Evidence Of A New Niche For A North American Salamander: Fill & Download for Free

Now this is going to be a long answer, my longest ever surely. Let’s blitz through the nations of the world, alphabetically.Fingers crossed this answer doesn’t flop due to its length, I’ll try to make it as interesting as I can. We're off to a somewhat dull start with Afghanistan, but things are gonna get a lot more exotic as we go on.Afghanistan: The Afghan snowfinch, I guess. Unusually for such a small bird, it lives at very high altitudes in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, and inhabits the burrows dug by mammals such as jerboas and marmots.Albania: The Ohrid trout. A predatory fish weighing an impressive 17 kilos, it’s found in the huge and ancient lake of Lake Ohrid, which boasts 200 endemic species. The trout is considered a “living fossil” due to its striking similarity to fossils from millions of years ago.Algeria: The Edough ribbed newt. Ribbed newts are known for having lumps on their sides called tubercles; through these, their ribs can puncture through at will, which are coated in poison. This defense mechanism is effective against predators, but harmless to humans.Andorra: Drassodes andorranus, it’ll have to be. There are nine known species endemic to Andorra, two of which are plants, only one of which is even on Wikipedia and none of which are vertebrates. This 1 cm long ground spider is the most interesting-looking of them.Angola: The first country here with some very interesting endemics. I’m going to choose the giant sable antelope. This magnificent, 240-kilogram beast has horns nearly as long as an average woman is tall. Despite being a national symbol of Angola, the civil war has decimated its population and rendered it critically endangered.Antigua and Barbuda: Definitely the Antiguan racer. This snake is critically endangered but also has benefited from large conservation efforts - it is one of the only sexually dimorphic snakes, and perhaps the only animal which has been wrongly pronounced extinct multiple times.Argentina: The hooded grebe. This waterbird is famous for its amazing courtship ritual; breast to breast, the male and female swing their heads back and forth and then pedal their feet rapidly so that they raise their bodies above the surface. My description doesn’t really do it justice, you should look it up.Armenia: The Armenian cochineal. Historically, this scale insect was used to produce the crimson dye vordan karmir, which was highly prized all over Europe. Used to dye everything from religious manuscripts to textiles, by the Renaissance a kilo of these insects could fetch you 5 grams of gold.Australia: There are literally hundreds of candidates, but I’m going to have to go with the platypus. With a beaver-like tail, electrosensory bill, cloaca, no mammary glands, sprawling gait, keratinous pads instead of teeth, bizarre skull, eyes like jawless fish, venomous spurs, antibiotic proteins in the milk, and abnormally low body temperature… it’s really goddamn weird.Austria: The Bavarian pine vole. This small mammal is a Lazarus taxon - it was declared extinct in 1962, and then after a long period of almost 40 years, was discovered in Tyrol, Austria. Before its “extinction”, it was only known from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, a town where I’ve been.Azerbaijan: I’m gonna go with the khari-bulbul; not an animal, but a plant. This beautiful orchid is endemic to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, and has reportedly inspired some of the dresses of a famous Azerbaijani fashion designer.Bahamas: After Angola and Oz, this is the third country where I’ve been spoilt for choice. In any case, I’ve settled on the New Providence cusk eel. This degenerate fish lives only in underwater caves and blue holes, and due to the darkness down there it has lost its eyes and pigmentation. It looks quite alien.Bahrain: The convinct zebra sole is one of only two known Bahrain endemics (the other is a moth), though as it’s an island nation it probably has more. This is a stripey species of flatfish known from only two specimens. It’s never been photographed before, but here’s a close relative:Bangladesh: Bangladesh has very few endemic vertebrate species, all three of them frogs. The most interesting is probably Fejervarya frithii; it was discovered in 1868… and never seen again. As such, we know practically nothing about it. The below photo is of another Fejervarya species.Barbados: The Barbados threadsnake, hands down. This cute little guy is the smallest known snake in the world - a paltry 10 cm long and as wide as a string of spaghetti, weighing a little over half a gram. Only discovered in 2008, it is sadly critically endangered due to the destruction of Barbados’ forests.Belarus: Belarus is another one of those countries with only a handful of endemic species, all invertebrates. Among these species, however, is Probles dronkia - a type of wasp. Like most of its relatives in the Ichneumonoidea, it lays its eggs in other, larger insects, where they hatch and the larvae eat the host from the inside out. Gruesome.Belgium: I’ll choose another plant - the Brome of the Ardennes. This is a species of grass which was once found in numerous parts of Belgium. It was driven to extinction by the 1930s - however, it was “revived”, in a way. Preserved seeds in botanical collections have been successfully germinated, so the species lives again.Belize: Typhlopseudothelphusa acanthochela. I’d like to know who’s responsible for this abomination of a name, in fact it’s one of the longest scientific names of any animal. TA, as I’ll call it, is a type of crab which is interesting because it lives only in the freshwater bodies of underground caves and cenotes. A similar species is shown below.Benin: Benin has a bunch of endemic species, none of which - I admit - are very interesting. The most unusual, I think, is Brachelytrium beninense - a member of the jewel beetle family. This diverse group is known for iridiscent and often bright coloration. Closely related species shown below.Bhutan: The Bhutan cat-eyed toad. Only found in streams and rivers in the nation’s chunk of the East Himalayas, it was only discovered in 2001. It and its relatives are so named because of their slit-shaped pupils, similar to those of domestic cats.Bolivia: This country has a huge selection of endemics, but I’ve settled on the horned curassow. This large bird is distinctive due to the blue casque on its head, which is keratinous and actually an extension of the beak. It’s a member of the Cracidae family, which may date back to the Cretaceous period.Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnia is home to Vjetrenica Cave, the most biodiverse cave in the world. Among its 200 species is Kongeria mulaomeravici, one of the most unique mussels in the world due to its strange habitat. Closely related species shown.Botswana: I’m going with the churchill snoutfish. This is a species of elephantfish - a family of fish known for their unusual intelligence and popularity as aquarium pets - which is endemic to the Okavango Delta, the world’s largest inland river delta. Closely related species shown.Brazil: Choosing was incredibly hard, but I’ll say Arapaima leptosoma. Arapaimas are some of the largest freshwater fish in the world, measuring up to 4.5 meters long, breathe air like us instead of using gills, and have been known to prey on land animals on the shore! They really are bizarre.Brunei: Aphelocheirus bruneiensis, a species of aquatic bug. It’s able to live under the water without coming up for air, with the help of a plastron - a bubble of air around the body trapped by many hairs and bumps. Closely related species shown.Burkina Faso: This country’s endemic fauna is fairly standard, but it does have a species of plant called Pandanus brevifrugalis. It’s a type of screw pine - palm-like plants with big, spiky fruits. Screw pine leaves can be used for weaving, construction, or to add flavor to drinks and desserts. Closely related species shown.Burundi: Burundi is pretty thin on the ground when it comes to unusual endemic species, so I’ve settled with the chameleon Kinyongia rugegensis. It was only discovered