Photo gallery: Top 10 newly discovered species

Something that looks like a cross between a sleek cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear and roams the Andean cloud forests, as well as an eyeless snail that lives in darkness 3,000 feet below ground in Croatia, ranked among the top 10 new species discovered last year, a group of scientists announced on Thursday.

An international committee of taxonomists and other experts assembled by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry selects the top 10 species each year and releases it in time for the May 23 birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish botanist considered the founder of modern taxonomy.

The list, assembled since 2008, is intended to draw attention to the fact that researchers continue to discover new species. Nearly 18,000 were identified in 2013, adding to the 2 million known to science.

Scientists believe nature holds another 10 million undiscovered species, from single-celled organisms to mammals. Many scientists worry that thousands are becoming extinct faster than they are being identified, according to entomologist Quentin Wheeler, president of The State University of New York’s environmental science college.

"The top 10 is designed to bring attention to the unsung heroes addressing the biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of earth's plants, animals and microbes," Wheeler said in a statement.

And as zoologist Antonio Valdecasas of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, who is chair of the top 10 committee, pointed out, "We are very far from having exhausted the knowledge of the biodiversity on Earth." 

Reuters