DAKOSAURUS MAXIMUS found in U.K

A prehistoric relative of Modern Crocodile -DAKOSAURUS MAXIMUS was discoverd from the sea floor near Chesil Beach,Dorset.This came about from a fossilised tooth-5.5 cm belonging to the anicient underwater predator-DAKOSAURUS MAXIMUS-4.5 cm in length,swam in swallow seas in Europe 152 million years ago and may ate prey similar to Killer Whales and is largest of it kind found in U. K-Historical Biology Journal   FOR MORE INFO LINK-      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-27606864

CRICKETS MUTATION BY EVOLUTION

Crickets on 2 Hawaiian Islands have Evolved a inability to sing.Kauai and Oahra about 10years ago -2 years apart -male craickets appeared with altered wings.Normally chirping or singing is to attract females and is done by wings rubbing together to chirp.The crickets with wing changes are phyiscally different and as stated came from separate mutations as findings in Current Biology Journal.The silent crickets area new example of Convergent Evolution.
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Asian Common Toad in Madagascar

The Asian Common Toad has been seen on Madagascar . Fears are this could lead to ecological disaster and wreak havoc on the country,s Fauna.Calls to remove toad before spreading have been made by scientists.The Asian Common Toad is a relative of the Cane Toad -which has devastated wildlife in Australia.    FOR MORE INFO LINK-                 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27607978

COLOSSAL PEATLAND DISCOVERED IN CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE

A vast Peatland  the size of England has been discovered in remote part of Congo-Brazzaville.It is said by scientists to contain Carbon-Rich Material that could shed light on 10,000 years of Environmental  change in little studied region.
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Globsters: Mysterious Marine Monster Masses

In this photo released by Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, a giant squid is seen after it washed up onto Ocean Beach in Strahan, Tasmania, Tuesday, July, 10. 2007. The squid, measuring 1 meter (3 feet) across at its widest point and 8 meters (26 feet) from the tip of its body to the end of its tentacles, was found early Wednesday by a beachcomber at Ocean Beach on the island state of Tasmania's west coast. Credit: AP Photo/Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, HO View full size image

What monsters may lurk deep in our oceans? We feel fairly safe on dry, familiar land, where dangerous animals can usually be seen and avoided. But since men first took to sea thousands of years ago, legends and stories have been told of fearsome marine monsters that awaited those who ventured too far from shore.  

Mysterious creatures such as the kraken and the biblical Leviathan were said to attack sailors and drag them to their deaths. Though most of these monsters are mythological, science has found a basis for a few of the legends including the elusive giant squid, which can reach nearly 50 feet in length.

But what about other, more exotic sea monsters? Even though none have been found alive, some people believe they have been found dead — in the form of globsters. A globster is a huge, smelly mass of marine flesh found on beaches throughout the world. In his encyclopedic "Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology," George M. Eberhart gives the following description of the typical globster: "No apparent bone structure; ivory-colored, rubbery, stringy, extremely tough skin; covered with fine hair or fiber; no defined head; no visible eyes.read more

Portland’s International Cryptozoology Museum named in ‘10 weirdest museums’ list

Not that we needed confirmation from an outside source, but Time has named Portland’s International Cryptozoology Museum as one of the 10 weirdest museums in the world.

Loren Coleman holds a model of Bigfoot at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland. The supposed Bigfoot footprint was found in Washington state in the 1980s.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

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Time published the list last Sunday in honor of International Museum Day to call attention to a few museums that are anything but mundane.

The International Cryptozoology Museum came in at No. 7.

Time wrote, “Cryptozoology is literally ‘the read more

Purple jellyfish which washed up on Coolum Beach, Queensland, may be new species of thysanostoma

A PURPLE creature of the deep has washed up on Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast — and scientists think it could be a new species.

The brilliant-coloured jellyfish surprised lifeguards who clocked on for work early Wednesday.

Lying on the shoreline, the glowing purple blob had tentacles stretching out to about 1m.

Lifeguard Michael Daly said he had never before seen such a jellyfish on the beach.

“It’s still alive. We put gloves on and picked it up by head and put it in a bucket and we hope someone from Underwater World will be able to identify it,” he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like. It’s bright purple like a child’s toy. The head is the size of a dinner plate and the tentacles are about 1m long.

