Recent Discoveries

Thousands of new species are discovered yearly, including hundreds of animal species. Many of these discoveries are of subspecies of known species, but sometimes, someone is lucky enough to stumble across a never-before-seen brand-new species. 

It’s quite incredible to think that even today, when humans have seemingly explored every inch of our planet, there are still discoveries being made and organisms being uncovered. It just shows how little we still understand about our own natural world.

We like to keep you informed about any new animals discovered and any other news in the scientific community! 

The Study of Animals

Th overall study of animals is called zoology, but there are also several sub-disciplines of zoology, including: 

Latest Discoveries

Scientific Classification of Animals

The scientific classification of species is known as taxonomy. The seven main taxonomic ranks are, in order: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. 

Humans, for instance, are taxonomically ranked as follows: 

1. Kingdom: Animalia
2. Phylum: Chordata
3. Class: Mammalia
4. Order: Primates
5. Family: Hominidae
6. Genus: Homo
7. Species: sapiens

A scientific name is always written as the genus (which is capitalized) and species (which is lowercase), and these two should always be italicized. These two ranks are the most specific and unique for each species. Humans are, thus, Homo sapiens. 

All animals are of the kingdom rank Animalia. The further down the ranks go, the more closely related an animal becomes. Scientific classification allows scientists to define and understand the evolution of species and who new species may be related to. 

Recent Discoveries In The News

FAQs

Read more on animal science:

• Conservation
• Rare sightings