in 2017, on an expedition to Central Africa which saw the discovery of two other chameleon species.Cape Verde: The islands of Cape Verde have a number of endemic vertebrates, and my favourite is Bourne’s heron. This elegant-looking bird could be a distinct species, or a subspecies of the purple heron. Sadly, they’re critically endangered, with only 40 living adults.Cambodia: The Dalai Mountain blind lizard. This unusual species of lizard has no legs, or eyes - hence the name. Discovered only in 2011, the scientist who found it originally thought it to be some kind of snake, but on closer examination it proved to be a legless lizard.Cameroon: The volcano clawed frog. Living at high altitude on the volcanic slopes of Mount Cameroon, this species and its close relatives are known for being some of the strangest of all frogs. They don’t catch their prey with their tongues (they don’t even have tongues), but with clawed forelimbs. They are the only known amphibians with claws.Canada: Definitely the Kermode bear, hands down. About 100–500 spirit bears are white or cream, despite them ironically being a subspecies of the black bear. These “spirit bears”, which roam the temperate rainforests of British Columbia, are very important to the culture of local indigenous peoples.Central African Republic: I’ll say the Sangha forest robin, which is fairly interesting due to its taxonomy. It was discovered only in 1996, and wasn’t documented scientifically until ‘99. At that point, it was thought that there were five species of forest robin. However, more recent studies show that all five are actually just subspecies of a single species.Chad: Sarotherodon borkouanus is a species of cichlid fish. Cichlids are incredibly diverse in the freshwater systems of sub-Saharan Africa, but this species is unique in that it inhabits oases in the Sahara Desert, quite a challenging habitat. Close relative shown below.Chile: The Juan Fernández fur seal. This pinniped is found only on two groups of islands off the coast of Chile, and due to its small range, it’s one of the smallest species of fur seal. Females weigh “only” 90 kilograms, and the brawnier males about 130. This might sound large for human standards, but is quite small compared to other pinnipeds.China: It’s by no means an obscure species, but I think the giant panda is really unusual and fascinating. I mean, first of all, it’s a herbivorous carnivoran - with thumbs. The giant panda also seems so remarkably poorly adapted to its environment - it has the digestive system of a meat-eater, a ridiculous reproductive cycle… truly a unique mammal.Colombia: Colombia has a greater diversity of endemic species than any other country except Brazil, and my favourite is the ornate titi (yes, that is what it’s called.) These rather cute primates are the smallest members of their family and - unusually - are raised as babies almost entirely by the father.Comoros: Being an island chain, this nation has a very nice selection of endemics. I particularly like the Comoro catshark, a species of bottom-feeding shark with characteristically cat-like eyes. They’re nocturnal, foraging at night and sleeping in groups during the day.Costa Rica: Costa Rica’s most famous endemic species is - or rather, was - the golden toad. Discovered in 1966, we got to know this species for a too short 23 years before it went extinct in 1989, almost certainly due to human activity - perhaps climate change-induced drought, airborne pollution, or chytridiomycosis: a deadly amphibian disease which humans have spread across the planet.Cote d'Ivoire: Anapistula caecula, a species of spider endemic to Cote d’Ivoire, is probably the world’s smallest spider - females measure 0.46 millimetres in length, smaller than any other known female spiders. No males have been found yet, but they’re almost certainly smaller. Related species shown below.Croatia: As part of the Dinaric karst area, Croatia has got some big caves, and with them comes cool cave wildlife. The coolest, perhaps, is Troglocladius hajdi - the world’s only flying insects which is blind. A type of mite, its specific name hajdi is a fitting reference to a race of underground fairies in Croatian mythology.Cuba: For our third superlative species in a row, there’s the bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird. Barely bigger than an actual bee, males are only 5.5 cm long and weigh a measly 1.95 grams, light enough to perch on a single human hair. Funnily enough, the plants they drink nectar from are all Cuban endemics too.Cyprus: The Cyprus spiny mouse, a little-known nocturnal species native to arid regions of the island. Spiny mice are characterized by a unique coat of hedgehog-like spines, and despite appearances, are more closely related to gerbils than actual mice.Czech Republic: Cylindromorphus bohemicus. This beetle, which has an iridiscent, almost metallic exoskeleton and feeds on wood, is rarely seen - in fact, it’s listed as critically endangered (as are many others on this list). That’s more or less all the information on it I could find.Denmark: Denmark has very few endemic species, as you might expect. It does, however, have a whole endemic genus of tardigrades, or water bears - Austeruseus. The three species in this clade are only found on the inhospitable Faroe Islands, and are associated with mosses.Djibouti: Scytodes jousseaumei, a species of a spider. Along with its close relatives, it has to spit a fluid made of liquefied silk and venom. Upon contact with the prey, it congeals into a sticky mass, and the victim is immobilized as the venom takes effect. Closely related species shown.Dominica: I’ve gone with Dominica’s national bird, the Imperial amazon. It’s a rather large (0.9 kg) parrot with unique purplish plumage. While their numbers are increasing, Imperial amazons are endangered due to the hurricanes which have hit the island in recent decades, and only 350 of them are alive currently.Dominican Republic: The Jaragua dwarf gecko. This miniscule critter is the smallest reptile, amniote even, in all the world - at 16 millimetres in length, it’s small enough to fit on a quarter. It’s only found in Jaragua National Park in the Dominican Republic, but is quite common in its range.DR Congo: It was hard to choose, but Thor’s hero shrew won me over. This incredible little mammal has a highly unique spine made of thick, cylindrical vertebrae which interlock, something virtually unprecedented in the animal kingdom. Because of this adaptation, its back is, for its size, four times stronger than a human one!Ecuador: The fauna of Ecuador’s Galapagos is so spectacular and weird that it also made this a difficult choice, but I have to say that the famous marine iguana is a fascinating creature. The largest species of iguana, they are bizarre semiaquatic animals which feed on algae in the cold waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands.Egypt: The Egyptian weasel. This mustelid lives almost exclusively in towns and cities in Northern Egypt - in fact, it’s been described as an obligate synanthrope, meaning a species which only lives in association with humans. Their synanthropic habits have led to them having a more varied diet to their relatives.El Salvador: The Salvador worm salamander, Oedipina salvadorensis. It’s so long and thin that it almost looks legless, like a snake. However, it does have four tiny legs. Its unusual proportions are due to the fact that it actually has no lungs - instead, its thin shape allows gas to diffuse through the skin.Equatorial Guinea: The Bioko drill, by far. Related to the much more well-known mandrill, the drill is a rather frightening species of monkey, a unique subspecies of which is found in Equatorial Guinea. They form large groups of 20–100 individuals, led by a dominant male.Eritrea: I think it’d have to be the big-headed carpet viper, Echis megalocephalus. Its common (and specific) name are a reference to its unusually large, boxy head. The viper can grow up to 0.6 metres long and, being venomous, is potentially harmful to humans.Estonia: Elasmosoma depressum. Besides a bunch of plants, a couple of worms, and a species of microscopic crustacean, this is the only endemic species in Estonia. Specifically, it’s