Five Of The World’s Most Bizarre And Recently Discovered Species

Source: Wetenschap, http://www.wetenschap24.nl/.imaging/stk/wetenschap/zoom/media/wetenschap/noorderlicht/artikelen/2011/August/cover1small/original/cover1small.jpg

This weird fish has been classified as an eel, but as it differs from all known eel species in a number of distinct anatomical ways. It was first spotted in March 2010 off the coast of Palau in an underwater cave.

Source: Newswise, http://www.newswise.com/images/uploads/2006/06/13/fullsize/Laotian_rock_rat_5.jpg

First described as a new species in 2005, the locals around Laos’ Khammouan Limestone National Biodiversity Conservation Area have been using the Rock Rat as a food source long before scientists took an interest in it. Thought to be an entirely new species, there has been some controversy after DNA testing linked it to a long-extinct group of mammals known as the Diatomyidae.

Source: Wikimedia, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Nasikabatrachus_sahyadrensis.jpg

The Purple Frog spends nearly all its life underground eating termites and other invertebrates small enough to fit into its unconventionally shaped mouth. Surfacing for a few weeks a year to breed, it only garnered scientific attention in 2003, although farm workers in the Western Ghats region of India have known about it for quite some time.