(News) - This 1,800-year-old tombstone depicts a gladiator holding two swords standing above his defeated opponent who is signaling submission. The inscription below says Diodoros, a gladiator, was buried here. CREDIT: © Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels.

(News) - From NASA.gov: 'This artist's concept shows two scientists examining rock formations on the Red Planet. Many scientists say sedimentary deposits evident in Mars Global Surveyor images could contain fossils visible under ordinary magnification -- all the more reason to send exobiologists and geologists there.' NASA/Pat Rawlings

(News) - From NASA.gov: 'The giant planet HR 8799b was first discovered in 2007 at the Gemini North observatory. The planet is young and hot, with a temperature of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. It's slightly larger than Jupiter and may be 10 times more massive.' NASA / ESA / G. Bacon

(News) - From NASA.gov: 'This artist's concept illustrates what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical planet in a star system with an asteroid belt 25 times as massive as the one in our own solar system. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence for such a belt around a nearby star called HD 69830 when its infrared eyes spotted dust -- presumably from asteroids banging together. The telescope didn't find any evidence for a planet in the system, but astronomers think one or more may be present.' NASA/ JPL-Caltech

(News) - From NASA.gov: 'Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of a baked object that could be called a 'cometary planet.' Named HD 209458b, the gas giant is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space. Observations suggest powerful stellar winds are sweeping the cast-off atmospheric material behind the scorched body and shaping it into a comet-like tail. HD 209458b is located 153 light-years from Earth.' NASA / ESA / G. Bacon

(News) - A newly-discovered maniraptoran dinosaur may have looked like the feathered dinosaur seen here, about to become a snack for the larger Darwinopterus modularis. CREDIT: Mark Witton/University of Portsmouth

(News) - This shot from a NASA fireball-watching camera shows a meteor over Macon, Ga., on the evening of May 20, 2011. CREDIT: NASA/MSFC/MEO

(News) - Rebecca Burdine's daughter Sophie was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome at 11 months. She is now 5 years old.

(Getty) - In this handout photo provided by the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre, a rare white kiwi chick is seen only days after being hatched on May 22, 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. The all-white kiwi, named 'Manukura' is suspected to be the first white chick born in captivity. The chick is the thirteenth of fourteen baby kiwis hatched at the wildlife centre this season. (Photo by Mike Heydon/Jet Productions NZ Limited via Getty Images)

(Getty) - In this handout photo provided by the Pukaha Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre, DOC Captive Breeding Ranger Darren Page and Jason Kerehi of Rangitane o Wairarapa hold a rare white kiwi chick only days after being hatched on May 22, 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. The all-white kiwi, named 'Manukura' is suspected to be the first white chick born in captivity. The chick is the thirteenth of fourteen baby kiwis hatched at the wildlife centre this season. (Photo by Mike Heydon/Jet Productions NZ Limited via Getty Images)

(News) - Bioluminescent Mushroom (Mycena luxaeterna) Common name: Eternal light mushroom. Lighting up the top 10 is a luminescent fungus collected in São Paulo, Brazil, found on sticks in an Atlantic forest habitat. The teeny mushrooms, less than 8 millimeters in diameter with caps smaller than 2 centimeters across, have gel-coated stems that glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light. San Francisco State University biology professor Dennis Desjardin and his colleagues who made the discovery, named the new species Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) after a movement in Mozart's 'Requiem.' Desjardin, who has discovered more than 200 new fungi species, noted that of the estimated 1.5 million species of fungi on Earth, only 71 species are known to be bioluminescent. Credit: Cassius V. Stevani (Instituto de Química – Univ. de São Paulo, Brazil)

(News) - Jumping Cockroach (Saltoblattella montistabularis) Common name: Leaproach. The Silvermine Nature Reserve, part of Table Mountain National Park in South Africa, is home to another character on this year's top 10 list – a new species of cockroach that exhibits unusual morphology with legs that are highly modified for jumping. Named Saltoblattella montistabularis – Saltoblattella is the Latin translation of 'jumping small cockroach' – this critter has jumping ability that is on par with grasshoppers. Prior to its discovery, jumping cockroaches were only known from the Late Jurassic. In addition to the leg modifications, it has hemispherical shaped eyes, rather than kidney shaped eyes, which protrude from the sides of the head, and its antennae have an additional fixation point to help stabilize it during jumping. Credit: Mike Picker (University of Cape Town, South Africa)

(News) - Pancake Batfish (Halieutichthys intermedius) Common name: The Louisiana Pancake Batfish. A top 10 choice in the fish category is a pancake batfish that lives in waters either partially or fully encompassed by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Named Halieutichthys intermedius, this bottom-dwelling species seems to hop on its thick, arm-like fins as it moves awkwardly in the water, resembling a walking bat. John Sparks, curator of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, one of the scientists who reported the discovery, said: 'If we are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, is out there that we do not know about.' Credit: Prosanta Chakrabarty (Louisiana State University, USA)

