Bizarre jellyfish is spotted in the depths of the Mariana Trench

It's one of the most hostile places on Earth and extends seven miles (11km) below the waves at its deepest point, but the Mariana Trench is full of secrets.

A deepwater exploration mission of the area has spotted beautiful, unknown jellyfish with two types of tentacles as well as a number of other bizarre animals just one week into the study.

The orb-like jellyfish was spotted on a dive at a location named Engima Seamount at a depth of 12,139ft (3,700 metres).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3563363/Bizarre-jellyfish-spotted-depths-Mariana-Trench-Experts-believe-orb-like-creature-entirely-new-species.html#ixzz47JnPNETc
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Lemurs Lost and Found: New Species Discovered but the Primates Face Extinction

Of all the animals found in Madagascar, lemurs are the most discernible. Until 25 years ago, there were only two species of mouse lemurs known. These are a kind of lemurs belonging to the genus Microcebus, which translates to ‘small monkey’. The recent discovery of three new species of mouse lemurs, described in a study published in the journal Molecular Ecology on April 20, by a team of researchers from the German Primate Center (GPC), University of Kentucky, the American Duke Lemur Center and the University of Antananarivo, takes their total count to 24.
Each new species contributes another piece to the puzzle in understanding how mouse lemurs evolved and spread to different types of habitats on the island. Peter Kappeler, head of the Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, GPC, and a member of the team that has now described 21 other species of mouse lemurs, says “this new information is an element towards understanding how biodiversity on Madagascar arose”.
“By using new, objective methods to access genetic differences between individuals, we are able to find independent evidence that these mouse lemurs represent new species,” adds Kappeler. This has been possible because of a combination of advancements in genetic analysis along with frequent expeditions to remote areas that were previously inaccessible. As the team sampled more areas and generated genetic data from more individuals over the years, they read more

Woolly Wolf Spotted in Nepal Is Likely a New Species

Pausing at a clearing, a sudden streak of black against the carpet of white snow moved in the corner of Madhu Chetri's eye. 

It was 2004, and Chetri, now a Ph.D. student at Norway's Hedmark University College, was trekking through the roof of the world: Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area.

Looking up, he caught the gaze of a wolf, who regarded him with curiosity.

“I was struck by these golden yellow eyes. They were so bright. I was so excited,” says Chetri, who was exploring the Upper Mustang region as part of his conservation work.read more

Seven new animal species discovered in Bolivia

Bolivia

Published April 28, 2016

FoxNews.com

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A newly-discovered frog species from the Psychrophrynella genus, found in Madidi National Park. (Photo credit: Robert Wallace-WCS)

Scientists have discovered seven new animal species in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park.
The finds, which include three frogs, three lizards and one catfish, were made last year and have now been confirmed as new to science. Experts made careful comparison with known species, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and its local partners.
The discoveries were made as part of the Identidad Madidi project to find unknown species in the national park. The new animal species include two new frogs from the same genus (Psychrophrynella) and a new high-altitude lizard.
Related: Bolivia park is a butterfly paradise
“This genus of frog shows extreme endemism [found nowhere else on Earth] with several new species described in the last couple of decades across the Andean valleys of northern Bolivia and southern Peru, so we were hopeful of at least one discovery,” said James Aparicio, a herpetologist at the Bolivian Faunal Collection, in a statement. “Much more surprisingly, on this same high altitude trip I was also lucky enough to discover a new Liolaemus iguana lizard in a valley at 4,500-meters of altitude.”
In addition to the new animal species, 10 plant species are under investigation asread more

Tiny weevil beetle with 'furry' scales is named after Chewbacca from Star Wars

In the Star Wars universe, he is an 8ft tall, fur covered alien that co-pilots the Millennium Falcon, but on Earth Chewbacca is a rather more diminutive creature.

Biologists have named a new species of flightless beetle after the fictional Wookiee due to the dense fur-like scales around its head and legs. 

