FOR DECADES, SCIENTISTS THOUGHT THAT all bigeye sixgill sharks, named for their distinct number of gills (most sharks only have five), belonged to the same species, Hexanchus nakamurai. But new research shows that sixgill sharks swimming in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean are actually a different species from those in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
A team of marine biologists led by Toby Daly-Engel, the director of the Shark Conservation Lab at the Florida Institute of Technology, analyzed 1,310 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes found in sharks from the three different oceans. Their results, published in the journal Marine Biodiversity, prove that the Atlantic sixgills are indeed a different type of shark. The newly recognized species is called Hexanchus vitulus, the Atlantic sixgill shark.READ MORE
Saturday 24 February 2018
New plant species from West Bengal named after former President Abdul Kalam
Scientists from the Botanical Survey of India have identified a new plant species from two protected National Parks in West Bengal. Named Drypetes kalamii, it is a small shrub found to be shorter version of its close relative Drypetes ellisii.This adds to the rich floral wealth of India.
Standing just 1 metre tall, the newly described plant is unisexual in nature, which means they have separate male and female plants.
“During the survey and documentation of the flora of Buxa National Park, West Bengal (core area of Buxa Tiger Reserve), in 2011, I came across these plants, but could not identify them. Another author of the paper had collected a new female plant with fruits from Jaldapara National Park, West Bengal. The fruiting specimen can be easily identified in Drypetes. We later found that both the plants belonged to the same species. Further consultations with plant =READ MORE
Saturday 17 February 2018
I looked at it, and it was moving': Worm in woman's eye leads to unique discovery
Imagine looking into your irritated eye for a pesky eyelash, only to pull out a translucent, wiggling worm nearly a half inch long.
"I looked at it, and it was moving," recalled 28-year-old Abby Beckley of Grants Pass, Oregon. "And then it died within about five seconds."
Now, imagine doing that not once but 14 times.
That's what Beckley endured over a three-week period in August 2016. Her story, published Monday as a case
Rewrite the bird books: new breeding site found for one of world's rarest birds-The White-winged Flufftail (
Everything we thought we knew about the White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi has been shaken up by recent footage captured by camera trap technology. At Middelpunt Wetland in South Africa, a site previously thought to cater only to non-breeding visiting Flufftails, strange photos were recorded. They depicted intriguing wing-flapping behavior, with both males and females displaying their white wing feathers. Could it be that something more than feeding was going on? It seemed almost too good to be true. But later, the ultimate proof appeared – the unmistakable image of a rotund, speckled juvenile scuttling through the undergrowth. This new knowledge changes everything.=read more
Three new eel species found in Bay of Bengal
Scientists have discovered three new species of eel along the northern Bay of Bengal coast in the past few months.
Dark brown with white dots on the dorsal side, Gymnothorax pseudotile was discovered at the Digha coast of the Bay of Bengal. The other two species, Gymnothorax visakhaensis (uniformly brown) and Enchelycore propinqua(reddish brown body mottled with irregular creamy white spots), were discovered from the Visakhapatnam coast of the Bay of Bengal.
While Gymnothorax pseudotile is about 1 feet to 1.5 feet long, Gymnothorax visakhaensis is about a foot long. Enchelycore propinqua is the smallest of them measuring less than a foot.
A description of all the three new species was published in the journal Zootaxa.
Anil Mohapatra, a Zoological Survey of India ( ZSI) scientist who is behind all the three discoveries, said that while the specimens of the first two species can be found upon a considerable search, the third one is relatively rare. Scientists =read more
Orangutan population in Borneo has HALVED in just 16 years as hunters and habit loss drive the creatures to extinction
Nearly 150,000 orangutans from the island of Borneo have disappeared in just 16 years.
Between 1999 and 2016 over half of the population of the endangered apes have perished on the South-East Asia island.
Many of those losses were apparently driven by the demand for logging, oil palm, mining, paper, hunting and the resulting deforestation.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5396487/Borneo-orangutans-plummeted-nearly-150-000.html#ixzz57N2Eg4xj
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Half human, half BEAST: Expert lifts lid on bombshell sighting of ‘new species'
Speaking to The Daily Star Online exclusively, Jonathan Downes announced that a new ape-like creature, with human features, could be lurking within southeast Asia.
Jonathan, 59, has devoted his life to Cryptozoology – the study that seeks to validate the existence of entities from folklore record such as Bigfoot or The Loch Ness Monster.