a type of parasitic wasp which lays its eggs only in ants; as you would imagine, the ant is not in for a good time when the eggs hatch.Eswatini: This was formerly Swaziland, by the way. I’ve chosen a plant for this one, Kniphofia umbrina. It’s a beautiful species, a type of red hot poker - like its relatives, it has vibrant red and yellow flowers which attract pollinators, such as sunbirds.Ethiopia: With so many unique species of large mammals, this was a tough one, but the gelada is my choice. Unlike most monkeys, they’re fully terrestrial, and they’re the only species of primate which primarily eats grass. Males have prominent, hourglass-shaped patches of red skin on their chest, which gives them the nickname “bleeding-heart monkey”.Fiji: The giant Fijian longhorn beetle. At over 15 centimetres long, it’s the second-largest beetle species in the world (and its closest relative, another Fijian endemic, comes in third place). While some websites claim it is extinct, that isn’t true - yet - though it is vulnerable to habitat destruction.Finland: It’d be criminal not to say the Saimaa seal. This beautiful animal is a subspecies of the ringed seal, generally a marine species, which has evolved to live in freshwater. It lives only in Lake Saimaa, Finland, and is sadly one of the most endangered types of seal.France: The French overseas territory of Réunion (an island near Madagascar) has quite a lot of endemic birds, including a bird of prey. The Réunion marsh harrier is a raptor which is, unlike its relatives, adapted to hunting birds and insects. (since the island has no native land mammals except bats)Gabon: Archaeologists have found a population of crocodiles which live exclusively underground in Gabonese caves. In addition to being more powerful than their relatives and almost blind, they’re bright orange in colour (due to being soaked in bat guano). They could well be distinct from the African dwarf crocodiles of the surface, and eat mainly bats, bat feces and cave crickets.Gambia: Gambia, I have to say, is pretty short on interesting endemic species. The most interesting one I could find is a species of tree, Casearia gambiana. In 2008, a comprehensive study on this tree’s genus was done, but failed to find any specimens in Gambia. Because of that, it’s quite surprising that the new species was discovered, which happened in 2018.Georgia: Plutomurus ortobalaganensis - the deepest-living land animal thus far discovered. Native to Georgia’s Krubera-Voronja, the world’s deepest cave, it was found in 2012 living a staggering 1,980 metres below the surface. It’s a springtail, meaning that it has six legs but isn’t quite an insect. Like many cave-dwellers, it has no eyes or pigmentation.Germany: I’ve settled on Antigonaria arenaria, because it’s the sole member of one of the few whole families endemic to a single country. Antigonariidae is only known from the North Sea in German waters, and is a member of theflatworms - simple animals with no respiratory, circulatory or skeletal systems.Ghana: The Ghana mole rat. You’ve probably heard of naked mole rats, but there is in fact a whole family containing 21 species of mole rats; burrowing rodents which are sort of like the African version of gophers. The Ghana mole rat is usually found in grasslands, shrublands, or even sometimes caves.Greece: It’d have to be the kri-kri, a feral variety of goat endemic to Crete. It probably originated from goats imported to the island by the Minoan civilization, which then became wild. There’s evidence that the kri-kri was worshipped by some Balkan civilizations during antiquity.Grenada: The Grenada dove, which is the national bird of this island nation. It lives in arid forests, and is considered to be one of the most critically endangered doves or pigeons in the world. There was controversy in 2006 when the Grenadan government sold a portion of an important sanctuary for the species to build a tourist resort there.Guatemala: The Atitlan grebe, the list’s second recently extinct species (for now). This waterbird lived in the idyllic Lake Atitlan of Guatemala. In 1958, investors saw the opportunity to turn it into a sport-fishing hotspot, and introduced several species of bass into the lake. These bass quickly exhausted the grebe’s main sources of food and it tragically went extinct.Guinea: The purple marsh crab. This striking, purple-red crustacean isn’t your typical crab - it lives in freshwater, often ventures on to the land, and can breathe air. At night, it scuttles around the forest looking for food, and then retreats into a waterlogged burrow as the sun rises.Guinea-Bissau: Tailless whip scorpions, an order of arachnids, are pretty freaky in general, but the weirdest of all might be Guinea-Bissau’s endemic Paracharon caecus. This pale, blind species is the only living member of the family Paleoamblypygidae - the most primitive family in the order. It’s a living fossil, more similar to species from 300 million years ago to today’s.Guyana: I’m gonna go with Dipsas pakaraima. This is a type of snake which lives in the trees and feeds almost exclusively on snails and slugs, something unusual for a snake, but common in the genus Dipsas. It’s less than a meter long, and nonvenomous.Haiti: The Haitian marsh frog, an amphibian which shows a remarkable tolerance to saltwater environments - it even lives in coastal marshes, hence the name. This is also unusual in that its genus, Eleutherodactylus, is well-adapted to life on dry land, and its species usually live far from water.Honduras: The Roatan Island agouti, a type of rodent endemic to Roatan Island, off the coast of Honduras. It’s an example of insular dwarfism - their mainland sister species, the Central American agouti, measures .6 metres in length, while they are on average .4. Roatan Island agoutis eat almonds and coconuts, and are important seed dispersers.Hungary: Eresus hermani, one of the most beautiful spiders in Europe. Its abdomen and six of its legs are bright red, and it has four black spots on its back. It was discovered in 2015. The family it belongs to, the velvet spiders, are known from all over the Old World - unusually, there are also a few species in Brazil.Iceland: This is the first single-celled organism on this list - Melanothermus fervidus. This hardcore bacterium lives only in Icelandic hot springs, and can survive staggering temperatures of 97 degrees Celsius. It’s anaerobic, meaning it doesn’t need oxygen for survival, and produces methane gas.India: There are innumerable candidates here, as India has a spectacular diversity of wildlife, but I’m going to choose a species you may not have heard of - the Malabar giant squirrel. Not only is it the largest species of tree squirrel in the world (it’s about a metre long), it’s also one of the most colourful species of mammal.Indonesia: Okay, it was cripplingly hard to choose for this one, harder than any other country, but I’ve settled on Wilson’s bird of paradise. Perhaps the most colourful bird in the world, the males construct a “court”, which they meticulously clean of all debris, and perform an incredible courtship dance.Iran: The Asiatic cheetah, no question about it. This subspecies of cheetah once occurred throughout most of West, Central and South Asia, but is now confined to a few patches of Iran. They diverged from African cheetahs 67–32 thousand years ago and have noticeably larger eyes.Iraq: Eidinemacheilus proudlovei, one of a few species of loach which are endemic to Iraq. It dwells only in the streams of underground caves, grazing on films of bacteria on the rocks. It has no scales or eyes, and is a pale pink colour due to the absence of melanin pigment.Ireland: Now we come to my country, which is pretty wildlife-poor, but does have a cool endemic or two. My favourite is Edwardsia delapiae - it’s an anemone, but by no means a typical one. It is long and worm-like in shape, a body plan adapted for burrowing a tube into the seabed in which to live.Israel: I know we’ve had a lot of troglobitic (cave-dwelling) species already, mainly because caves are isolated and therefore often have endemic species, but this one I have to include - Akrav israchani. This eyeless, underground species is perhaps