Saturday 31 March 2018

New Patagonian predator sheds light on mysterious meat-eating dinosaur group

The new predatory dinosaur Tratayenia rosalesi crosses a stream in what is now Patagonia, Argentina roughly 85 million years ago.
Although many new dinosaur species have been discovered over the past few decades, entire groups of these animals remain shrouded in mystery. One of these is the Megaraptoridae, a shadowy pack of predators that terrorized South America and Australia during the middle and late stages of the Cretaceous Period – the third and final time period of the Age of Dinosaurs. Today, paleontologists announced the discovery of a never-before-seen member of this motley crew that casts light on the skeletal structure of megaraptorids and the roles they played in their long-vanished environments. Named Tratayenia rosalesi, the new species is based on fossil bones collected in Neuquén Province, Argentina – located in the northern part of the wild, windswept region of South America known as Patagonia. A study of the new creature—named after the locality where it was found, Tratayén, and its discoverer, Argentine fossil hunter Diego Rosales—was recently published in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research.
According to study leader Juan Porfiri of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales of the Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Neuquén, "When Diego told us about his find, we quickly got permission from the Dirección Provincial de Patrimonio Cultural


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-patagonian-predator-mysterious-meat-eating-dinosaur.html#jCp

New frog species found in Venezuela and Colombia

CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuelan and Colombian scientists have identified a new species of frog in the Perija mountain range shared by both countries that is home to unusual species like this small amphibian.
With multi-colored skin and a distinctive song, the Hyloscirtus japreria was discovered during expeditions over the past decade living in rivers and cascades at altitudes above 1,000 metres.
It was named in honour of the Japreria, a disappearing indigenous ethnic group in the Perija in =read more

Hirohito’s Sagami Bay samples reveal new species

Two Japanese scientists discovered a new sea creature species through a study of specimens, including those collected by Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989) that were kept in storage at a museum.
Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, was a biologist.
Masanori Okanishi, a project assistant professor of biology with the University of Tokyo, and a co-researcher studied a group of brittle star species called “basket stars.”
Basket stars have a complicated structure involving five arms that repeatedly branch out, often like tree limbs. They measure 30-40 centimeters in size.
The taxonomy of basket stars, many of which live in the deep ocean, has yet to be fully studied.
The researchers compared basket star samples that had been kept in a facility in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, of the National Museum of Nature and Science with specimens stored at museums overseas=read more

Mysterious new 'twilight zone' full of previously unknown colourful fish is found 1,000ft below the ocean surface

Scientists have discovered a mysterious new ocean ‘twilight zone’ full of previously unknown fish in water surrounding the Caribbean.
It lies 400 to 1,000 feet (130 and 309 metres) below the ocean surface and researchers now have a new name for it – the rariphotic zone.
Around one in every five fish emerging from the waters of this area of the Caribbean sea has been part of a new species.
The treasure trove of colourful fish that have been discovered are closely related to more well-known species that live in shallower waters on nearby reefs.
Researchers speculate that the deeper waters could provide refuge to some species from the surface, as climate change affects their ecosystem.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5526409/Mysterious-ocean-twilight-zone-teeming-new-species-discovered.html#ixzz5BFHHO8O7
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Two new species of crayfish discovered in northern Arkansas

- Crayfish, crawfish, mudbugs -- whatever you call them, we're all familiar with them, whether you see them in a creek or you're eating them.
Aqueduct wildlife biologists, Brian Wagner, said there were 58 different species of crayfish in Arkansas but as of last week there are now 60.=read more and see video

Saturday 24 March 2018

Two new dog-faced bat species discovered

The scientists have even recorded the calls of the new species that can be heard only using ultrasonic recording devices.