The creature, officially named Trigonopterus chewbacca, is a black weevil beetle discovered during an expedition to New Britain in Papua New Guinea.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3561485/New-species-weevil-beetle-furry-scales-head-legs-named-Chewbacca-Star-Wars-character.html#ixzz47JlghAia
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New Monkey species ‘white-cheeked macaque’ found in Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh, known for its wide variety of fauna, came to light with a new species of monkeys called white-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys), which was photographed in Anjaw district. The new species was found in southeastern Tibet last year Dr Li Cheng and his group from Modog of Tibet in China. In India, the discovery of the new species was found by the team comprising Dr Ranjan Kumar Das, Udayan Borthakur and Dr Dilip Chetry, said a news report in Assam Tribune. The species differs from others such as Rhesus macaque, Arunachal macaque, Tibetan macaque and Assamese macaque with its special characteristics like uniform dorsal hair pattern, hairy ventral pelage, relative hairless short tail, prominent pale to white side, and chin-whiskers creating a white cheek and a round facial appearance, dark facial skin on the muzzle, long and thick hair on its neck, and round rather than arrow-shaped male genitalia. “The macaques we observed and photographed in Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh are white-cheeked macaque,” said Dr Dilip Chetry, primatologist and the head of Primatology read more

New Species of Rats discovered in Indonesia

An Australian scientist on Wednesday said a new mammal species called the “slender root” rat has been discovered in Indonesia.

Senior curator of mammals at the Museum Victoria, Kevin Rowe, said “Gracilimus radix”, or the “slender rat,” is a new genus and species.

Rowe and a team of researchers found the previously undocumented rat on the slopes of Mount Gandangdewata, a remote and mountainous area of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia.

“The local people of Mamasa called the animal a ‘root rat’ because they say it feeds among the roots,” Rowe said.

The animal weighing 40 grams and about 30 centimetres in length is the third new genus and fourth new species discovered on Mount Gandangdewata in so many years by Rowe and his team.read more

New Black Fly Species Found on the Island of Borneo

A new species of black fly has been discovered in Indonesia on the island of Borneo. The new species, which belongs to the family Simuliidae, is described in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
A team of researchers from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, discovered the new species while surveying aquatic stages of black flies in Indonesia. In total, they collected nine species, and two of them were new to science, although only one is described in the JME paper.
The new species, Simulium kalimantanense, was named in honor of the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, where it was discovered.read more

Three new primate species found in Madagascar

Now, there are 24 species of mouse lemurs in the island.

Scientists have identified three new species of mouse lemurs in Madagascar, taking the total number of known mouse lemur species to 24.

As little as 20 years ago, only two species of these small, nocturnal primates were known.

Now the number of species is 24

The newly identified species live in the South and East of Madagascar and increase the number of known mouse lemur species to 24, researchers said.

Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal primates, which are found only in Madagascar — and they all look very similar with their brown fur and large eyes.

Different species can be distinguished reliably only by means of genetic methods.

Yes, these are new to science

“By using new, objective methods to assess genetic differences between individuals, we were able to find independent evidence that these three mouse lemurs represent new species,” said Peter Kappeler, from the German Primate Centre (DPZ).read more

Chameleon's tongue gives up secrets

Scientists have built a mathematical model to explain the secrets of the chameleon's extraordinary tongue.

It took more than 20 equations to capture mathematically how the reptile's tongue unravels at very high speed to snare insects.
The model explains the mechanics of the animal's tongue and the inherent energy build-up and rapid release.
British researchers say the insights will be useful in biomimetics - copying from nature in engineering and design.
"If you are looking at the equations they might look complex but at the heart of all of this is Newton's Second Law - the sort of thing that kids are learning in A-Levels, which is simply that you're balancing forces with accelerations," explained Derek Moulton, associate professor of mathematical biology at Oxford University.
He added: "In mathematical terms, what we've done is we've used the theory of read more

Seed clue to how birds survived mass extinction

Modern birds owe their survival to ancestors who were able to peck on seeds after the meteor that wiped out most dinosaurs, say scientists.

