Vampire hedgehogs, pirate spiders and fishy fungi - the strangest new species of 2024

Thousands of new species have been discovered by scientists this year – here are some of the weirdest.

From the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Vietnam, thousands of weird and wonderful new plants, animals and fungi have been discovered all over the world this year. Whether they are creatures unearthed in a little explored corner of the globe, or a specimen lying hidden in a drawer of a museum, they give us an exciting glimpse of the precious variety of life on our planet.

The discoveries came amid growing frustration at the lack of progress being made on the international stage to halt unprecedented rates of destruction of the natural world. Human activities have increased the extinction of species to between 100-1,000 times faster than scientists say they would expect.

Despite the threats facing biodiversity around the world, biologists were still able to add a dazzling array of flora and fauna to the 2.2 million already known to science. Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences, for example, described 138 new animals, plants, and fungi including an endangered edible dahlia in Mexico, a pygmy pipehorse off the coast of South Africa, eight species of sea slugs and two ghost sharks. Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London added 190 new species, including a new species of piranha, three dinosaurs and a pterosaur found in Scotland.

Geneticists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries discovered that two distinct populations of killer whale in the North Pacific Ocean are separate species.

Meanwhile researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute in California discovered four new species of deep-sea octopus off the coast of Costa Rica and more than 100 new species of marine life in a deep ocean mountain range known as the Nazca Ridge, 900 miles (1,448km) off the coast of Chile.

But hidden within these discoveries are some truly unusual gems – species so odd they deserve a special mention. Here is our list of the weirdest natural discoveries of 2024.

Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, UK, and their collaborators have classified around 149 plants and 23 fungi from all corners of the globe, including three strange new fungi, notable for their distinctive smell of fish.

There are 800 described mushroom species in the Russula genus – a taxonomic group that species are organised into. Russula are fungi whose toadstools that have brittle gills and apple flesh-like stalks. Their hyphae – the long, branching filaments that grow underground – are often found in mutual relationships with trees. Some Russula fungi produce a strong smells, incluing almonds, cheese, gereraniums or an unmistakable smell of the ocean.

The three new species identified this year all produce trimethylamine compounds, giving them their pungent shrimpy, fishy odour when handled.

One of the new species – Russula lapponica – was found amongst the mixed birch, spruce, pine, hazel, elm and aspen woods of Lapland in Sweden, Norway and Estonia. Another called Russula neopascua was found to live alongside the alpine willow of the high Rockies in Colorado and Montana. Russula olympiana resides mostly in coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.

With soft, bristly fur covering its body instead of spines, the only spikey thing about this new species of hedgehog is to be found inside its mouth. Discovered in Vietnam, the male of this species has long fang-like teeth, which inspired its new scientific name, Hylomys macarong, as Ma cà rồng means "vampire" in Vietnamese. Looking a little like a cross between a mouse and a shrew and measuring 14cm (five inches) long, this furry nocturnal creature was actually first photographed in the wild by the Russian Vietnamese Research Centre in 2009. But a specimen of the animal has been stored and overlooked in dusty archive drawers at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC since 1961.

It was only when researchers began looking in detail at the remains of several soft-furred hedgehogs in different museums around the world with the help of genetic analysis did they realise that this one was a previously unrecognised species that was entirely new to science. Exactly what purpose the long fangs serve is still something of a mystery, however, but they appear to be larger in males, which suggests they may play a role in sexual selection. Hylomys macarong was just one of 234 new species discovered in the past year in the Greater Mekong region that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, just highlighting what a biodiverse region of the world it is.

Another of 2024's mysterious plant discoveries made by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, was a species of rattan, or climbing palm in western Borneo. With white undersides to its leaves and grey stems, the plant is known colloquially among communities as wi mukoup or wee mukup.

Found in protected rainforest areas in Malaysia and Indonesia, the palm has traditionally been used for basketry, and hasn't had a scientific name. This year, it was identified as Plectocomiopsis hantu – a nod to its eerie appearance, as hantu is the Indonesian and Malay term for ghost. A formal description should help to ensure it can be part of conservation attempts in the future.