“We’re not sure if it has harmful stinging cells.”

Jellyfish expert Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin has identified the creature as a thysanostoma but said it could be a new species because of the vivid colour.

Most thysanostoma are a brownish hue and a few are known to wash up on beaches each year - however it is not considered common.

Dr Gershwin told The Courier Mail she had never seen that blubber in purple and was very excited.

The purple jellyfish washed up on Coolum Beach, Queensland.

“It could be something new to science. The reason my antenna go up is it’s such a different colour from what we normally see, so it could read more

18,000 New Species Were Discovered Last Year -- Here Are The Best

A sea anemone that lives under an Antarctic glacier and a translucent snail from Croatia are among the top 10 new species of 2014 named by an international team of scientists on Thursday. The list comes from the nearly 18,000 species that were newly discovered last year.

The top 10 list, compiled this year by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s (ESF), has been released each year since 2008 to coincide with the birthday of 18th century Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who is considered the father of modern taxonomy.

The list should not be viewed as a ranking (there are no “losers” or “runners-up”), but instead to draw attention to the “biodiversity crisis by working to complete an inventory of earth’s plants, animals and microbes,” Quentin Wheeler, president of ESF, said in a statement.

Scientists estimate that there are 10 million species that still haven’t been identified, five times the number that have already been named.read more

Welcome to the list: Scientific institute lists its top 10 newly discovered species

(CNN) -- Consider it the taxonomist's equivalent of a People magazine's Most Beautiful List.

An international committee made up of scientists and related experts has announced its top 10 of nearly 18,000 new species named in the previous year, according to a news release from the International Institute for Species Exploration, part of the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The alphabetical list was launched in 2008 and is released each May 23, the birthday of 18th-century Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, who is considered the father of modern taxonomy. It is "a way to call attention to species that are going extinct faster than they are being identified," the institute said in the release.

Scientists believe 10 million species await discovery, five times the number that are already known to science.read more

New Species of Praying Mantis Discovered in Rwanda

A male and female of what turned out to be a new species of praying mantis were collected in a thick montane forest during a survey of the insects inNyungwe National Park.

The new insect has been named the Bush tiger mantis (Dystacta tigrifrutex) due to the similarities in hunting practices with one of the world’s favorite big cats.

Soon after the female was placed in captivity, she laid an egg case, called an ootheca, and the entomologists were later able to see the emerging nymphs.

These events allowed the team to describe in one go the male, female, nymphal stages and a large portion of the biology of the Bush tiger mantis.

Using 21 measurements taken from the new species’ bodies, coloring and more, the entomologists concluded that specimens were from the genus Dystacta, which, until now, had one species: Dystacta alticeps.read more

Ecudor Amazon Parrots

 Researchers from Chester Zoo spent 3 weeks studing .This species of Parrot was reclassified in December before it was thought to be a Subspecies of common parrots.600 are believed to remain in wild which has led to parrot being listed as endangered. read more- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27521674

LYUBA-BABY MAMMOTH - DISPLAYED IN BRITIAN

The National History Museum ,London  has unveiled a perfectly preserved Baby Mammoth-died 42,000 years ago.It is 130 cm tall ,weighs 50 kg and named Lyuba -this name was given by Siberian Deer Hunter who discovered the Mammoth in 2007.

Third dino species found at Lourinha- new species of sauropod dinosaur

We thought for a long time that it was a species that was known in Spain, the turiasaurus, but in fact the anatomical differences we began to notice were sufficient for us to reclassify it, not just as a new species but as a new genus for science”, said Octávio Mateus.

Anatomical differences discovered by comparison with other dinosaurs of the same genus and family led paleontologists to conclude that this animal had “various different crests on the bones of its limbs”, he explained.

Between 2000 and 2002, excavations near Lourinha discovered a complete rear leg, four metres long, a tooth and a tail bone, which are on exhibition in Lourinha museum.

We now know they belonged to a sauropod, now called “zby atlanticus”, which was about 19 metres long and four metres tall that loved 150 million years ago in the Upper Jurassic period.