the strangest of all scorpions. Unfortunately, as of 2015 its extinction has been inferred due to a lack of live specimens.Italy: I quite like the look of the Calabrian black squirrel, which is only found in parts of southern Italy. Its striking black fur with white on the underbelly reminds me of a penguin. The conservation status of this squirrel is yet to be evaluated, but it’s likely Near Threatened or Vulnerable.Jamaica: The red-billed streamertail is a very attractive hummingbird, named for the extra-long pair of tail feathers which trail behind the males. These “streamers” are longer than the body and give it the nickname of scissor-tail. In a James Bond short story, Ian Fleming described the species as “the most beautiful bird in the world”.Japan: Being a large island chain which wasn’t glaciated in the ice age, Japan has loads of cool endemics as you’d imagine, but perhaps the coolest is the Japanese giant salamander. The third-largest amphibian in the world, it’s the apex predator of the rivers it inhabits. When stressed, it secretes a milky substance which smells like pepper.Jordan: The most interesting one I could find for this largely desert-covered nation is the Azraq toothcarp, Aphanius sirhani. It lives only in a single oasis in the Jordanian desert - the Azraq oasis, hence the name - although it is kept as a pet by many aquarists.Kazakhstan: The desert dormouse. It might look mundane superficially, but it’s so anatomically distinctive that some believe it should be placed in its own family of rodents, Selevinidae. Also, very unusually, when it sheds its hair, it also sheds flakes of its epidermal skin, something not seen in any other mammal.Kenya: The hirola, the world’s rarest antelope. This unique-looking beast, which has its own genus (Beatragus), has a current population of about 300–500. If it goes extinct, it’ll be the first genus to do so since the thylacine 75 years ago, and the first in Africa in recorded human history.Kiribati: For this Polynesian nation, I’m going with the fish Lepidotrigla jimjoebob. First of all, it’s a gurnard, which means it has colourful fan-shaped fins and, weirdest of all, little arthropod-like legs which it can crawl on. Secondly, just look at its specific name - “Jim Joe Bob”. A closely related species is shown below.Kuwait: With difficulty, I did find a species of shrimp - Alpheus lutosus - only found in the mudflats of Kuwait bay. The species in the genus Alpheus are interesting, because they have one enlarged claw - making them one of the few bilateral animals which are naturally asymmetrical. Closely related species shown.Kyrgyzstan: The Alay pit viper. Among pit vipers, it’s quite unique; discovered at an altitude of 3,000 metres in Kyrgyzstan’s Altai Mountains, it lives higher than any other species, and is also likely the smallest pit viper as well. This could be an adaptation to the harsh, resource-poor environment it lives in.Laos: I’m going to cheat a bit here, since this species could well be extinct. Schomburgk’s deer was known to live in swampy plains in central Thailand, but died out due to overhunting in 1938. However, an antler found in Laos in 1991 suggested that it survived there up to that point, and many speculate that it could still roam the country’s poorly-explored forests.Latvia: Latvia has less endemic species than any nation I’ve yet encountered, and none of them are really that interesting. I’ll just go with its endemic tardigrade, because tardigrades are cool - Minibiotus formosus. The name translates to “beautifully formed small life form”, although it looks a bit pudgy to me.Lebanon: Iris sofarana is a beautiful species of flower which you can only find in a few spots in eastern Lebanon’s mountain slopes. It was discovered about a century ago, but is now greatly threatened due to excessive picking in the few places where it grows.Lesotho: Another plant - the spiral aloe, Aloe polyphylla. Endemic to Lesotho’s Drakensberg Mountains, it’s a striking species because of the way its leaves are arranged in a spiral pattern. It’s highly sought after as an ornamental plant, but has very specific requirements and usually dies outside its natural habitat.Liberia: The Liberian greenbul, which technically isn’t a species anymore, but has an interesting story. It resembles a bird called the icterine greenbul, but has white patches on its wings. It was thought to be Africa’s rarest species of bird, but a 2017 analysis revealed it was just a colour morph of the icterine species, caused by a nutritional deficiency.Libya: As the world’s hottest and driest country, Libya isn’t exactly a biodiversity hotspot. The only endemic I could find much information about was the Cyrenaica shrew, a small mammal which exhibits caravan behaviour and produces a musky, scented secretion from its belly. Closely related species shown.Liechtenstein: 93 countries into our list, and we arrive at the first one with no endemic species! Sorry Liechtenstein. Maybe you should take a rest here before braving the next 100 species.Lithuania: We nearly have the same story here, as Lithuania has only one known endemic species - Phytomyza vilnensis, a fly which is a parasite of plants. Using a sharp ovipositor, it penetrates the leaves of said plants and lays its eggs inside, and the larvae later hatch and start “mining” the leaves. They leave marks on the leaf similar to this:Luxembourg: Damn, this is the fourth one in a row that’s rather barren. Luxembourg has a couple of species of endemic coneheads - Eosentomon paucrum and E. umbrosum - and they’re fairly cool. Coneheads, or proturans, are six-legged arthropods which live in soil. They’re abundant, but so small that they weren’t discovered until 1907. Related species shown below.Madagascar: This country’s the polar opposite of barren, when it comes to endemic species - it has 32 endemic families, which is just incredible. However, the aye-aye has won me over as the weirdest - a gremlin-like lemur with perpetually-growing rodent teeth and huge middle fingers which occupies the niche of woodpeckers. A bizarre sentence for a bizarre animal.Malawi: I’ll cheat a bit again and pick multiple species - over 700, in fact - which aren’t of much note on their own, but together are fascinating. These 700+ species are all cichlids - a family of fish - and they all live in Lake Malawi, descending from one common ancestor which colonized the lake a couple million years ago. This has got to be the most spectacular evolutionary radiation the world.Malaysia: The mountain peacock-pheasant, a gamebird with display plumage nearly as spectacular as that of the Indian peacock. The wings of the males are dotted in iridiscent blue spots called ocelli (meaning “eyes”), and the fan-shaped tail has large green ocelli. While you can’t see it in the picture, the male also has a pair of spikes protruding from each leg.Maldives: Phyllidia koehleri, a species of nudibranch which dwells in the coral reefs off the shores of the Maldives. Many nudibranch species have spectacular colouration (advertising their chemical defenses through aposematism), and this species is no exception. Its yellow and black stripes work so well as a warning that we use the same pattern on barricade tape, among other things.Mali: Rhinoguinea magna, a blind species of thread snake. It’s the only species in the genus Rhinoguinea, and was only discovered in 2014, making it one of the most recently discovered genera of land vertebrates. It burrows through the soil of southern Mali, which is less arid than the northern regions.Malta: Nemesia arboricola. This species is a type of funnel-web tarantula, which means it has some very interesting habits. The females spend their whole lives living in burrows, which have hinged doors. Threads of silk are attached to the door, and when an insect crawls over the surface, the threads vibrate. Sensing the vibrations, the spider leaps out and grabs the victim.Marshall Islands: The girdled fairy-wrasse, a fish which is hugely popular with aquarists due to its bright colours. In the wild, it’s found only in the waters surrounding the Marshall Islands, and is noted for being a strong jumper. At night, girdled fairy-wrasses form a protective cocoon of mucus