow coastal waters of New Zealand. During recent surveys using a beam trawl, researchers collected this unidentified species of seahorse from New Zealand’s Northland Islands. The small brown Syngnathid is just about 3cm…