The research team led by Andreas Fleischmann of the Munich State Botanical Collection and GeoBio Center at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and PhD student Thilo Krueger of Western Australia’s Curtin University described six previously unknown carnivorous sundew species that occur in Western Australia and presented the results of the investigations are published in the journal Biology. Until now, only three species of the so-called Drosera microphylla species complex were known.
The image material on Facebook, Instagram and Cia. It is of great importance for the protection of many animal and plant species. Fleischmann emphasizes: “In particular, it would not be possible for us to determine the ranges of very rare species without this additional wealth of data.”
Although many species are becoming extinct across the world in the 21st century, new animal and plant species are still being discovered. “A race against time”, emphasized the scientists. Without the intensive work of species researchers, “many creatures would go extinct without ever having been known before.”
More amateur scientists
Meanwhile, there is far more observational data from lay scientists on social media and even in scientific biodiversity databases than data from research collections, especially for the visually visible carnivorous plants, according to a statement from the State Collection. German about the study.
For example, a Sundew species from South Africa was known from three historical herbarium specimens and seven photos on a Citizen Science website in 2018. Internet. “Meanwhile, the number of known herbarium specimens from South Africa in natural science collections has remained the same.”