Bird-like dinosaurs with toothless beaks survived the "nuclear winter" that followed the meteor strike, because of their diet, a study says.
The impact altered the climate of the Earth and blotted out sunlight.
The loss of vegetation would have deprived plant-eating dinosaurs of food. In turn, meat-eaters suffered.
But seeds still in the ground may have sustained small toothless bird ancestors until the planet began to recover.
The theory, outlined in the journal Current Biology, could explain why no modern bird has a beak lined with teeth.
"After this meteor, you're left with essentially a nuclear winter where really not much is growing, the plants aren't able to grow to provide nourishment for plant-eaters and then meat-eaters aren't able to access plant-eaters if they've all perished," said lead researcher Derek Larson, from the University of Toronto.
"We think that the survival of birds had something to do with the presence of their beak."

Fossil teeth

The researchers studied more than 3,000 fossilised teeth from bird-like dinosaurs read more

Diet affects the evolution of birds

How diet has affected the evolution of the 10,000 bird species in the world is still a mystery to evolutionary biology. A study by Daniel Kissling of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (UvA) and colleagues from the University of São Paulo and the University of Utah shows how diet preferences have influenced bird diversification over millions of years. The findings were published in Nature Communications.

Since the seminal work by Charles Darwin, it is know that dietary habits of birds can affect the evolution of species, such as the beak sizes of Galapagos finches. However, birds show an astonishing diversity of species and dietary adaptations, ranging from very small nectar-feeding hummingbirds to large carnivorous eagles. How such diverse dietary preferences ultimately lead to differences in diversification dynamics (i.e. the balance between speciation and extinction) of different birds has not yet been examined. read more

New genus and five new flea species discovered in Indonesia

A new genus of flea and its five new species have been described in an article in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Four of the species were collected on the island of Sulawesi and the fifth was collected in the Indonesian province of West Papua on the island of New Guinea. The discovery by David K. Mardon and Lance A. Durden provides a window on the history, both prehistoric and recent, of Indonesia and illustrates the importance of scientific collections.

According to Dr. Durden of Georgia Southern University, male flea genitalia is arguably "the most complex genitalia of any organism and consists of a bedazzling array of uniquely shaped plates, rods, and spines that connect with the female of the same species during mating like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle." It is this complex anatomy that led to the discovery.
The fleas described in their paper had certain genital features not found in any known genera, prompting the authors to define a new genus they named Musserellus in honor of Dr. Guy Musser, who collected some of the specimens in Sulawesi in the 1970s. The newly described species include Musserellus vanpeeneni, Musserellus wattsi, Musserellus whitei, Musserellus marshalread more

Here's what a new species of roundworms found in India looks like

Washington D.C: The unique features and blending characters have made a new roundworm species from India a distinct yet intermediary or connecting link between two supposedly distant genera, according to a recent study.

The new worm is a hermaphrodite that primarily feeds on bacteria. The study is conducted by a research team from the Aligarh Muslim University, India, led by Dr Qudsia Tahseen.

The newly discovered nematode belongs to the genus Acrostichus, which is reported from all continents except Australia. The biogeographical records show larger distribution of these species in subtropical to temperate regions. They can be found in soil, fresh water, polluted water, decaying matter and even in beetle feces.

The new roundworm, called Acrostichus medius, is hereby reported from soil rich in organic matter. The population comprises of both hermaphroditic female and males. The species seems to serve a transitional role in the evolutionary process linking the Acrostichus and Diplogastrellus genera.

The narrow mouth cavity eliminates the possibility of predation thus leaving bacteriophagy as the only option in terms of its feeding behavior.