Love puppies? Meet these even cuter bats dubbed ‘sky puppies’ found in the forests of South and Central America.
The dog-faced bats are a fast-flying, insectivorous species that are highly difficult to spot. Scientists have only recorded six species so far, but now an international team of scientists has succeeded in recognising two more species of these bats.
Named Cynomops freemani — in honour of Dr. Patricia W. Freeman, a scientist who studied bats — these tiny bats with a wing span of just 4 cm were found in the Canal Zone region of Panama. The bat is reddish-brown to dark chocolate brown in colour with silky short fur.=read more

New species of water strider found in Nagaland

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have discovered a new species of water strider from Nagaland. The species, named Ptilomera nagalanda Jehamalar and Chandra, was found in the river Intanki, Peren district.
Water striders are a group of insects adapted to life on the surface of water, using surface tension to their advantage.
Scientists working on the water striders say that their presence serves as an indicator water of water quality and they are found on water surface.
“Orange with black stripes on the dorsal side and a pale yellowish brown ventral =read more

Mysterious new 'twilight zone' full of previously unknown colourful fish is found 1,000ft below the ocean surface

Scientists have discovered a mysterious new ocean ‘twilight zone’ full of previously unknown fish in water surrounding the Caribbean.
It lies 400 to 1,000 feet (130 and 309 metres) below the ocean surface and researchers now have a new name for it – the rariphotic zone.
Around one in every five fish emerging from the waters of this area of the Caribbean sea has been part of a new species.
The treasure trove of colourful fish that have been discovered are closely related to more well-known species that live in shallower waters on nearby reefs.
Researchers speculate that the deeper waters could provide refuge to some species from the surface, as climate change affects their ecosystem.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5526409/Mysterious-ocean-twilight-zone-teeming-new-species-discovered.html#ixzz5A1Wx5ZgU
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Saturday 17 March 2018

UNC Asheville prof rediscovers snake species not previously seen alive

ASHEVILLE - UNC Asheville assistant professor of biology Graham Reynolds has followed up his 2016 published discovery of the silver boa, Chilabothrus argentum, with the rediscovery of a species of boid snakes known as the Crooked-Acklins boa, Chilabothrus schwartzi.
These boas from the Crooked-Acklins Bank in the Bahamas were never documented as alive in the wild by researchers, having been previously known only from four dead specimens collected in the early 1970s.
No photographs of live wild examples had ever been published, and no juveniles had been documented. Reynolds co-authored a paper published in the journal Breviora this month that is the first report of live wild specimens.
Reynolds' team of researchers found three juvenile specimens and an adult female Crooked-Acklins Boa during an expedition in July 2017.
“We can now draw inferences on the biology of the species, including the habitats they occupy and the things that they eat,” Reynolds said. “For example, we discovered that the juveniles are arboreal, nocturnal and feed on sleeping lizards. The juveniles also =read more

FROG new species

The frogs living in the rainforest of Sumatra also represent a new genus

Date:
March 12, 2018
Source:
Pensoft Publishers
Summary:
The young of two new species and a genus of frog found to inhabit Sumatra's rainforests have developed a unique ability to latch onto rocks in the fast-flowing rivers, using bellies crafted by evolution into 'suction cups'. Herpetologists use their remarkable discovery to highlight the unique biodiversity of the island, which is under imminent threat due to rampant habitat modification and deforestation.
Indonesia, a megadiverse country spanning over 17,000 islands located between Australia and mainland Asia, is home to more than 16% of the world's known amphibian and reptile species, with almost half of the amphibians found nowhere else in the world. Unsurprisingly, biodiversity scientists have been feverishly discovering and describing fascinating new animals from the exotic island in recent years.
Such is the case of an international team from the University of Hamburg, Germany, University of Texas at Arlington, USA, University of Bern, Switzerland and Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, who came across a curious tadpole while =read more

Kumanozakura recognized as first new species of cherry tree variety in around 100 years

A variety of wild cherry tree found growing in the southern part of the Kii Peninsula is the first new species of the genus Prunus cerasus to be discovered in the country in some 100 years, two forestry groups said this week.
The two bodies — the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and Wakayama Prefectural Government’s forestry test station — announced Tuesday that they have named the new species Kumanozakura.
The petals of Kumanozakura are mainly a light shade of red, similar to those of Somei-Yoshino, and bloom earlier than those of the cultivated variety.
The leaves are egg-shaped and smaller than those of the Yamazakura and Kasumizakura wild cherry trees also found in the region.=read more