(News) - Underwater Mushroom (Psathyrella aquatica). Scientists found a species of gilled mushroom in the northwestern United States submerged in the clear, cold, flowing waters of the upper Rogue River in Oregon. What makes Psathyrella aquatica distinct, and a member of this year's top 10, is that it was observed over 11 weeks, fruiting underwater. Credit: Robert Coffan (Southern Oregon University, USA)

(News) - Leech (Tyrannobdella rex). Among this year's top 10 picks is a leech, less than 2 inches in length but with a single jaw and gigantic teeth, earning it the name Tyrannobdella rex, which means 'tyrant leech king.' Found in Peru, this leech was discovered attached to the nasal mucous membrane of a human. According to the scientists who reported the discovery, there are 600 to 700 species of described leeches, yet there could be as many as 10,000 more throughout the world. Credit: PLoS ONE

(News) - Duiker (Philantomba walteri) Common name: Walter's Duiker. A new duiker (antelope) from West Africa was first encountered at a bushmeat market, a surprising find, according to the scientists who reported the new species in Zootaxa. 'The discovery of a new species from a well-studied group of animals in the context of bushmeat exploitation is a sobering reminder of the mammalian species that remain to be described, even within those that are being exploited on a daily basis for food or ritual activities,' wrote Marc Colyn from the University of Rennes, France, and his co-authors. The species is named Philantomba walteri or 'Walter's Duiker' for the late Walter N. Verheyen, in honor of his work on African mammals. Verheyen reportedly collected the first specimen at Badou, Togo, in 1968. Credit: Yann LE BRIS

(News) - Pollinating Cricket (Glomeremus orchidopilus). This pollenating cricket made the top ten new species of 2010 list. It is the only known pollenator of the endangered orchid Angraecum cadetii. Credit: C. Micheneau (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) and J. Fournel (Université de la Réunion)

(News) - Pollinating Cricket (Glomeremus orchidopilus). Glomeremus orchidophilus – a raspy cricket – made the top 10 list for its distinction of being the only pollinator of the rare and endangered orchid Angraecum cadetii on Réunion in the Mascarene Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The scientists who made the discovery wrote that this species, which belongs to a subfamily of crickets that make a raspy sound, represents the first supported case of regular pollination by an insect from the order Orthoptera in extant flowering plants. Credit: Sylvain Hugel (Université de Strasbourg, France)

(News) - Monitor Lizard (Varanus bitatawa) Common name: Sierra Madre Forest Monitor or Golden Spotted Monitor. At 6 feet 6 inches in length, a frugivorous (fruit-eating) monitor lizard found in the Northern Sierra Madre Forest on Luzon Island in the Philippines is the longest species to make this year's top 10. Weighing only 22 pounds, this species is brightly colored with stripes of gold flecks. Its scaly body and legs are a blue-black mottled with pale yellow-green dots and its tail is marked in alternating segments of black and green. Named Varanus bitatawa, this lizard spends most of its time in trees and has become a flagship species for conservation in the Philippines. Credit: Image courtesy of A. C. Diesmos (National Museum of the Philippines)

(News) - Monitor Lizard (Varanus bitatawa) Common name: Sierra Madre Forest Monitor or Golden Spotted Monitor. This new fruit-eating monitor lizard made the top ten new species of 2010 list. Credit: Image courtesy of J. Brown

(News) - Bacterium (Halomonas titanicae) H. titanicae digests steel and iron into growths called 'rusticles.' Credit: Image courtesy of RMS Titanic Inc.

(News) - Also making the list is the iron-oxide consuming bacterium that was discovered on a rusticle from the RMS Titanic and named Halomonas titanicae by a team of scientists from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Sevilla in Spain. The passenger steamship Titanic struck a massive iceberg in 1912 on its maiden voyage and sank deep in the Atlantic Ocean, where it has been deteriorating. Studies show that the bacterium sticks to steel surfaces, creating knob-like mounds of corrosion products. Researchers believe this bacterium could be useful in the disposal of old ships and oil rigs that lie deep in the ocean. Society for General Microbiology

(News) - Rounding out the top 10 picks is an orb-weaving spider from Madagascar that was named for Charles Darwin – Caerostris darwini. The webs of Darwin's Bark Spider have been found spanning rivers, streams and lakes, and in one instance, a web stretched 82 feet across a Madagascar river with at least 30 insects trapped in it. But length of the web isn't the only distinction of this species. The silk spun by these spiders is more than two times stronger than any other known spider silk and reportedly 10 times stronger than a similarly sized piece of Kevlar. Matjaž Kuntner (Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)

(News) - This X-ray computed tomography scan shows a fossil Huntsman spider, Eusprassus crassipes, preserved in amber, from 49 million years ago. CREDIT: The University of Manchester

(News) - This photo shows a 1971 nuclear explosion in Mururoa Atoll, in French Polynesia, resembling something from another world. France announced on March 24, 2009, that it will compensate 150,000 victims of nuclear testing carried out in the 1960s in French Polynesia and Algeria, after decades of denying its responsibility. An initial sum of 10 million euros (14 million dollars) was set aside for military and civilian staff as well as local populations who fell ill from radiation exposure. Click here for the full gallery on LIFE.com (AFP/Getty Images)

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com shows a test-house built one mile from the point of detonation illuminated by the bomb's blast in the instant of the explosion, 1953. (Atomic Energy Commission/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(News) - An instant later—absolute, howling, terrifying destruction. (Atomic Energy Commission/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) From LIFE.com.