The new species is unique in possessing robust male copulatory organs (spicules) having furcate distal ends with fine extensions and a ventral attenuated arm. Such copulatory organs are unusual for the group and it also reflects a more complex type of copulation process involving elaborately-built female vagina.read more

After 18 million years, a new species of extinct rodent discovered in Israel

A handful of tiny teeth found in Israel's Negev desert led an international team of researchers to describe a new species of rodent which has been extinct for nearly 18 million years.

The discovery of Sayimys negevensis sheds new light on the likely dispersal route of mammals and other species between Eurasia and Africa in the Early Miocene (23 million to 16 million years ago) and highlights Israel's special paleogeographic position as the lynch-pin of the Levantine corridor connecting Eurasia with North Africa.
The research, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, described a distant forerunner of the present-day gundi -- a small rodent with a comb-like bristles on the two middle toes of its hind feet, also known as 'comb-rat'.
"It is a pivotal species that bridges the gap between an array of primitive ctenodactylines and the most derived, Early Miocene and later, gundis," researchers said in their article.
Gundis are the last descendants of the family Ctenodactylidae whose earliest ancestors appeared in Asia about 40 million years ago. They experienced their greatest diversification and widest distribution, from Far East to Africa, in Miocene time. Nowadays, they live in groups on rocky outcrops in deserts and semi-deserts of East and North Africaread more

New giant species of rat discovered

A new giant species of rat has been discovered on the Manus Island in the South Pacific.
This giant rodent, despite its size and heft, has been lurking there for thousands of years, according to scientists, and has only been discovered recently.
Researchers have published a new study unveiling Rattus detentus in the Journal of Mammalogy ,named after the Latin word for “detained”.
This is because Australia is sending asylum seekers to detention camps on the Papua New Guinean island for processing, and is also a reference to the long time that the rat has been living there itself.

read more

Three New Species of Mouse Lemurs Found in Madagascar

Mouse lemurs are small, nocturnal primates of the genus Microcebus. Like all other lemurs, they are native to the island-nation of Madagascar.
They have a combined head, body and tail length of less than 11 inches (27 cm) making them the most diminutive of the primates.
Recognized as two species 20 years ago, mouse lemurs now comprise 24 species, largely diagnosed from mtDNA sequence data.
The three newly-discovered Microcebus species are named M. ganzhorni, M. manitatra and M. boraha.
“Microcebus ganzhorni (or Ganzhorn’s mouse lemur) is named after the ecologist Prof. Jörg Ganzhorn from Hamburg University, who has been engaged in research and protection of lemurs for more than thirty years,” said team member Dr. Peter Kappeler, a researcher with the German Primate Center and co-author on a study published in the journal Molecular Ecology.
“It was Prof. Ganzhorn who initiated the field research of the German Primate Center in Madagascar in the 1990s.”read more

12 New Fly Species Found In Los Angeles

Photo by Kelsey Bailey

Megaselia wongae, one of 12 newly-discovered fly species from Los Angeles

A group of entomologists in Los Angeles have found 12 newly-described fly species hidden in the urban wild. It's part of a multi-year project called BioSCAN, which the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County launched in 2013.
The first round of analyzing more than 43,000 specimens collected from backyards and gardens yielded 30 new species of the scuttle fly (so called because of its strange jerky movements).
And now, in a paper published in Biodiversity Data Journal, the team of three entomologists describe an additional 12 species that are so rare that some only appeared once out of the pool of more than 43,000 specimens, and none of them showed up more than 10 times. Because of the rarity, the scientists had to really dig into their specimen collections, some of which were poorly preserved. "[A] persistent thorn in the side of the Megaselia taxonomist. Sorting out all of the errors and misidentifications is a slow, frustrating process," the authors write.read more

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/debate-erupts-over-strange-new-human-species/

When scientists unveiled the fossil remains of a newly discovered human species from South Africa called Homo naledilast September, the find electrified audiences around the world. It was an astonishing haul: some 1,550 specimens representing at least 15 individuals, recovered over just a few weeks of intensive excavation from the Rising Star Cave system outside Johannesburg. But it was the researchers’ favored explanation for how the remains ended up in the cave, more than the fossils themselves, that captured the public imagination and jolted the paleoanthropology community. They proposed that this read more