around themselves.Mauritania: Riva and Padial’s fan-footed gecko, Ptyodactylus rivapadiali. It’s so named because of its unusual feet, in which the toes are splayed out like the pattern of a snowflake. On the end of each digit, there’s an adhesive pad which allows the gecko to scale walls and other vertical barriers.Mauritius: Mauritius’s endemic birdlife is spectacular, but a reptile steals it for me - the Round Island boa. Despite its name, it’s not actually a boa at all; it’s the sole surviving member of Bolyeridae, which has been around since the Mesozoic. Its most unique adaptation is a joint in its upper jaw which can split the front and back parts of the maxilla, something not seen in any other organism. Also, it has skin cells which allow it to change colour somewhat.Mexico: Having everything from the near-extinct vaquita porpoise to the world’s only venomous crustacean, choosing just one taxon was a pain for Mexico. However, I’m going with the Bipedidae. This family of reptiles is bizarre - it contains four species of burrowing carnivores which have little sensory tentacles on their heads and only two limbs. They honestly look like aliens.Micronesia: This is another country which has lots of cool endemic critters. The purple-capped fruit dove, for example. Native to the islands of Chuuk and Pohnpei, it’s a great example of how pigeons are more diverse and interesting than people think, especially in the tropics. As its name suggests, this colourful bird eats fruit, especially figs.Moldova: From what I can tell from my research, there aren’t any species known thus far which are only found in Moldova. If you’ve made it this far… well, thanks for committing to the answer. Maybe take a deep breath before continuing.Monaco: Make that two deep breaths.Mongolia: Definitely the Mongolian saiga, which could be its own species but is usually treated as a subspecies of the saiga antelope. This absurd-looking creature has a large, proboscis-like nose for warming up cold air as it reaches the sinuses. Unfortunately, saigas are vulnerable to epizootic diseases and mass die-offs, which has partially contributed to their critically endangered status.Montenegro: I expected this country to be another null one, but it has a bunch. The most unusual is probably Chaetonotus antrumus. This worm-like creature is a member of the little-known phylum Gastrotricha, microscopic creatures which live in the interstitial spaces between grains of sediment. This particular species lives in a cave known as Obdoska.Morocco: The Atlas Mountain viper, Vipera monticola. As its name suggests, this venomous snake is found in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, specifically between the altitudes of 2,500 and 3,800 metres. At only 34.5 centimetres in length, it’s one of the smallest species of vipers in the world, surpassed only by the Namaqua dwarf adder of southern Africa.Mozambique: It’d have to be Augacephalus ezendami, a rather frightening-looking tarantula which grows to nearly 13 centimetres in length! It digs silk-lined burrows into the savannah earth, where it lies in wait for insect prey to come by. They’re available to buy as pets, although they’re “more for the experienced keeper” as they can be quite aggressive.Myanmar: Myanmar has a notably diverse array of freshwater fish species, and among them is Danionella translucida. This is one of the smallest fish in the world - the adults are about a centimetre long. The babies are unusually not that small compared to the adults, about a fifth of the size when newly hatched. The species is also transparent, allowing you to see the internal organs within.Namibia: This one was pretty tough, as Namibia’s got a lot of fascinating species not found anywhere else. I’ve gone with an endemic family - Mantophasmatidae, the gladiator bugs. Resembling the offspring of a praying mantis and a stick insect, these predatory bugs are wingless, and have raptorial forelimbs for attacking prey.Nauru: I guess it’ll be the Nauru reed-warbler, mainly because it’s the only endemic species from Nauru (a Pacific island nation) which I can find a fair bit of information on. Throughout the 20th century, 80% of Nauru was strip-mined for phosphate, leaving barren scrubland instead of forest. Surprisingly, though, the warbler (one of two bird species on the island) thrives in these scrublands.Nepal: The Himalayan jumping spider, no competition. Its specific name, omnisuperstes, means “standing above all others”, and for good reason. This little spider lives on the slopes of Mount Everest, at staggering altitudes of 6,700 metres - meaning it’s possibly the highest-living animal on Earth. It eats only wind-blown debris from below, such as springtails and flies.Netherlands: If special municipalities count, I’m choosing Trapania bonellenae, a sea slug from the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands. It’s only been photographed alive once, in 2007 - and as you can see from one of those photos, it’s incredibly beautiful, black with a tracery of white lines.New Zealand: With an unbelievable 46 families unique to the islands, NZ has more endemic higher-level taxa than any other country. However, the most interesting, for me, is the kiwis - Apterygidae. Kiwis have simple, hair-like feathers, a ring of sensory whiskers around the mouth, and a flexible bill with nostrils on the end - all these are totally unique in the bird world. They’re also nearly blind, and have the proportionally largest eggs of any bird.Nicaragua: The arrow cichlid, a freshwater fish. Superficially, it’s unremarkable, but can teach us important lessons about evolution. It lives in Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua, with five other cichlid species, and they all evolved in the same lake. Because of this, it’s a famous example of sympatric speciation - when new species develop without being geographically isolated from their predecessors.Niger: The West African giraffe, Giraffa camelopardis peralta. There are less than 500 individuals of this giraffe subspecies left, and they all live in Niger. The West African giraffe is thought to have evolved during the African Humid Period thousands of years ago - during this time, Lake Chad was much bigger (the biggest lake in the world in fact), and formed a barrier between giraffe populations.Nigeria: The Hercules baboon spider really takes the cake. Only one specimen was ever collected, in 1900, but thankfully it’s been preserved to this day. What the specimen shows is that the Herc is a giant - at 20 centimetres in length, one of the largest spiders in the world. It’s never been photographed alive, and for all we know it could’ve gone extinct in the last century, so a close relative is shown.North Korea: North Korea doesn’t have that many endemic species, at least that we know of, only having two endemic vertebrates - a freshwater loach, and the Korean skink. The latter has a highly metallic, iridescent tail, which is actually meant to attract predators - pursuers of the skink will bite off the detachable tail, letting the skink escape and later regenerate its lost appendage.North Macedonia: I’ve settled on the Macedonian grayling, a type of butterfly which I find interesting because it’s not what people think of when they think “butterfly”. Its wings are grey-brown, and overall it looks fairly drab, more like you’d expect a moth to appear. Likewise, there are some moths which are very colourful.Norway: There are quite a lot of cold-water coral reefs off the Norwegian coast, which has resulted in the country having an impressive amount of endemic marine life. One such species is Berghia norvegica, a nudibranch sea slug. It eats sea anemones and is covered in organs known as cerata, which aid respiration by expanding the surface area of the body.Oman: The Arabian tahr, an ungulate related to sheep and goats. As the only species in the genus Arabitragus, it represents an endemic genus, and lives on steep rocky slopes at altitudes of up to 1,800 metres. There are three species of tahr, of which this one is the smallest.Pakistan: The Indus river dolphin. It was long considered a separate species to the Ganges river dolphin, but in 1998 genetic analyses revealed that they were