Technically not a singular discovery, but a stretch of seafloor off the coast of New Zealand's South Island has emerged as a trove of over 100 new species. As part of Ocean Census' expedition, scientists have collected samples from as deep as 4,800m (15,748ft) underwater along the appropriately named 800km -long (498 miles) Bounty Trough.

Over the three-week voyage, a 'haul' of new marine species was found in the Pacific Ocean, including dozens of molluscs, three fish, a shrimp, a cephalopod and a new genera of coral. One creature particularly stumped scientists, which, first thought to be a sea star or a sea-anemone, is most likely a new species of octocoral.

Despite its fearsome name, this knobbly little amphibian is a shy creature. It was discovered hiding under rocks in a slow-flowing stream on a farm in a forested mountain pass in northeastern Vietnam. Named Tylototriton koliaensis after the Kolia Organic farm where it was found in the Kolia Mountain Pass in Vietnam's Cao Bang province, close to the border with China, the amphibian has a series of bony ridges and knob-like warts running down it's back, much like a crocodile. But that is where the similarities end – these diminutive amphibians grow to just 7.3cm (2.8in) in the larger females. They are almost entirely black in colour, except for the tips of their toes and fingers, which are bright orange. They also have small orange patches on their palms and a stripe of orange on the underside of their tails.

Crocodile newts are among the most threatened amphibians in the world and all known Tylototriton species have protected status under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The team of Russian, Vietnamese and French researchers who discovered the Cao Bang Crocodile newt, as they suggest its common name should be, say it is likely Tylototriton koliaensis will face similar threats from poachers and the illegal wildlife trade as it's cousins.

Castaway on a remote tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean, two new species of spider with a predilection for piracy were discovered by researchers. The spiders lurk in the threatened cloud forest of St Helena, a British Overseas Territory, where they have a habit of violently taking over the webs of other spiders and killing the occupants. Named Ero lizae and Ero natashae were identified after scientists conducted genetic analysis on specimens kept at the Natural History Museum in London and the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Belgium. While neither spider sports an eye patch or cutlass, the 4mm-long (0.15in) Ero lizae has two pairs of aggressive looking spike-like protuberances at the back of its body. Although it is not clear what purpose they serve, they give it a fearsome appearance.

Named after the world's most iconic frog, Kermitops gratus, is sadly no longer an existing species but has been preserved as a fossil. For the past four decades, this mysterious fossil skull has sat in the collections of Washington DC's Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, until this year when it was finally dusted off and given a name.

The bug-eyed appearance, along with the slightly crooked smile that the fossil has from being crushed as it fossilised, inspired researchers to name it after the famous puppet frog.

But despite its name, the new amphibian species more closely resembles an stout, bony salamander than a frog, making the name perhaps a little controversial. The creature lived around 270 million years ago in what is now Texas and likely fed on grub-like insects.

During a 38-day expedition to the Alto Mayo region of north-west Peru, researchers found 27 species that are new to science, including a rare amphibious mouse and an unusual looking fish.

The bizarre blob-headed fish was described by the scientists who found it as "a shocking discovery", and the unusual shape of its head remains something of a mystery. The creature, found in the rock mountain streams of the region, is a type of bistlemouth armoured catfish. While it was familiar to Indigenous Awajun people in the area, it is new to science.

The semi-aquatic mouse was found in a small patch of swamp forest has webbed toes, making it perfectly adapted to life in the water-logged environment where it lives. But the researchers noted that its home is already threatened by encroaching agriculture.

This year's discoveries of exotic megafauna, plants and fungi, has generated plenty of excitement amongst scientists. However, these discoveries also come with a warning of the "devastating" impacts of unchecked human activity on biodiversity, says Martin Cheek, a senior research leader with the Africa team at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

"We increasingly see that new species are being found on the edge of extinction, or even become extinct as we find them, and it's the destruction of their habitat by humans that is most often to blame," says Cheek. 

2025 will undoubtedly bring a fresh list of new species from across the world, while reminding us of the importance of protecting these creatures.

"Ultimately, the biodiversity crisis affects us and all and it has never been more important that we take an interest in and more consciously support global conservation efforts before we wake up one morning and realise that it's too late to do anything," adds Cheek.

* This article has been updated on 30 December 2024 to clarify that not all Russula fungi produce a fishy odour and that the genus includes species that produce other odours. 

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