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com shows a French nuclear test at Mururoa, French Polynesia. In the years since the test, and other tests like it, researchers have established a link between France's nuclear explosions over the Pacific ocean in the late 1960s and 1970s and the high incidence of thyroid cancer in Polynesia. France carried out some 40 atmospheric atomic tests in Polynesia from 1966 to 1974. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com show an aerial view of the first atomic bomb blast's dark crater surrounded by a lighter splash created when the explosion's heat literally melted the sand to glass. Within a month of this test in New Mexico, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the Second World War and ushering in an anxious, unpredictable new era: The Atomic Age. (Fritz Goro/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com shows a mushroom cloud rising from 'Mike,' the first blast from the 'Operation Ivy' series of tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds, Marshall Islands. (Time Life Pictures/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com shows Priscilla, a 37-kiloton bomb, exploding while suspended by a balloon 700 feet above the desert floor. U.S. Marines, none of whom wore protective clothing, witnessed this explosion. (Time Life Pictures/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(News) - This photo from LIFE.com shows a gigantic cloud of radioactive dust rising from the desert floor seven miles from observers and news media watching a 1953 Nevada test. (J. R. Eyerman./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

(News) - This picture from LIFE.com shows a view of the atomic fireball following the test detonation of the first nuclear bomb -- the 'Trinity' test -- at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, July 16, 1945. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

(News) - A German satellite image provides a detailed view of Istanbul from more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) up. There is dense housing where yellow is predominates. In the city itself, only a few areas remain undeveloped and are thus shown in green. CREDIT: DLR

(AP) - In this undated frame grab from video released by WWF-Indonesia and the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation of Indonesian Forestry Ministry (PHKA), a female Sumatran tiger walks with her cub in the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park on Sumatra island, Indonesia. Video cameras captured 12 critically endangered Sumatran tigers, including mothers with their cubs, in Indonesian forests slated to be cut down, wildlife activists said Monday, May 9, 2011. (AP Photo/WWF-Indonesia/PHKA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

(AP) - U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman, right, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratiev, center, and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, walk in an rocket assembly shop at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Start of the new Soyuz mission is scheduled on Wednesday, Dec. 15. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

(News) - Student 3rd Place: Blue striped cleaner wrasse cleaning an Emperor Angelfish, Pomacanthus imperator. Yasawas Islands, Fiji. (Photographer: Laura Rock, Florida)

(News) - Student 2nd Place: Whale shark, Rhincodon typus. Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia. (Photographer: Laura Rock, Florida)

(News) - Best Student Entry: Orange spotted filefish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris. YasawasIslands, Fiji. (Photographer: Laura Rock, Florida)

(News) - Fish or Marine Animal Portrait 3rd Place: Frog at the surface of a lake, Belgium. (Photographer: Luc Rooman, Belgium)

(News) - Fish or Marine Animal Portrait 2nd Place: Web Burrfish, Chilomycterus antillarum. Lake Worth Lagoon, Riviera Beach, Florida. (Photographer: Susan Mears, Florida)

(News) - Wide-angle 3rd Place: Barracuda, Sudanese Red Sea. (Photographer: Jackie Campbell, Ireland)

(News) - Wide-angle 2nd Place: Sting ray and cardinal fish Mogan, Gran Canaria, Spain. (Photographer: David Barrio Colongues, Spain)

(News) - Wide-angle 1st Place: Mating cuttlefish, Oosterschelde, Holland. (Photographer: Luc Rooman, Belgium)

(News) - Macro 3rd Place: Nudibranchand mantis shrimp, Serayabeach, Bali, Indonesia. (Photographer: Erika Antoniazzo, Malaysia)

(News) - Macro 2nd Place: Nudibranch, or Cratena peregrina. Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain. (Photographer: Jordi Benitez, Spain)

(News) - Macro 1st Place: Pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti. (Photographer: Michael Gallagher, United Kingdom)

(News) - This photo of two translucent goby fish, taken in MarsaAlam, Egypt, won the top prize at the 2011 Annual Underwater Photography Contest, hosted by the University of Miami. (Photographer: Tobias Friedrich, Germany.)

(News) - A billowing tower of gas and dust rises from the stellar nursery known as the Eagle Nebula. This small piece of the Eagle Nebula is 57 trillion miles long (91.7 trillion km). (NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI/AURA)

(News) - The large Whirlpool Galaxy (left) is known for its sharply defined spiral arms. Their prominence could be the result of the Whirlpool's gravitational tug-of-war with its smaller companion galaxy (right). (NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI/AURA)