Cryptids aim to prove animals, that are known to be extinct, are in fact alive.
One of the beasts – apparently featured in the video above – is believed to be hiding in the wilderness of Sumatra, Indonesia.
The figure appears to run away from a group of bikers, into the wilderness.
It is better known in the local community as an Orang Pendek.=read more
First New Species of Temperate Conifer Tree Discovered in More Than a Decade
It's not every day—or even every decade—that a new species of conifer is found in the world's temperate forests. But late last year, researchers announced a new species of hemlock tree from Korea, proving that even our best-studied forests still hold surprises.
The new tree could help save one of its better-known cousins—a North American hemlock species being annihilated by a voracious insect. But the new find is so rare that it’s already being considered for an endangered-species listing itself.
“It’s probably the rarest woody plant in Korea, if not the world,” says Peter Del Tredici, a botanist at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum in Boston, who was on the team that discovered the tree.
Hemlocks—no relation to the carrot-family plant that killed Socrates—are =read more
Invasive shrimp found in Twin Ports harbor
Another foreign, aquatic invasive species has been found in the Twin Ports harbor — this time a small invertebrate called the bloody red shrimp.
A single bloody red shrimp was confirmed this week after analysis of water samples taken last July by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The critter, which is native to freshwater lakes and rivers of the Caspian region of eastern Europe, was found in Allouez Bay, not far from the Burlington Northern ore docks.
It's the first time bloody red shrimp — hemimysis anomala — have been found in the Lake Superior ecosystem. They were first found in the Great Lakes in 2006 in Lake Michigan at Muskegon, Mich., and have been expanding there as well as in lakes Erie, Ontario and Huron.=read more
New species of white bellied drongo found
A species of drongo, not seen by experts in the country before, has been spotted in Rajshahi city's Shimla Park recently.
The bird, found by a group of bird-watchers, has a distinctive white belly and vent.
After examining its size, black upper side gradually fading into a shade of brown and other features, =read more
New crab species found in Ogasawara isles lives with worm
A team of Japanese researchers has found a new species of crab in the Mukojima island chain, part of the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo, that shares the abode of a worm.
The team, including Ryuta Yoshida, professor at the Marine Coastal Research Center of Ochanomizu University, said Thursday that the newly found crab has been named petankokoyubipinno. In Japanese petanko means flat.
Its shell is about 3 mm long and 7 mm wide, the researchers said.
The team found the crab during an ecological survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2016.
The crab lives together with a marine worm in a hole, which can be up to 15 meters deep, dug by the worm on the sea floor. The hole is about 5 mm in =read more
Scots study uncovers trafficking routes for pangolin
Animal traffickers are taking advantage of remote ivory trade routes to smuggle one of the world's most endangered animals out of Central Africa, new research has found.
Pangolins are scaly, ant-eating mammals.
Their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are deemed by some to have magical medicinal properties.
Stirling University led the first ever study into how criminals were sourcing the animals from African forests.
The researchers found pangolins were being transported illegally across remote forest borders in an attempt to avoid increased law enforcement.
The pangolin is the world's most trafficked mammal, and threatened with extinction.=read more
ghostman: Feb 16, 2018 21:39 Holsworthy mark talking to Coli...
ghostman: Feb 16, 2018 21:39 Holsworthy mark talking to Coli...: Feb 16, 2018 21:39 Holsworthy mark talking to Colin schneider about cryptzoology episode 117
ghostman: Mutation-sourced via wikipedia
ghostman: Mutation-sourced via wikipedia: n biology , a mutation is the permanent alteration of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism , virus , or extrachro...
Saturday 10 February 2018
DNA story of when life first gave us lemons
All citrus fruits can trace their roots to the southeast foothills of the Himalayas, according to DNA evidence.
The first citrus trees appeared about eight million years ago, before spreading around the world, say international scientists.
The trees eventually gave rise to the fruit on our kitchen tables, from sweet oranges to bitter lemons.
Citrus trees are among the most widely cultivated fruit trees in the world, but their history has been unclear.
To get a better understanding of where citrus trees came from, scientists in the US and Spain analysed the genomes of over 50 varieties of citrus fruit, from the Chinese mandarin to the Seville orange.
The study, published in Nature journal, found that modern citrus trees derive from several natural species found in a region that includes the eastern area of Assam, northern Myanmar, and western Yunnan.