Monster of the Manzanos is new species of shark

A CT scan of a rare shark fossil found nearly a year ago in the Manzano Mountains indicates it is a new species of Ctenacanth, or “spiny” shark, according to its discoverer, John Paul “JP” Hodnett. The scan, technically known as a “computed tomography” scan, uses X-rays to make detailed pictures of internal structures. It was performed Friday at Presbyterian Rust Medical Center in Rio Rancho. The scan revealed teeth on the exterior of the 8-foot-long shark’s head, making it “more like a monster than I ever imagined,” said Hodnett, a Washington, D.C.-based independent researcher and paleontologist. He calls the fossil, which was a female, Godzilla, until it gets an official name, probably within a year. Until Hodnett’s discovery, a complete Ctenacanth shark fossil had never been found in North America, let alone in New Mexico, he said. The discoverer of the ancient fossil in the Manzano Mountains last year, paleontologist John Paul "JP" Hodnett, center, is joined during the CT scan by Tom Suazo of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, where the rare fossil will be displayed, and Specialist Jane Childs. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal) The discoverer of the ancient fossil in the Manzano Mountains last year, paleontologist John Paul “JP” Hodnett, center, is joined during the CT scan by Tom Suazo of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, where the rare fossil will be displayed, and Specialist Jane Childs. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal) The fossil was discovered on May 21, 2013, in a clay pit that used to be a lagoon 300 million years ago in the Pennsylvanian period. This is an extremely rare case of what paleontologists call soft-body preservation, Hodnett said. It’s likely there was no oxygen at the bottom of the quarry, so no bacteria lived to decompose the shark cartilage after it died. The size of the shark’s 2-foot-long dorsal fin and the shape of its teeth led scientists to believe it may be a new species of Ctenacanth.

Three New Species of Carnivorous Snails Discovered in Thailand

The three new species belong to Streptaxidae, a near pan-tropical family of carnivorous land snails.

Members of this family are found in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, from South America, Africa through India to Japan and Asia.

They hunt various soil invertebrates, and are considered to play a major role in limestone ecosystems.

The new genus, named Carinartemis, currently comprises two new species,Carinartemis vesperus and Carinartemis striatus.

The generic name, Carinartemis, is derived from the Latin ‘carina’ (keel) and Greek ‘artemis’ (goddess of the chase).

Carinartemis vesperus has suboblique-heliciform, white and translucent shell (up to 10 mm long).

“Whorls 7, spire conical with distinct suture. Shell surface glossy, with thin and fine transverse ridges,” Dr Panha and his colleagues wrote in a paper published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (full paper in .pdf).

“Teeth arranged in anteriorly V-shaped rows, each row containing 47–49 teeth with the formula (23-24)-1-(23-24); central tooth small, short, triangular with pointed cusp.”read more

Wild Banana Discovered in India

Musa, a plant genus native to the Indo-Malesian, Asian, and Australian tropics, produces the fourth most important food in the world.

The species in this genus are large, perennial herbs, up to 9 m in height. Fruits are generally elongate-cylindrical, straight to strongly curved, up to 40 cm long, and up to 8 cm in diameter.

There are five subgenera in the genus Musa – Australimusa, Callimusa, Musa, Rhodochlamys and Ingentimusa, two of which contain edible bananas.

The newly discovered species, named Musa arunachalensis, belongs to the subgenus Rhodochlamys.

Rhodochlamys bananas are characterized by having erect or drooping inflorescences with fruit pointing towards the apex of the inflorescence.

Most of them have relatively few fruits and are best known for their brightly colored bracts (small leaf at the base of a flower), a feature that makes them popular as ornamental plants.

Musa arunachalensis is known from specimens found in West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India.

Sea bass new species discovered

Smithsonian scientists have managed to match fish larva collected in the Florida Straits and adults of a new species of sea bass discovered off the coast of Curacao.

These researchers, who had their study results published in the journal PLOS ONE, found this larva in a photograph without identification in another research paper and recognized it as a member of the sea bass family Serranidae. However, they were intrigued by its seven very elongate dorsal-fin spines.