New bone-eating worm species discovered in the Mediterranean Sea

A team of researchers coordinated by the University of Barcelona has found, for the first time ever in the Mediterranean Sea, a new species of Osedax, a genus of bone-eating worm that up until now had only be seen in colder and deeper waters. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, was led by Sergi Taboada, Ana Riesgo, Maria Bas, Miguel A. Arnedo and Conxita Àvila, researcheread more

6 new species of dragon millipedes discovered in Chinese caves

Scientists have now added six new species to the dragon millipede family.
Discovered within caves of two southern Chinese regions of Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang, scientists say that these critters have “unusually long” legs and antennae, and the typical “dragon-like” spiny projections. Four of the six newly discovered dragon millipedes live exclusively inside caves, according to the new study published in ZooKeys.
Dragon millipedes are part of the Desmoxytes genus found in southeast Asia. Discovery of these six new species in China bumps the total number of known dragon millipede species up to 41, of which about half are found in China, the authors write.read more

Do JellyFish eat?Aleksei Molodtcov

As we know, the jellyfish existed on the Earth planet before the dinosaur’s age. There are more than 200 various species of a jellyfish, occupying spaces of the World Ocean. Some of them are even to be found in fresh waters. It is known, that jellyfish inhabit all oceans, at variable temperatures and depths. They took the name from a jellylike main body. The bell-shaped body has long tentacles attached to it. Shortage of skeletal system gives them an unusual appearance. Jellyfish are carnivorous and “hungry” eaters. It is the answer to the question: do jellyfish eat? And that`s the next question: how do jellyfish eat? The mouth of a jellyfish is located under its bell-shaped body. Its simple gastrointestinal tract consists of the gastrovascular hollow attached to the mouth foramen which has the function of a stomach. The same foramen is under a body, which serves as its mouth, is used to let allocations out of the body. The food entering this foramen is digested in the hollow attached to it. Unnecessary parts are removed through the same foramen. The jellyfish usually eats what its long tentacles catch, drifting trough oceanic streams. Some species of a jellyfish, such as Cubozoa, are good swimmers, and chase their prey. So, what do jellyfish eat? The main sources of food to the jellyfish are smaller fish, eggs and larvae of sea beings and a zooplankton. Big species of jellyfish eat some Crustacea and other jellyfish as well.read more=http://dojellyfish.info/dojellyfisheat/

New Tumbleweed Species Rapidly Expanding Range

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) — Two invasive species of tumbleweed have hybridized to create a new species of tumbleweed that University of California, Riverside researchers found has dramatically expanded its geographic range in California in just a decade.

The UC Riverside researchers believe Salsola ryanii is likely to become an important invasive species that could spread beyond California to other states.

“Given how quickly it has spread, this species has the potential to be a problematic invasive,” said Shana R. Welles, who is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Arizona but did the tumbleweed research as a graduate student at UC Riverside. “We want to make sure people know that and try to manage this species when it still had a relatively narrow range.”

Welles outlined the findings in a just-published paper co-authored by her Ph.D. advisor, Norman C. Ellstrand, a professor of genetics and a member of UC Riverside’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology. The paper, “Rapid range expansion of a newly formed allopolyploid weed in the genus Salsola,”was published in the American Journal of Botany.

The new species of tumbleweed (Salsola ryanii) was first documented by California Department of Food and Agriculture scientists in 2002. Surveying throughout California, those scientists found the species in two areas of the state’s Central Valley in 2002. It was also documented by a wider group of scientists in a third area of the Central Valley in 2009.

The UC Riverside researchers did their field work in 2012, collecting tumbleweed from 53 sites throughout California. They found the new species at 15 of those sites. They found it throughout the Central Valley, but also in coastal areas around San Francisco and as far south as the Ventura area.