two subspecies of a single species - dubbed the South Asian river dolphin. The Indus river dolphin is endemic to a stretch of the Indus River just 1,000 kilometres long, as their range has contracted by 80% since 1870.Palau: The Protoanguillidae, a family (containing one species) discovered in Palauan waters in 2011. It’s a living fossil, much more similar to the first eels from the Mesozoic era than to modern ones. Among its unique features are a short, compressed body, bony rays in its tail fin, and a disproportionately larger head.Palestine: I’m not aware of any species which are found in Palestine but not Israel - the two are often discussed together for simplicity, anyway.Panama: I was originally going to say the pygmy three-toed sloth… but then I found out about Perisceptis carnivora. It’s a species of bagworm moth; bagworm moths are amazing insects which live in little “cases” made of wood (I’ve written on them before, here.). P. carnivora, however, is a little different - it’s predatory, and builds its case out of the carcasses of its previous victims! What a badass.Papua New Guinea: Since I’ve already featured a bird of paradise (Wilson’s, for Indonesia), I’ll mix things up a bit with the Queen Alexandra’s birdwing. This is the world’s largest species of butterfly, and females can have a wingspan of over 25 centimetres. It’s also one of only three insect species for which international trade has been made illegal by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.Paraguay: The Chaco nothura, an endemic subspecies of the spotted nothura, is a type of bird known as a tinamou. Tinamous are fascinating because of their taxonomic history. Originally, we thought that all ratites (ostriches, emus etc.) descended from a flightless ancestor. However, it was discovered that tinamous - flying birds - were in fact nested within the ratites, proving that every other lineage of ratite evolved flightlessness independently.Peru: If you liked the red-billed streamertail from Jamaica, you’ll love Peru’s marvellous spatuletail. It’s the only bird which has only four tail feathers, of which two are so long that they cross (in males). On the end of each of these feathers is a racquet-shaped half-disc of feathering which gives the species its name. It’s also got a brilliant turquoise gorget on its throat.Philippines: The most famous of the Philippines’ countless endemic birds is of course the Philippine or monkey-eating eagle. Weighing 8 kilos, a metre long and with a 2.2 metre wingspan, they’re giants, and hunt monkeys, colugos and even 14-kg deer. Douglas Adams, the famous author, excellently described the eagle as “a wildly improbable-looking piece of flying hardware that you would more readily expect to see coming to land on an aircraft than perched in a tree.”Poland: After a spell of five tropical paradises, we come to a nation which is rather thin on the ground when it comes to endemics. The most interesting one I could find was Parthenolecanium smreczynskii. It’s a member of the scale insects - a bizarre and fascinating group of bugs. They start life as regular, crawling critters, but then settle down on a plant, grow a waxy covering, and never move. Close relative shown.Portugal: In the Algarve caves of Portugal’s Faro District lives the largest cave-dwelling insect in Europe - Squamatinia algharbica. This is a bristletail (i.e. a primitive insect related to silverifsh) which is 3 centimetres long. This might not sound like much, but it’s a lot bigger than your typical bristletail, or your typical subterranean insect.Qatar: Qatar might have economic wealth, but it certainly doesn’t have natural wealth - it’s known endemics are as followed: three beetles, a louse, and a shrimp. Out of those, the shrimp - named Palaemon khori - is probably the most interesting; it lives in mangrove swamps on the Qatari coast. Closely related species shown.Republic of the Congo: In 2015, the Bouvier’s red colobus was all over the news. It had never been seen for forty years, and was presumed by many to be extinct. But it was discovered to be thriving - and was photographed for the first time ever - in a national park that was only established two years prior. The viral photograph is shown below.Romania: Romania is home to Movile Cave, an ancient underground world where the air (poor in oxygen, rich in CO2 and methane) is poisonous to humans and ecosystems are based on chemosynthesis, not photosynthesis. Among the cave’s many endemic species is Nepa anophthalma, a type of water scorpion. In fact, it’s the world’s only known water scorpion adapted to cave life.You are now two-thirds of the way through this answer. Congratulations, and thanks for staying with me this long!Russia: By volume, Russia’s Lake Baikal is the largest continental lake in the world, and indeed its ecosystem seems more marine than lacustrine. In addition to giant flesh-eating amphipods and an endemic family of bright green sponges, it’s got the Baikal seal. This gloriously rotund creature is the smallest seal in the world, and the only seal species which is entirely freshwater-dwelling.Rwanda: Rwanda dosen’t have as many endemic species as I expected, although it does have one which belongs to a very interesting group. Palpimanus processiger is a species of palp-footed spider. Like its relatives in this group, it has greatly enlarged, powerful forelimbs reinforced with extra sclerotin. It also has only two silk spinnerets, whereas most spiders have six.Saint Kitts and Nevis: Arachnophobes will really hate this answer… allow me to introduce you to Tarantula No. 4! Nesipelma insulare is a tarantula endemic to the island of Nevis. It’s also the only species in the genus Nesipelma, meaning that’s an endemic genus, too - not bad for a ~90 square kilometre island. Other than that, that’s about as much information on it I could find.Saint Lucia: The Saint Lucia pilorie, Megalomys luciae. Its specific name is a pretty good resumé - it means “giant mouse of [Saint] Lucia”. The size of a domestic cat, many of you will be glad to know that this huge rat is extinct, the last record being in 1881. A stuffed specimen in the London National History Museum survives to this day.Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: In 2011, the Saint Vincent big-eared bat was discovered, originally thought to be a more widespread species. It probably arose at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, when the last ice age ended and sea levels rose, cutting a population of bats off from the rest of the Caribbean. It is an example of insular gigantism, much bigger than its mainland relatives.Samoa: The manumea, an enigmatic but critically endangered bird. It’s a strange type of pigeon, which I find quite reminiscent of its close cousin the dodo, due to its stout build and large, hooked bill. Its population has plummeted to perhaps as little as 70 individuals, most of which are aged birds (in fact, no juvenile birds were found in a 2013 survey).San Marino: No known endemics from here, since it’s a microstate.Sao Tome and Principe: The dwarf olive ibis, which - due to insular dwarfism - is the smallest species in the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. When disturbed, it makes cough- or grunt-like noises, and honks loudly when going to roost. Like too many of the species on this list, it’s critically endangered, and threatened by habitat loss and invasive species.Saudi Arabia: The Saudi gazelle, a species with a rather sad story. It was thought to be a subspecies of the widespread dorcas gazelle, and as a result, it received very little attention from conservationists. It was only after it was declared extinct in 2008 that genetic studies revealed it was a unique species which slipped away right under our noses. I couldn’t find any pictures, so the related dorcas gazelle is shown.Senegal: The Gabou file snake, Mehelya gabouensis. The “file” part of its name refers to the unusual structure of its scales; each one has a rough, serrated ridge (or “keel”). It also has a rather unusual triangular cross-section. Confusingly, various other snake genera such as Acrochordus and Gonionotophis are also called file snakes. Closely related species shown.Serbia: Trojanella