When the climate changed millions of years ago, bringing weaker monsoons and drier weather, the plants were able to spread out of the Himalayas, and throughout southeast Asia.=read more
First images of creatures from Antarctic depths revealed
the images below are the first of creatures found in a previously unexplored region of the Antarctic seabed offering a fascinating glimpse of life in one of the most remote and pristine places on the planet.The rare species were found by Dr Susanne Lockhart, an Antarctic biologist who visited the seafloor in a submarine last month as part of a scientific expedition organised by campaigning organisation Greenpeace.
Now they are being transported back to the laboratory where they – and hours of footage taken from the submarine – will be examined to reveal the secrets of this unexplored underwater world. It is hoped that some of the samples collected may prove to be new species.
Lockhart said the findings hold “great significance for the future of the Southern Ocean.”=read more
The terrifying PELICAN spiders: Strange looking arachnid 'assassins' that have a striking resemblance to the bird are found in Madagascar
Strange spiders that stalk their prey at night like arachnid assassins are more widespread than previously thought, a new study has found.
Experts have identified 18 new species of pelican spiders, named for their resemblance to the beaked birds, on the tropical island of Madagascar.
The terrifying looking creatures, once thought to be extinct, are remarkably similar in appearance to their ancient ancestors found preserved in amber.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5262347/Experts-18-new-species-assassin-Pelican-spiders.html#ixzz55OFnbduT
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Saturday 3 February 2018
Mysterious orange cave crocodiles that live in complete darkness in Africa are mutating into a new species
A group of mysterious orange cave crocodiles who live in complete darkness in Africa may be mutating into a new species.
Researchers discovered the 1.5-metre-long (5 ft) reptiles in 2008 in a remote cave in Gabon, western Africa, where they fed only on bats and crickets.
Experts first though they were a type of African dwarf crocodile, but new research shows they could be an entirely separate species.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5326421/Orange-cave-crocodiles-mutating-new-species.html#ixzz55ONGvKRP
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Lost history of African dinosaurs revealed
A new species of dinosaur found in the Egyptian desert is shedding light on Africa's missing history of dinosaurs.
Few fossils have been unearthed from the last days of the dinosaurs, between 100 and 66 million years ago, on the continent.
Scientists say the dinosaur, which lived about 80 million years ago, is an "incredible discovery".
The giant plant-eater was the length of a school bus and weighed about the same as an elephant.
It had a long neck and bony plates embedded in its skin.=read more
First New Species of Temperate Conifer Tree Discovered in More Than a Decad
It's not every day—or even every decade—that a new species of conifer is found in the world's temperate forests. But late last year, researchers announced a new species of hemlock tree from Korea, proving that even our best-studied forests still hold surprises.
The new tree could help save one of its better-known cousins—a North American hemlock species being annihilated by a voracious insect. But the new find is so rare that it’s already being considered for an endangered-species listing itself.
“It’s probably the rarest woody plant in Korea, if not the world,” says Peter Del Tredici, a botanist at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum in Boston, who was on the team that discovered the tree.=read more
Rare 200 million-year-old ichthyosaurus fossil discovered in a private collection two decades after it was uncovered is only the second example of its species ever found
A rare 200 million-year-old fossil of a marine reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs has been identified more than two decades after it was discovered.
The ichthyosaur, whose name translates as 'fish lizards' from ancient Greek, were widespread during the Mesozoic Era.
Ichthyosaurs recently featured in the BBC documentary Attenborough And The Sea Dragon and their remains have been discovered as far afield as the Americas, Europe and Australia.
The newly identified fossil, originally found in a quarry in northern Somerset in 1996, is only the second example of a recently discovered species of ichthyosaur.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5339619/Rare-200-million-year-old-fossil-marine-reptile-found.html#ixzz55OMS0k50
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New species of lizard discovered
Sitana attenboroughii has been named after Sir David Frederick Attenborough
The coastal belt of Thiruvananthapuram is home to many rare species of animals, a discovery by a group of researchers has proved.
The team had discovered a new species of fan-throated lizard, belonging to the genus Sitana, from Poovar during an expedition that was undertaken during September-October 2016. The finding has now been published in the latest issue of peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
The researchers’ team comprises Kalesh Sadasivan and M. Ramesh, representing the Thiruvananthapuram-based Travancore Nature History Society, and Jafer Palot of the Western Ghats Regional Centre of the Zoological Survey of India in Kozhikode. They collaborated with Mayuresh Ambedkar and Zeeshan A. Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, for =read more
Terrifying 'Freddy Krueger slasher wasp' comes equipped with a built-in SAW that the parasitoid uses to slice its way out of its host
A terrifying new species of wasp comes equipped with a built-in saw that rivals the claw-like blades of slasher movie murderer Freddie Krueger.
