最新一期的美國《時代（Time）》雜誌公布了2010年10大新物種評選結果，入選者包括長得像好萊塢電影「星際大戰」中尤達大師的管鼻果蝠（tube-nosed Fruit Bat），以及站立時身高為現代皇帝企鵝2倍的史前企鵝。
這10大新物種中，有不少多是今年首度被發現，包括棲息在哥倫比亞（Colombia）林的喙蟾蜍 (beakedtoad)，還有在巴布亞新幾內亞發現、體型和1頭肥貓差不多的巨型長毛鼠，以及後腿十分粗壯的螽蟴科昆蟲。
Time並將一種已絕跡的史前企鵝，列入今年的10大新物種；這種企鵝約在3600萬年前，活躍於現在的秘魯境內，其站立時的身高，比現存體型最龐大的皇帝企鵝（Emperor penguin）還高出1倍，據說科學家找到的骨骼化石還留有羽毛和腳蹼，是研究這些最早期企鵝體色和羽毛的稀有線索。
而在巴布亞紐幾內亞發現的、長相醜的可愛的管鼻果蝠，看起來就像電影《星際大戰（Star Wars）》中的尤達（Yoda）大師，其能在樹林中飛行，尋找果實果腹，然後將果實種子丟棄，有助於植物四處散布與生長，堪稱環保小幫手。
科學家並在巴布亞紐幾內亞（Papua New Guinea）發現一種喜歡在海拔2900公尺的地方築巢的樹犧，為了因應高海拔惡劣環境，牠們已能以緩慢的新陳代謝，來適應乾熱和濕冷天候，其強而有力的顎能張開180度，配合敏感觸鬚，能抓住任何路過的昆蟲。
喙蟾蜍是少數幾種成長過程不必經過蝌蚪階段的蟾蜍之一，卵孵化後就擁有蟾蜍外型，特徵是擁有鉤狀豬鼻子，2公分的迷你身形、身體顏色和生活週遭常見的枯葉很像，有助於牠們躲避天敵追捕。
另外，科學家在印尼婆羅洲（Borneo）發現體長僅1公分的銅褐色青蛙，是目前已發現的最小成蛙。而去年在厄瓜多（Ecuador）發現的厄瓜多玻璃蛙（Ecuadorean Glass Frog），隸屬瞻星蛙科（Centrolenidae），擁有透明皮膚，甚至連心臟跳動都可以看得很清楚。
科學家還在馬達加斯加（Madagascar）發現的所有種類的蜘蛛中，最擅長織網的高手達爾文吠蛛(Darwins bark spider)；科學家看到一張寬25公尺的蛛網，橫越一條河川，上面至少有30隻昆蟲被困，其吐出的絲，比他們以往研究過的蛛絲強韌一倍。
被列入10大新物種的還有10年前就在法屬圭亞那（French Guiana）發現，但今年才公布的藍牙狼蛛（Bluetooth Tarantula），其擁有美麗的湛藍色牙齒，全身覆滿狼蛛特有的毛髮，身長約2.5到7.5公分，喜歡捕食鳥類，顛覆一般鳥吃蟲的生物鏈秩序。
原文網址: 美時代雜誌公布10大新物種 玻璃蛙、食鳥藍牙狼蛛入列 | 頭條新聞 | NOWnews 今日新聞網 http://www.nownews.com/2010/12/14/11490-2673160.htm#ixzz182tPbiHy
1. Beaked Toad
A team led by Conservation International descended into the forests of Colombia to look for species of frogs not seen in decades and feared extinct. Some of the lost critters remain lost, but some new ones turned up, among them the beaked toad. Roughly the color of the dead leaves among which it lives, it is one of the only toad species that skips the tadpole stage and emerges from the egg as a fully formed toadlet. Its tiny, 2 cm (0.8 in.) size helps it hide from predators, but its most distinctive feature is its hooked snout. The expedition's lead scientist — in a singularly unscientific aside — compared the toad to "the nefarious villain Mr. Burns, from the Simpsons television series."