serbica, by far. This remarkable endemic genus and species is a harvestman (a.k.a. a daddy long-legs), belonging to an order of arachnids related to spiders. Trojanella is very unusual for a harvestman - in part because of technical anatomical details which non-zoologists mightn’t find interesting, but also because it has huge, strong pedipalps covered in spines. Now that is interesting.Seychelles: The coco-de-mer, a plant which can’t seem to stop breaking records. It has the largest fruit of any plant, which weigh 42 kilograms, the largest seeds of any plant (pictured), which weigh 17.6 kilograms, the longest cotyledon of any plant, which is 4 metres tall, and the most efficient recovery of nutrients from dead leaves of any plant.Sierra Leone: Malapterurus leonensis, a species of electric catfish. Aside from electric eels, torpedo rays and some types of stargazer, electric catfish are the only animals - the only eukaryotes, in fact - which can generate electricity. Large electric catfish can generate up to 400 volts, and the shocks from smaller ones were used to treat arthritis by the ancient Egyptians. Closely related species shown.Singapore: Of all the spiders we’ve had on this list so far, Tetragnatha josephi has to be the most bizarre. Known as the mangrove big-jawed spider, its abdomen is very elongated and narrow, likely meant to camouflage the spider as a stick. The jaws are incredibly large, too, hence the name, and have a hook-like spur on each mandible, which is used to grip the female during mating.Slovakia: Chirocephalus slovacicus, which is a type of fairy shrimp. Fairy shrimp are pretty unusual crustaceans - they’re transparent, and swim upside-down, filtering plankton from their aquatic environment. They can live in some pretty extreme habitats, like seasonal pools, hypersaline or ice-covered lakes, and even water bodies in Antarctica. C. slovacicus, I believe, lives in caves. Close relative shown.Slovenia: The black olm, a subspecies of the olm (a neotenic cave-dwelling salamander) which is endemic to Slovenian caves. The most obvious difference between it and other olms is its colouration - it’s black or grey, rather than white. Additionally, it has a more robust head and better eyesight.Solomon Islands: Many potential choices for this one, but I’ve gone with the Solomon Islands skink. It’s the largest species of skink in the world - nearly a metre long! They’re also one of the only reptiles in the world which form cooperative social groups (known as circuli, singular circulus), in which they protect each other and sometimes adopt orphaned young.Somalia: The Somali sengi, a little-known species of elephant shrew. While elephant shrews resemble shrews, they actually are related to elephants, although they’re closer to things like aardvarks and tenrecs. The Somali sengi is among the 25 “most wanted” species of the Search for Lost Species initiative, which aims to find possibly extinct species which have “fallen off our radar”.South Africa: I was actually quite tempted to do a plant for SA, as it has more endemic flora than any other country except Australia, but I ended up going with the armadillo lizard. This formidably-armoured reptile is well-known for its habit of rolling into a ball by taking its tail in its mouth. This is what gives it its genus name, Ouroboros - an Ouroboros being a symbol of a dragon or serpent biting its tail.South Korea: Definitely the Korean crevice salamander. It might not look like much, but it’s an odd one out. It belongs to the salamander family Plethodontidae - one which is hugely diverse, accounting for nearly three quarters of all salamander species. However, the Korean crevice salamander is the only species of plethodontid on the entire Asian continent. It has its own genus, Karsenia.South Sudan: The Mongalla gazelle, South Sudan’s only endemic mammal aside from two species of mouse. This animal was discovered in 1903 by the zoologist Walter Rothschild, whom many African species have been named after. It constantly migrates around the eastern Sudd floodplain, following the rains.Spain: The Gran Canaria giant lizard, native to the largest island in the Canaries. Measuring 80 centimetres long from its nose to the tip of its tail, it’s the largest species in the true lizard group (Lacertidae), and - as far as I know - the largest lizard which isn’t a monitor.Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka junglefowl, which happens to be the country’s national bird. This gamebird, which is a close relative of the domestic chicken, has a very interesting social structure. Each female mates with one alpha male and several beta males, and together they form a sort of “pride”, wherein the males defend the female and her eggs from predators in return for copulation.Sudan: Rhagodalma is an endemic genus. It’s part of the group known as solifuges, or camel spiders; rather fearsome-looking (but harmless) arachnids related to spiders. Rhagodalma is in the solifuge family of Rhagodidae, characterized by short legs, large heads and often bright colours. A closely related species is shown, as I don’t think it’s been photographed before.Suriname: Potamotrygon boesemani, one of only about 30 species (among some 630 species of ray) which live in freshwater. What really makes this species interesting, though, is its brilliant colouration - the exact design varies from individual to individual, but all have striking geometric patterns of navy and yellow.Sweden: I guess I’ll say the spring-spawning cisco, the only vertebrate species endemic to Sweden. It’s a freshwater fish, only found in a single lake - Lake Fegen - and is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. The Swedish authorities consider it just an ecotype of a more widespread, and as a result it doesn’t receive as much conservation attention as it probably should. Close relative shown.Switzerland: The most interesting one I could find was Mecopisthes pumilio, a dwarf species of spider which is incredibly minuscule - only 1 to 1.2 millimetres long, in fact! It has a page on Wikipedia in Minangkabau (a language spoken only western Sumatra…) which I tried to Google translate. I was enlightened that the species is in fact a “tagolong rice fields” - nice job, Google. Closely related species shown.Syria: This is the third country in a row with a pretty poor selection, but I’ll have to make do. I’m going with the Syrian house gecko, because of its cool habitat. Originally thought to be a subspecies of the Mediterranean house gecko (pictured, I couldn’t find any photos of the Syrian species), it lives only in the Ḥarrat al-Shām, or “Black Desert”, a barren expanse of black basalt rock.Taiwan: Now Taiwan is a country with quite the opposite of a poor selection. Among extant species, I’d choose the Mikado pheasant, but since we’ve already had some recently extinct ones I’ll choose the Formosan clouded leopard. This was a subspecies of the Indochinese clouded leopard - a beautiful cat with huge fangs for its size. In February this year, there were numerous reported sightings of a clouded leopard in Taiwan, meaning it might not be extinct!Tajikistan: Dryops reneatae, a species of long-toed water beetle. As a larva, it crawls about on land, but upon metamorphosis it will migrate to the nearest body of running water and spend its life there. Despite being fully aquatic, the adults actually have no swimming ability! They get around by clinging to bits of debris in the current.Tanzania: The kipunji, a unique-looking monkey native to forested Tanzanian highlands. In 2003–2004, it was independently “discovered” by researchers from three different organizations, and it was the first species of monkey to be discovered in years. It was assigned to the genus Lophocebus - however, a few years later it was discovered that it belonged in its own genus, Rungwecebus. That makes it the first monkey genus discovered in 83 years.Thailand: The shocking pink dragon millipede (yes, that’s actually what it’s called), perhaps the most flamboyant myriapod of all. Hot pink in colour and with two rows of triangular spines (they remind me of stegosaur plates a bit), it’s a beautiful creepy crawlie - and it smells like almonds. Isn’t that nice? Not