This leaf-cutter species, perhaps the most common in Costa Rica, represents the ants that have entranced scientists from Linnaeus to E.O. Wilson (see his foundational Encyclopedia of Life TED talk) and now to Eli Sarnat, an EOL Rubenstein Fellow.

Mosses are major components of the cloud forest and Pacific Northwest forest canopies studied by Nalini Nadkarni.

EOL's Bob Corrigan used these grasshoppers as an example of the trouble with names at his TEDxPotomac talk.

Rich Pyle explains the delights, dangers, and technology of diving, and introduces this new species in The Twilight Zone

Simon Berrow at TEDxDublin on How do you save a shark you know nothing about

Douglas Adams is most famous for his entertaining radio and book series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. However, he also had a passionate interest in understanding and conserving biological diversity. His book Last Chance to See was made into a BBC series. Adams gave a University of California talk called Parrots, the universe and everything which was chosen as a TED "Best of the Web" feature. The aye-eye is one of the creatures he describes.

A focus of photographer Paul Nicklen's talk, Tales of ice bound wonderlands

Sylvia Earle, TED Prize winner in 2009, nominated horseshoe crabs for this collection. She says, "There are four kinds of horseshoe crabs, creatures that may individually live for at least two decades but with a history exceeding 300 million years. All are in serious trouble including the Atlantic version that fascinated me as a child first on New Jersey beaches and later along the west coast of Florida.

Having persisted relatively unchanged for 300 million years, their fate now rests with those of us who will be around during the next 30 or so, depending on whether we take actions to protect them while there is still time or lose the chance to do so forever."

Sylvia's Mission Blue gives us all a chance to be part of the solution.

Another favorite: Tierny Thys swims with the giant sunfish.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what species of mantis shrimp Sheila Patek is talking about in her TED talk about clocking the fastest animals. The transcript doesn't actually mention any scientific names, and one paper of hers (cited here on EOL) mentioned two different species in two different genera. But this is one of them.

John Kasaona tells an anecdote about cheetahs, lions, and leopards in his 2009 TED talk, How poachers became caretakers.

Watch the talk to find out the moral of the story.

Jonathan Drori explains why the Millenium Seed Bank is so vital for the future of our species.

Deborah Gordon has spent many years studying harvester ants and talks about figuring out how colonies allocate tasks. Cool stuff.

Dee Boersma talks about Galapagos Penguins on the Mission Blue Voyage.