2. Darwin's Bark Spider
Say this for spiders: they know how to hoard food — particularly the newly discovered Darwin's bark spider, discovered in Madagascar. The most prodigious web-spinner of any known arachnid, the bark spider produces silk thought to be 100% tougher than any studied before. Good silk means good webs, and scientists found one example that stretched 25 m (82 ft.) across a Madagascar river. At least 30 insects were found trapped in the threads, meaning leisurely dining for the spider — and more food arriving all the time.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034038,00.html #ixzz182v4NwdX
3. High-Altitude Tree Ant
One of 200 new species discovered in Papua New Guinea, the tree ant makes its home about 1.8 mi. (2.9 km) above sea level. Conditions can be tough at such nosebleed altitudes, and the ants are thus adapted to both hot and dry and cold and wet conditions. The trick is a slow metabolism that allows them to make the most out of anything they eat and a tripwire jaw that helps them catch the most prey possible. The ant's mandibles are kept open a full 180 degrees and snap shut at the slightest brush against their touch sensitive hairs. Pity the soft-bodied insect that wanders across its path.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034037,00.html #ixzz182vYcwyn
4. Mossula Katydid
The New Guinea expedition discovered up to 30 new katydid species, including a green-skinned, pink-eyed beauty that copped most of the magazine glamour shots. But the no-nonsense Mossula was the one that most impressed the scientists. Equipped with unusually large and spiny hind legs, the Mossula makes the most of its natural weaponry. When threatened, it holds its legs straight up and jabs the spines at a potential enemy. The scientists — who look none too friendly from the katydid's perspective — discovered first-hand that this hurts.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034036,00.html #ixzz182vtjveH
5. Pea-Sized Pitcher Plant Frog
Little frogs can make a lot of noise, as Malaysian and German scientists in Borneo discovered when they went searching for the critters making the rasping sounds that usually begin as the sun goes down. Tracking the calls to pitcher plants, the researchers laid out a white cloth and tapped the leaves to see if anything emerged. Out jumped copper-colored frogs about 10 mm (0.39 in.) long, the smallest adult frogs ever seen. How small? Put one on the edge of a penny and it has to make at least one big hop to reach Lincoln's head.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034035,00.html #ixzz182wC9nZC
6. Ecuadorean Glass Frog
7. Giant Woolly Rat
Odds are, you wouldn't describe a woolly rat — or any rat, for that matter — as "insanely spectacular." But you're not Steve Backshall, one of the leaders of an expedition that ventured into the Bosavi crater in Papua New Guinea late one evening in 2010. He and his team stumbled across a new species of rat, which, unlike skittish urban rats, showed no fear at all. "It was quite happy just munching on tubers in front of us," Backshall says. The rat's rounded snout gives it a less weasely look than the typical city variety, but don't go all cuddly yet. "It was about the size of a cat," Backshall says. "Quite a good-sized cat, actually. A cat that's been feeding extremely well." The good news is that the rat seems content in its crater, so the subways are probably safe — for now.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034033,00.html #ixzz182wbMoCG
8. Tube-Nosed Fruit Bat
If it were a tiny bit less ugly it would be, well, just ugly. But the tube-nosed fruit bat, also hailing from Papua New Guinea, achieves the rare feat of being ugly-cute. Internet critter-lovers have been
calling it Yoda, which is a fair enough comparison, except that Yoda doesn't fly through forests, pooping seeds from its fruit-based diet and helping new plants disperse and grow — or at least not in the first six films. Until he does, the fruit bat wins the award for being both cute and environmentally very useful.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034032,00.html #ixzz182wwkuAo
9. Bluetooth Tarantula
There is almost nothing good to say about this critter, spotted in French Guiana a decade ago but announced formally only this year. It's from 1 to 3 in. long — which is too much spider for most people — and is covered in characteristic tarantula hair. It also has a taste for birds, which unsettlingly reverses the natural birds-eat-bugs order of things. The new tarantula does, however, come in bluetooth — which is to say is has cobalt blue teeth, and they're true beauties. O.K., so that's one nice thing you can say about it — but really, that's all.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034031,00.html #ixzz182xClbnK
10. Five-Foot Penguin
Not every cool, newly discovered species is still out there eating, breeding and raising young. Case in point: the fossil of a giant penguin that lived 36 million years ago in what is now Peru. With samples of both feathers and flippers preserved with the bones the remains offered researchers rare clues to the color and plumage of the earliest penguins. Their conclusions: the extinct birds were nowhere near the fancy dressers their modern-day descendants are, coming mostly in a standard reddish-brown or gray. But what the penguin ancestors lacked in style they made up in size, standing twice the height of today's pipsqueak Emperor penguin.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2035319_2034045_2034043,00.html #ixzz182xNQeRc
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