New Species of 'Indestructible' Animal Found in Surprising Place

Tardigrades are microscopic, resilient organisms that might just outlive the Sun—and their known world just got a little bigger.
Kazuharu Arakawa, a researcher at Tokyo's Keio University, picked up a tardigrade specimen when he was gathering samples from the parking lot of his apartment building in Tsuruoka-City, Japan. He plucked a clump of moss protruding from the concrete and took it back to the lab for testing. After finding the micro-animal and analyzing its DNA, Arakawa and his Polish colleagues reproduced the tiny tardigrade. What sets this new species—named Macrobiotus shonaicus—apart from others is its chunky legs and bumpy eggs.=read more

New species of water strider found in Nagaland

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have discovered a new species of water strider from Nagaland. The species, named Ptilomera nagalanda Jehamalar and Chandra, was found in the river Intanki, Peren district.
Water striders are a group of insects adapted to life on the surface of water, using surface tension to their advantage.
Scientists working on the water striders say that their presence serves as an indicator water of water quality and they are found on water surface.
“Orange with black stripes on the dorsal side and a pale yellowish brown ventral part of the body, this particular species has long slender legs and measures about 11.79 mm,” said scientist Eyarin Jehamalar.
The presence of black stripes on the dorsal side differentiates this species from other known species of the subgenus Ptilomera. The discovery was published in the science journal Zootaxa.=read more

Saturday 10 March 2018

HAWAIIAN STICK SPIDERS

Environments make species. This was the fundamental biology lesson that was drilled into Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos Islands back in 1835, a trip that ultimately inspired his theory of natural selection. Nearly 200 years later, scientists in Hawaii have stumbled upon a fascinating evolutionary quirk that would’ve made Darwin proud—the discovery of spiders that are independently and repeatedly evolving the same characteristics over and over again.
This story starts about 3 million years ago, when a single species of stick spider somehow made its way to Hawaii. The new arrivals figured they could make a living as they always had, raiding the webs of other spiders and stealing their prey. But Hawaii was fresh out of the oven at this stage in history, and spider webs were few and far between. The stick spiders had to quickly adapt to their new digs, which they did by trapping and eating other spiders.
Armed with this new strategy, some found it beneficial to hide under rocks. Bam! A new species was created. Another group preferred to hide under leaves. Bam! Another species created. This process, known as adaptive radiation, was read more

Two new species of stone centipedes found hiding in larch forests in China

Date:
March 7, 2018
Source:
Pensoft Publishers
Summary:
Scientists described two species of previously unknown stone centipedes from China. Now housed at the Hengshui University, China, the studied specimens were all collected in the leaf litter or under rocks in larch forests.
This is the new stone centipede species Lithobius (Ezembius) tetraspinus.
Credit: Dr Huiqin Ma CC-BY 4.0
Scientists described two species of previously unknown stone centipedes from China. Now housed at the Hengshui University, China, where all members of the team work, the studied specimens were all collected in the leaf litter or under rocks in larch forests.read more
Having conducted their research across China, researchers Dr Sujian Pei, Yanmin Lu, Haipeng Liu, Dr Xiaojie Hou and Dr Huiqin Ma announced the two new species -- Lithobius (Ezembius) tetraspinus and Hessebius luculentus -- in two articles published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Stone centipedes are the species which belong to the order Lithobiomorpha. These centipedes are anamorphic, meaning that they grow additional pair of legs as they moult and develop additional body segments. By the time they are fully grown, these count 15 in total. Unlike earlier predecessors, stone centipedes d

