These caught my eye

I'm certainly not the first to find articles on the Web, so this one has already been blogged about in better environs than mine. But it's still interesting to show off my multivarious, multi-faceted interests and broad-ranging personality, so thus I will post the link.

Scientists Announce Top 10 New Species

Intro: "The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists - scientists responsible for species exploration and classification - have announced the top 10 new species described in 2008. On the list are a pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee and bacteria that live in hairspray. The top 10 new species also include the very tiny (a snake just a slither longer than 4 inches or 104 millimeters), the very long (an insect from Malaysia with an overall length of 22.3 inches or 56.7 centimeters) the very old (a fossilized specimen of the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate) and the very twisted (a snail whose shell twists around four axes). Rounding out this year's list are a palm that flowers itself to death, a ghost slug from Wales and a deep blue damselfish."

I found a couple of pictures of the strangies:

Barbados threadsnake:










Twisted snail (note that a live one has not been found yet):



















Ghost slug (National Geographic says it's a "flesh-eating" ghost slug; it eats worms, not people):