Discovery of ‘cryptic species’ shows Earth is even more biologically diverse
A method called DNA barcoding has revealed that some animals and plants believed to be a single species are actually separate
By Patrick Greenfield / The Guardian
A growing number of “cryptic species” hiding in plain sight have been unmasked in the past year, driven in part by the rise of DNA barcoding, a technique that can identify and differentiate between animal and plant species using their genetic divergence.
The discovery of new species of aloe, African leaf-nosed bats and chameleons that appear similar to the human eye, but are in fact many and separate, have thrilled and worried conservationists.