From fuzzy flowers to see-through sea slugs, here are some of the new species discovered last year by California scientists

"But as he swept his flashlight through the dark waters, something unexpected emerged. Inching through the beam of light, an alien creature crawled across the surface of the sand, resembling an inch-long cluster of ghostly leaves fringed with silvery filigree and capped with a pair of antennae-like stalks. It immediately caught my eye, said Gosliner, Invertebrate Zoology Curator for the California Academy of Sciences. I've been diving there for 30 years and this one immediately struck me as different."

"So Gosliner and his colleagues photographed the animal, collected and carefully examined samples and tested its DNA to reveal the strange specimen was a sea slug species dubbed Cyerce Basi, which had never before been documented. Along with tiny sea slugs, elegant birds and strange, fuzzy flowers, the marine oddity is just one of 72 species of plants, animals and fungi discovered by researchers at the California Academy of Sciences last year. They include creatures from far-flung lands as well as finds closer to home."

"Each new organism furthers our knowledge while hinting at just how much we have left to understand about the living things that share our planet and highlighting the importance of conservation in a changing world. Describing (a species) is the very first step to being able to conserve it. If you don't know it's there, if you don't know what it is, it's hard to worry about it, said Steven Beissinger, a professor emeritus of ecology and conservation biology at UC Berkeley who was not involved in the studies."

Scientists documented 72 new species of plants, animals and fungi, including a previously undescribed nocturnal sea slug, Cyerce Basi, found off the Philippines. The sea slug was photographed, morphologically examined and genetically tested to confirm it as a new species. Discoveries spanned both distant locations and nearby habitats, expanding knowledge of Earth's biodiversity. Each new organism reveals how much remains unknown about living systems and reinforces the role of species description in enabling conservation. Identifying species is presented as a fundamental step toward protecting them in a changing world.

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