really - the almond smell comes from hydrogen cyanide which it produces as a defense.Timor-Leste: Guess what, it’s another troglobite! This time, it’s Sarax timorensis - a cave-dwelling species of whip spider, or tailless whip scorpion (we had another weird whip spider for Guinea-Bissau) which is quite unique. While most amblypygids (whip spiders) have six eyes, and some cave-dwelling species have none, S. timorensis has four, unlike any other species.Togo: The Togo slippery frog, Conraua derooi. It’s a member of a unique African family of frogs - Conrauidae - containing six species, including Conraua goliath; the goliath bullfrog, the largest frog in the world. The Togo slippery frog was feared to be extinct, but in 2005 several populations were found in the country, after the species had gone unseen for over two decades.Tonga: The Tongan megapode, an endangered gamebird. Once Tonga was home to several species of megapodes, but now only this one remains. Megapodes are a family of fascinating birds which are the only ones that don’t sit on their eggs - instead, they build mounds out of warm volcanic soil to incubate their eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newborns are more developed than those of any other type of bird.Trinidad and Tobago: Myotis attenboroughi, a small bat which was only discovered in 2017, and is T&T’s only endemic mammal. As you probably guessed, its specific epithet is a reference to Sir David Attenborough. Someday, I want to be so famous that people name species I have nothing to do with after me…Tunisia: The Tunisian horned viper, Cerastes boehmi. I picked this desert-dwelling snake, which is so named because of the horn-like keratinous lumps above its eyes, because of an interesting fact about its scientific name. There’s a horned snake in Greek mythology called the Cerastes, which was probably inspired by horned vipers from North Africa. The genus was named Cerastes in honour of the myth, and so things have come full circle. Closely related species shown.Turkey: Another viper! The Black Sea viper, Vipera pontica, which of course lives on the coast of the Black Sea, especially in shrubland and rocky areas. One of several snakes endemic to Turkey, it’s extremely rare, and there are thought to be fewer than 250 mature individuals remaining. Because of this, it’s listed as endangered by the IUCN. One specimen was found near the Turkey-Georgia border, so it’s possible it could live in Georgia too.Turkmenistan: I’ve chosen Cueta kasyi because it’s an antlion, and antlions are cool. I’ve been able to find virtually no information on this species in particular, so let me just tell you about antlions in general. As larvae, they live their lives as terrifying, sarlaac-like creatures which hide in the sand and snatch insects. As adults they are vaguely dragonfly-like flying creatures. Closely related species shown.Uganda: The mountain gorilla is a subspecies of eastern gorilla which is found in numerous parts of Central Africa; however, some authors believe that it should be two subspecies, one of which would be endemic to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Mountain gorillas have thicker fur than any other variety of gorilla, due to the colder temperatures associated with higher altitude.Ukraine: The sandy mole-rat, one of two species of spalacid mole rat endemic to Ukraine. It isn’t a “true” mole-rat (they’re endemic to Africa, and were discussed back at Ghana), and isn’t even closely related to them. It’s fully blind - its tiny eyes are covered by skin, and it uses its incisors to dig, which are separated from the rest of the mouth by a flap of skin.United Arab Emirates: The Emirati leaf-toed gecko, the UAE’s only known endemic vertebrate. A nocturnal animal, it has a tiny geographic range, but despite this, it’s listed as Least Concern because it’s abundant where it’s found and has a stable population trend. It was only discovered in 2016.United Kingdom: The Scottish crossbill, a finch which is only found in the Caledonian highlands. Whether it was a unique species was hotly debated for decades, but in 2006 it was confirmed to be distinct - partially due to its distinctive call, or “Scottish accent”. It gets its name from the way its upper beak crosses over its lower one, making it one of the only asymmetrical vertebrates.United States of America: There are so many species I could have chosen for this huge and varied nation, but - partially out of personal bias - I settled on the Hawaiian monk seal, for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s an endemic genus (Neomonachus). It’s also the only species of seal which lives in the tropics, and it always puzzles me how on Earth it got to Hawaii, since the other monk seals live in the Atlantic, and it needs a coast to survive. Overall, a very interesting species.Uruguay: Orienscopia sanmartini, a grasshopper. It’s not a normal grasshopper, though - it’s a proscopiid, or jumping stick. Jumping sticks are essentially grasshoppers trying to be stick insects, and they have incredibly weird, alien-like faces, which are elongated and bug-eyed.Uzbekistan: Turanoniscidae, an endemic family of arthropods which sounds fascinating, only I can’t find much information on it. It contains one species of woodlouse, Turanoniscus anacanthotermitis, which lives only in the nests of termites. Aside from that, and the fact that it was discovered in 1969, that’s all I know. Related species shown.Vanuatu: The chestnut-bellied kingfisher, one of the islands’ most colourful birds. It doesn’t actually eat fish, preferring to dine on insects and other invertebrates. Mated pairs dig burrows into termite mounds, or sometimes the trunks of coconut palm trees and tree ferns. The species is one of two types of kingfisher found in Vanuatu.Vatican City: Surprise surprise, the Vatican doesn’t have any endemic species. You’re almost there, just five more countries to go.Venezuela: The tepui tinamou, a ground-dwelling bird endemic to Venezuela’s tepuis. Tepuis are spectacular tabletop mountains found almost exclusively in Venezuela and Guyana, where you can find some incredible isolated ecosystems. The tepui tinamou is a mysterious tinamou (see Paraguay for more info) which dwells in the dense cloud forests atop the mesas.Vietnam: The Vietnam ferret-badger, I’d say. Described only in 2011, it’s one of the most recently discovered species of carnivoran. Specifically, it’s a mustelid, one of several Asian species known as ferret-badgers. The species is only known from two dead specimens, so very little is known about its lifestyle.Yemen: Yemen’s Socotra archipelago is a hotspot of endemic species, the most famous and unusual of which is the dragon’s blood tree. It has a bizarre, densely-packed crown, making it look a bit like a giant mushroom or umbrella, which is an adaptation for reducing water loss by creating shade. It gets its name from the blood-red resin which exudes from its orange berries.Zambia: The black lechwe, which is a subspecies of the water-loving antelope species of Southern Africa known as the lechwe. The most obvious difference between black lechwes and other members of the species is in the name - they have much darker fur, in most cases. It is one of two lechwe subspecies endemic to Zambia.Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe has a lot of rather attractive flower species which are found nowhere else. The most unusual, to me, is Streptocarpus cyanandrus, which has magenta petals with three dark stripes on each. It’s a member of the African violet family, many species of which are popular as house plants.Damn… we made it. Now, I need a break from any and all forms of research for at least a day. I wonder if there’s any other answer on Quora which has a decent amount of information on this many species?So, after some 40 mammals, 28 birds, 22 reptiles, 17 insects, 16 fish (excluding Malawi's 700 cichlids), 16 miscellaneous invertebrates, 15 arachnids, 9 plants, 8 amphibians and 1 bacterium, plus a bunch more because I can't count, I hope you've gained a better understanding of life's mind-bending diversity, and that I'll regain my sanity sometime soon. Thanks a lot for reading, and hopefully this pays off.