The results strongly contradict predictions in earlier studies that Salsola ryanii would not likely become invasive=read more=https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/35966

Scybalocanthon magnus,New species of dung beetle discovered in Colombia’s páramos

I
t’s shiny, blue-green, oval-shaped and has a fondness for human excrement, among other less-than-appetizing meals. But it’s about to be something of a star in the entomology world.Meet Scybalocanthon magnus, the newest discovered species of beetle.read more=http://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/new-species-of-dung-beetle-discovered-in-colombia-paramos/12381

Homo floresiensis Age of 'Hobbit' species revised

The diminutive human species nicknamed "the Hobbit" is older than previously recognised, scientists now say.

The discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2003 caused a sensation because it seemed the creature could have been alive in the quite recent past.

But a new analysis indicates the little hominin probably went extinct at least 50,000 years ago - not the 12,000 years ago initially thought to be the case.

Researchers report their revised assessment in the journal Nature.

Prof Bert Roberts, from the University of Wollongong, Australia, says the new dating actually resolves what had always been a head-scratcher: how it was possible for floresiensis to survive for 30,000 to 40,000 years after modern humans are believed to have passed through Indonesia.

"Well, it now seems we weren't living alongside this little species for very long, if at all. And once again it smells of modern humans having a role in the downfall of yet another species," he told BBC News.

"Every time modern humans arrived somewhere new, it tended to be bad news for the endemic fauna. Things would go pear-shaped pretty quickly.read more on bbc link=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35930979

Ancient fossil was 'nearly a spider'

Scientists say a 305 million-year-old fossil is the closest relative to "true spiders" ever discovered - but is not itself a spider.

Easily pre-dating the dinosaurs, the 1.5cm creature lived alongside the oldest known ancestors of modern spiders but its lineage is now extinct.

The specimen was dug up decades ago in France but never identified, because its front half was encased in rock.

Now, researchers have made a detailed reconstruction using CT scans.

Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"This fossil is the most closely related thing we have to a spider that isn't a spider," said first author Russell Garwood from the University of Manchester.

Legs and jaws

Now christened Idmonarachne brasieri, the arachnid was among "a box full of fossils" that Dr Garwood's co-author Paul Selden, from the University of Kansas in the US, had borrowed from the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris in the 1980s.

It originally came from a rich region of fossil-bearing deposits near Montceau les-Mines, in eastern France.=read more on bbc link=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35918234

Micrixalus herrei.Dancing' tadpoles discovered in India's Western Ghats

A new tadpole that burrows through sand has been discovered in the Western Ghats of India, scientists report.

The researchers' study, published in the journal Plos One, says that tadpoles would not normally burrow through sand, nor swallow the material, but this "remarkable tadpole" does.

It belongs to the Indian Dancing frog family, Micrixalidae.

The study added that the new findings underlined the "uniqueness of amphibians" of the Western Ghats.

A group of scientists from University of Delhi, University of Peradeniya and Gettysburg College discovered and documented the larvae, and genetically confirmed their identity as Micrixalus herrei.

"These tadpoles probably remained unnoticed all these years because of their fossorial nature, which in itself is a rare occurrence in the amphibian world," said Prof SD Biju from University of Delhi.

The scientists said these tadpoles were discovered from "deep recesses of =read more on bbc link=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-35927354

Concern as US bat-killing disease jumps to west coast

Wildlife officials say they are extremely concerned after a disease that has killed millions of bats has arrived on the Pacific coast of the US.

Until now, white-nose syndrome has only been recorded in the eastern US but the latest case means the fungal infection has jumped 1,300 miles (2,100km).

The killer pathogen, first recorded in New York in 2006, is now present in 28 states and five Canadian provinces.

It has been described as the worst US wildlife health crisis in recent years.

On 11 March, a hiker discovered a sick little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) while walking in Washington state and handed it in to a local animal welfare centre. Two days later, the bat died.=read more=bbc link=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35937977