"This feature isn't known in any Atlantic sea bass larvae, but it is similar to one species of Indo-Pacific sea bass," said David Johnson, a zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Nevertheless, the team detected the DNA sequence did not match any known fish species and, this fact along with its unique morphological features, led the scientists to begin describing the larva as a new species despite the absence of adults.

Combining this new genetic information with available DNA barcoding data for all western Atlantic sea bass specimens yielded an unexpected discovery: The larva from the Florida Straits is the pelagic stage of a cryptic new species of Liopropomafrom southern Caribbean deep reefs.

It was concluded that a new species of sea bass—now known as Liopropoma olneyi—was discovered and the team named the new species in honour of a deceased colleague, John E. Olney, who studied and taught courses about marine fish larvae.

"Science has largely missed the deep-reef zone, and it appears to be home to a lot of life that we didn't know about," stressed Carole Baldwin, a zoologist at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Researchers are now able to study deep reefs in the southern Caribbean because of the availability of the Curasub submersible, a privately owned, manned submersible capable of descending to 1,000 feet.

The work off Curacao resulting in the discovery of L. olneyi is part of the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project.

New Species of Catfish Found in India

Current members of the catfish species, look out: There's a new fish in town.

Ichthyologists -- zoologists who study fish -- from Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) in India announced they have discovered a new species of catfish, only the second species belonging to the genusCreteuchiloglanis.

Video: Should We Close The Ocean To Save Fish?

The new catfish -- dubbed Creteuchiloglanis payjab -- was found in the Yomgo River, at an altitude of about 6,558 feet, in the state of West Siang district of the state of Arunchal Pradesh.

The holotype and paratype for the fish were sent to the Rajiv Gandhi University Museum of Fishes and the Zoological Survey of India. The name "payjab" comes from the local name for the fish.

New horned lizard species found in southern Mexico

An article published in the current issue of the journal Herpetologica describes a new horned lizard species that lives in Mexico. Body size, tail length, and scale texture and layout distinguish this new species, which the authors propose naming Phrynosoma sherbrookei.

There are 16 recognized horned lizard species, spreading from Canada to Guatemala. Only four species have been found south of Mexico's transvolcanic belt. These distinctive reptiles have a scaly back and sides and bony horns over their brow. To avoid predators, they rely on camouflage and an ability to puff out their body. Some species squirt blood by rupturing capillaries surrounding their eyes. They adapt to dry habitats by using their tail to channel water over their back and into their mouth and by collecting solar heat through their flat, rounded body.

In Guerrero, Mexico, 14 lizards collected in the Sierra Madre del Sur appeared to be part of an unrecognized Phrynosoma species. The authors of the study analyzed tissue samples from these specimens to support their proposal of a new species. They took new DNA samples for all recognized Phrynosoma species and compared it with DNA from the newly collected lizards. They also generated a map depicting the evolution of the horned lizards to show how the newly described species has developed. Their efforts produced a family tree-style chart for the lizards that displays both close and distant relationships among the different species.read more

Dancing frog species discovered in Indian jungle mountains

Scientists have discovered 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs in the jungle mountains of southern India.

Indian biologists say they found the tiny acrobatic amphibians, which earned their name with the unusual kicks they use to attract mates, declining dramatically in number during the 12 years in which they chronicled the species through morphological descriptions and molecular DNA markers. They breed after the yearly monsoon in fast-rushing streams, but their habitat appears to be becoming increasingly dry.

"It's like a Hollywood movie, both joyful and sad. On the one hand, we have brought these beautiful frogs into public knowledge. But about 80% are outside protected areas, and in some places, it was as if nature itself was crying," said the project's lead scientist, University of Delhi professor Sathyabhama Das Biju.

Biju said that, as researchers tracked frog populations, forest soils lost moisture and perennial streams ran inexplicably dry. He acknowledged his team's observations about forest conditions were only anecdotal; the scientists did not have time or resources to collect data demonstrating the declining habitat trends they believed they were witnessing.

The study listing the new species published Thursday in the Ceylon Journal of Science brings the number of known Indian dancing frog species to 24. They're found exclusively in the Western Ghats, a lush mountain range that stretches 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) from the western state of Maharashtra down to the country's southern tip.read more

'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

Fossilised bones of a dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth have been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.

Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.

Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.

Scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur - an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

A local farm worker first stumbled on the remains in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia.

Dr Diego Pol explains how the weight of the dinosaur was calculated

The fossils were then excavated by a team of palaeontologists from the Museum of Palaeontology Egidio Feruglio, led by Dr Jose Luis Carballido and Dr Diego Pol.

They unearthed the partial skeletons of seven individuals - about 150 bones in total - all in "remarkable condition".

A film crew from the BBC Natural History Unit was there to capture the moment the scientists realised exactly how big their discovery was.

By measuring the length and circumference of the largest femur (thigh bone), they calculated the animal weighed 77 tonnes.

"Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth," the researchers told BBC News.

"Its length, from its head to the tip of its tail, was 40m.

"Standing with its neck up, it was about 20m high - equal to a seven-This giant herbivore lived in the forests of Patagonia between 95 and 100 million years ago, based on the age of the rocks in which its bones were found.

But despite its magnitude, it does not yet have a name.

"It will be named describing its magnificence and in honour to both the region and the farm owners who alerted us about the discovery," the researchers said.

There have been many previous contenders for the title "world's biggest dinosaur".

The most recent pretender to the throne wasArgentinosaurus, a similar type of sauropod, also discovered in Patagonia.

Originally thought to weigh in at 100 tonnes, it was later revised down to about 70 tonnes - just under the 77 tonnes that this new sauropod is thought to have weighed.

The picture is muddied by the various complicated methods for estimating size and weight, based on skeletons that are usually incomplete.

Argentinosaurus was estimated from only a few bones. But the researchers here had dozens to work with, making them more confident that they really have found "the big one".

Dr Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert from London's Natural History Museum, agreed the new species is "a genuinely big critter. But there are a number of similarly sized big sauropod thigh bones out there," he cautioned.

"Without knowing more about this current find it's difficult to be sure. One problem with assessing the weight of both Argentinosaurusand this new discovery is that they're both based on very fragmentary specimens - no complete skeleton is known, which means the animal's proportions and overall shape are conjectural.

"Moreover, several different methods exist for calculating dinosaur weight (some based on overall volume, some on various limb bone measurements) and these don't always agree with each other, with large measures of uncertainty.

"So it's interesting to hear another really huge sauropod has been discovered, but ideally we'd need much more material of these supersized animals to determine just how big they really got."

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storey building."

Black Shuck DISCOVERED?

A Great Dane type dog bones found in ruins of Leiston Abbey,Suffolk.Believed to be 7Ft if stood on its hind legs and  14St and maybe the dog that was the legend of hell hound Black Shuck is supposed to have killed 4 churchgoers in 1577 and was a snarling beast with flaming eyes and stalked East Anglia. FOR MORE INFO FOLLOW LINK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629353/Is-skeleton-legendary-devil-dog-Black-Shuck-terrorised-16th-century-East-Anglia.html.

CLUE TO AMERICAN ORGINS

A divers chance find of a teenage girl remains in a vast flooded limestone chamber in Mexico-Yucatan Peninsula.This find of girl who lived at least 12,00 years ago backs the idea through D.N.A that first American Indians all share a common ancestry.
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living fossil-Nautilus

Scotland's dodo' bone found at Scottish Seabird Centre dig-GREAT AUK

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A bone from an extinct bird known as "Scotland's dodo" has been uncovered following an archaeological dig in East Lothian.

The bone from the Great Auk, a species last seen in British waters on St Kilda in 1840, was recovered at the Kirk Ness site, now known as North Berwick.

It was unearthed during a dig at the Scottish Seabird Centre.

Archaeologists said the find sheds new lights on human habitation of the area in the Middle Ages.

The archaeological dig, by Edinburgh-based Addyman Archaeology, and supported by Historic Scotland, revealed bones of butchered seals, fish and seabirds, including the bone of the Great Auk.

The Great Auk was a flightless bird

The upper arm bone of the flightless bird was unearthed at the entrance area of an early building and has been radio carbon dated to the 5th to 7th Centuries.

The seabird was a favoured food source in medieval times as it was easy to catch.

Human predation led to the decline of the species, ensuring that by the middle of the 19th Century it had become persecuted and exploited into extinction.