The parasitoid insect sports a series of jagged spines along its back, which it uses to slice its way out of its host.
No bigger than a sesame seed, the tiny wasp is found in Costa Rica, but has never been spotted in the wild.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5344901/Terrifying-Freddy-Krueger-wasp-sports-built-SAWS.html#ixzz55OLhQq00
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200 million-year-old ichthyosaur species discovered
A rare 200 million-year-old ichthyosaur species has been discovered from a private collection, 22 years after it was originally found.
Ichthyosaurs were a type of sea-going reptiles that lived during the time of the dinosaurs.
In 2016, Dean Lomax from the University of Manchester in the UK described an ichthyosaur skeleton that he had examined in the collections of Leicester's New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.
He spotted several unusual features of the bones and determined that the features were unique and represented a new species, which he called Wahlisaurus massarae. "When Wahlisaurus was announced, I was a little nervous about what other palaeontologists would make of it, considering the new species was known only from a single specimen," Lomax said.
"My analysis suggested it was something new, but some palaeontologists questioned this and said it was just 'variation' of an existing species," he said. =READ MORE
Dinosaur and Ancient Mammal Stomping Ground Found in NASA Parking Lot
In 2012, amateur paleontologist and dinosaur track aficionado Ray Stanford headed out to lunch with his wife Sheila, an information specialist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After dropping her off back at work, he noticed a chunk of rock sticking out of a nearby hill that was the exact same color as a piece he had found several years ago that contained a small dinosaur print. As Kenneth Change at The New York Times reports, the tip of the rock led to the discovery of an 8.5-foot long slab of sandstone with roughly 70 tracks from eight different species.
The rock dates back roughly 100 million years, and includes traces from both mammals and dinosaurs. It is one of the largest such concentrations of tracks ever found. Stanford and researchers from NASA/Goddard, University of Colorado, and Calvert Marine Museum published an analysis of the slab this week in the journal Scientific Reports.
“The concentration of mammal tracks on this site is orders of magnitude higher than any other site in the world,” co-author Martin Lockley, paleontologist with the University of Colorado, Denver, says in a
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dinos-and-early-mammals-romped-nasas-doorstep-180968023/#pTqBW4MPtxAjOJpT.99
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10-year-old boy leads scientists to 90-million-year-old fish species discovery
Paleontologists from the University of Alberta have discovered a 90-million-year-old species of fish, all thanks to the help of a 10-year-old boy who accidentally stumbled across a fossil.
The child was on a tour at the Monastery of La Candelaria in Colombia, when he noticed something strange on the ground: the shape of a fish in the flagstones.
The boy snapped a photo and showed it to staff at the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontologicas, a local museum that works with the University of Alberta to protect and study regional fossil discoveries. The centre quickly recognized the bizarre shape for what it was: a nearly perfect, intact fossil of an ancient fish.
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The species, called Candelarhynchus padillai, is the first fossil ‘lizard fish’ from the Cretaceous period ever found in Colombia and tropical South America. (University of Alberta Faculty of Science)
Paleontologists Oksana Vernygora (left) and Javier Luque (right) are both PhD candidates at the University of Alberta. (CTV Edmonton)
The fossil was found in the flagstones at the Monastery of La Candelaria in Colombia. (CTV Edmonton)
The staff then shared their findings with the University of Alberta.
"After looking at some images we recognized the importance of the discovery: an entirely brand new group of fish, never seen before in North and South America, and with a few representatives worldwide," Javier Luque, PhD candidate at the University of Alberta and co-author of a study on the fossil, told CTV Edmonton.=READ MORE
New aquatic species found in Chhattisgarh cave
Raipur: In a path-breaking finding, a scientist has discovered three new aquatic species of the prawn family in the famed Kotumsar cave of Chhattisgarh, believed to be four million years old.
The cave may hold clues to evolution of known and unknown faunal species, say experts.
The new amphipod crustacean species (akin to prawn in appearance), christened zoologically as Kotumsaria bastarensis has been found in one of the tiny water pools in the nearly one-km-long cave, =READ MORE
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