The penguin-like bird was 1m tall and its range at one time extended from the north-eastern United States across the Atlantic to the British Isles, France and Northern Spain.

Tom Brock, chief executive of the Scottish Seabird Centre, said: "The discovery of the Great Auk bone on site at the Scottish Seabird Centre is fascinating but also very sad.

"We are so fortunate in Scotland to have a rich variety of seabirds and we must use the extinction of the Great Auk as a warning to future generations to look after our wonderful wildlife and the marine environment as an absolute priority.

"There are both behavioural and environmental lessons that must be taken from this internationally-important finding, and as an educational and conservation charity we will remain dedicated to inspiring people to enjoy, protect and learn about wildlife and the natural environment."

Future generations

Tom Addyman, of Addyman Archaeology, said: "The discovery of the Great Auk bone at Kirk Ness is an illuminating find, as we seek to understand and document the importance of the area in the history of wildlife and human habitation in the Middle Ages.

"We hope that its discovery helps historians and conservation experts, such as the Scottish Seabird Centre, to educate future generations about the precious nature of our natural resources."

Rod McCullagh, senior archaeology manager at Historic Scotland, said: "In the last two decades, there has been a renaissance in our understanding of the archaeology and history of early Medieval Scotland.

"The discovery of the remains of domestic buildings and the associated detritus of daily life at Kirk Ness gives us a glimpse of what ordinary life was like in East Lothian at this time.

"That 'daily life' involved the killing of such valuable birds as the Great Auk is no surprise but the discovery of this single bone perhaps attests to a time when hunting did not overwhelm such a vulnerable species."

Deep-sea 'graveyard' reveals fate of dead ocean giants

The chance discovery of a deep-sea "graveyard" is helping scientists to shed light on the fate of dead ocean giants, scientists report.

Footage recorded by the oil and gas industry shows the carcasses of four large marine creatures in a small patch of sea floor off the coast of Angola.

Around the dead whale shark and three deceased rays, scavengers flocked to the food bonanza.

The findings are published in the journal Plos One.

There were lots of these fish sitting around the carcasses - they seemed to be guarding it

Dr Nick Higgs, University of Plymouth

Lead author Dr Nick Higgs, from the University of Plymouth's Marine Institute, said: "There's been lots of research on whale-falls, but we've never really found any of these other large marine animals on the sea bed."

Whale carcasses are home to complex ecosystems, first attracting scavengers such as sharks, then smaller opportunists such as crabs and shrimp-like creatures called amphipods. Osedax - or "zombie worms" - feed on the animal's bones, while specialist bacteria break down fats.READ MORE AND SEE VIDEO LINK

New species of metal-eating plant found in the Philippines The new species was found on the western part of the Luzon Island in the Philippines Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/new-species-of-metal-eating-plant-found-in-the-philippines/#ixzz31QiZUX9s

A new species of metal-eating plant has been found in the Philippines. According to Professor Edwino Fernando of the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, the new plant species can accumulate up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned.
Called Rinorea niccolifera, the new species of metal-eating plant has the ability to absorb nickel in extremely high quantities. This ability  is known to exist in only approximately 0.5-1 percent of plant species native to nickel-rich soils.
Rinorea niccolifera was found on the western part of the Luzon Island in the Philippines, an area famous for its soils rich in heavy metals.
“Hyperacccumulator plants have great potentials for the development of green technologies, for example, ‘phytoremediation’ and ‘phytomining,’” says co-author Dr. Augustine Doronila of the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne.
According to LiveScience, phytomining “uses plants to extract particles of the precious metal from soil.” Phytoremediation, on the other hand, is the “direct use of green plants and their associated microorganisms to stabilize or reduce contamination in soils, sludges, sediments, surface water, or ground water,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The study’s findings are described in greater detail in the journal PhytoKeys.


Read more: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/new-species-of-metal-eating-plant-found-in-the-philippines/#ixzz31QiSEnhc

New Species of Fish Found

A new species of catfish has been found in Yomgo river in West Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh by a team of ichthyologists from Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) here.

The fish was found in the river at a depth of 1999 metres at Mechuka, a release by the team said here today.

This is the second such discovery and the new species belong to the genus Creteuchiloglanis. The first one was found at Kalaktang in West Kameng district of the state in 1966, the release said.

The holotype and paratypes of the new species were deposited and preserved in Rajiv Gandhi University Museum of Fishes and Zoological Survey of India, Itanagar.

The team was led by Professor D N Das of RGU and included Achom Darshan Singh, Rashmi Dutta, Akash Kachari, and Budhin Gogoi, the release added.READ MORE

QIANZHOUSAURUS SINENSIS.-DINOSAUR FOUND

FOR MORE INFO FOLLOW LINK

With a 9 metres long and distinctive horny snout a new Tyrannosaur  has been nicknamed Pinocchio Rex and was a cousin of Tyrannosaur Rex .The skeleton of the dinosaur was dug up at a chinese  construction site and was indentified by DR.Steve Bruoatte ,Edinburgh University.It is 66 million years old and its real name is QIANZHOUSAURUS SINENSIS.

Will they hold on? Three new gecko species found in threatened habitat

Malaysia is set to lose ancient limestone formations to quarrying despite the discovery of new species of geckos in the area. 

The species are described by Dr. L. Lee Grismer from California’s La Sierra University in three studies recently published in the journal Zootaxa. One of Grismer’s discoveries,Cyrtodactylus metropolis, is the first endemic vertebrate species discovered in the Batu Caves area. 

Batu Caves, located only 10 miles from downtown Kuala Lumpur, is a series of caves and a Hindu temple that attracts thousands of visitors every day. 

“Up until about 1970, much of the native limestone forest surrounding Batu Caves was intact, but the adjacent habitat has since been replaced by housing, industrial estates, and shops, essentially making Batu Caves an island in a sea of urbanization,” Grismer said.read more

Two New Snapping Turtle Species Named

The alligator snapping turtle (M. temminckii above) is actually three species. Photograph by Michelle Gilders, Alamy

Loosely related to common snapping turtles, alligator snappers have a dinosaur-like appearance and a range that’s limited to rivers in the southeastern United States that drain into the Gulf of Mexico (map).

Scientists made the discovery using a multipronged approach, examining wild turtles’ genes and body shapes as well as those of fossilized turtles. (See video: “Fishing with Alligator Snappers.”)

Thanks to their work, the original species (Macrochelys temminckii) has been joined by two newly classified species—M. suwannensis and M. apalachicolae, which are named after the river systems they populate: the Suwannee River and Apalachicola River.

And Then There Were Three

Study leader Travis Thomas, of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and team caught turtles in rivers throughout the Gulf Coast region and collected blood samples from their tails to compare their DNA, which revealed significant differences.

The team also measured the reptiles’ skulls and carapaces, or shells, and found significant variations among them. For instance, snappers found in the Suwannee River have a particularly distinctive caudal notch, a scooplike structure at the back of the shell.

The DNA and physical evidence, combined with analysis of fossil snappers dating back to 16 million years ago, confirmed the turtles are separate species. (Also see “Mating Turtles Fossilized in the Act.”)

“These turtles depend on rivers and only leave the water to lay eggs, so it’s not surprising that there are genetic differences between drainages,” study co-author Joe Roman, a biologist at the University of Vermont in Burlington, said by emairead more

The Rat King: So Much Worse Than it Sounds

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "rat king"? Perhaps a sniffy-nosed rodent scampering about in a crown? Or maybe a ballet dancer in a rat costume, a la the Mouse King in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker? Well, take those innocent visions, dash them, and report to Room 101. There, in your bespoke face-cage, you will meet the real rat king.

A rat king, or roi-de-rats if you want to get all classy and French about it, is a pack of rodents whose tails have become entwined. The adhesive for this rat tangle may be dirt, blood, or feces, or the tails may simply be knotted together. The number of rats in a rat king varies wildly — two rats can make a rat king, albeit a pretty pathetic one.

Reported rat king sightings date back to at last as far as the 16th century. Germany is a particular hotspot, for reasons unknown. The largest known specimen is a mummified 32-rat snarl, on display at the Mauritianum museum in Altenburg, Germany.

Behold the monstrous majesty: read more