Saturday 3 March 2018

New thumbnail-sized pygmy squid discovered in Australia

  • The new species of pygmy squid belongs to the genus Idiosepius, a group of tiny, squid-like marine animals that are believed to be the world’s smallest cephalopods.
  • Researchers have named the new species Idiosepius hallami, or Hallam’s pygmy squid after Australian malacologist Amanda Reid’s son, Hallam, who helped her collect live animals for further comparisons.
  • Pygmy squids are generally found in shallow waters among seagrass and mangroves, some of the most threatened marine habitats.
Scientists have just described a new species of “pygmy squid” the size of a thumbnail.
The tiny marine creature is not a true squid, though. Rather, it belongs to a group of squid-like animals believed to be the world’s smallest cephalopods, the family of marine creatures that includes octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. Pygmy squids, currently represented by the genus Idiosepius, grow to about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) in body length (not including the head, arms and tentacles).
Cephalopod expert Amanda Reid first encountered the new species of Idiosepiuswhile going through preserved specimens of pygmy squids at the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI) in Sydney, researchers report in a new study published in Zootaxa. She found that a number of specimens from eastern Australia did not look like the other known pygmy squids, and some specimens had been misidentified.=READ MORE

Search for vanishing frogs leads to discovery of new species

FIU biologist Alessandro Catenazzi went in search of vanishing frogs in the Amazon. What he found was an entirely new species.
 is wiping out large populations of amphibians in the cloud forests of the Andean Amazon. Catenazzi spends much of his time searching for areas where the deadly fungus has not yet hit, hoping to find remaining populations of nearly 20 species of frogs that have been devastated by the disease. Many of the frogs are tiny, which means Catenazzi spends his days turning over rocks and digging through . With a keen eye for detail, he occasionally spots what he believes to be a never-before-documented species. During an unplanned excursion in Peru, he was confident there would be undiscovered species waiting for him and his research companion Alex Ttito, a researcher with the Museo de Biodiversidad del Perú in Cusco.
"We were driving by when I saw a man who had just cleared the access trail for a power line which cut deep into the montane forest," Catenazzi said. "I told Alex, 'we have to get up there.' I knew if we went, we'd find new species."
They hiked along the cleared but still treacherous terrain, eventually finding a pristine cloud forest. Digging through leaf litter, Catenazzi discovered a tiny  with reddish-brown coloring and blue-gray flecks. For the scientist who has discovered 28 new species already and spent much of his career in museums studying the world's frogs, he knew this tiny frog was a new discovery. He named it Psychrophrynella glauca, denoting its similarity to other species in the region and for its unique coloring. The discovery was confirmed by comparing the description of the frog to known species and through genetic testing. The finding was published this week in the journal PeerJ.
Because of its size and remote location, little is still known about the newly discovered frog, but Catenazzi said the discovery of a  is the all-important first step in conservation.
"I believe in documenting biodiversity," he said. "We know the Andes are extremely rich in biodiversity, but people don't spend a lot of time looking for small things. It's tedious work. But there is a high value for conservation if we take the time to document."


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-frogs-discovery-species.html#jCp

The World Just Got a New Species of Elephant. It Was Hiding in Plain Sight

Make some more room on the elephant family tree: genetic analysis has shown that what we know as African elephants actually represent two species rather than one, joining the Asian elephant to make three modern species roaming the world today.
In the most comprehensive elephant genome study carried out to date, scientists found a complex history of interbreeding and evolutionary history between these three living species and their related ancestors, including mammoths and mastodons.
Apart from clearly defining the elephant species we have today, the approach in this study could also help us map the evolutionary family trees of other animals in the future, according to the international team of researchers behind it.
"The most surprising result was the degree of interbreeding between species," says one of the team, David Adelson from the University of Adelaide in Australia.
"We didn't really expect there would be gene flow between the mammoths and =READ MORE

Shiant Islands in the Minch declared rat-free

A group of small islands in the Minch have been declared free of rats for the first time in more than a century.
The black rats were not native to the Shiants off Lewis and were thought to be the descendants of rats that came ashore from shipwrecks in the 1900s.
The islands are an important seabird habitat and numbers of some species were in decline, or disappeared, due to rats eating their eggs.
Conservationists said the mammals had not been found for two years.
RSPB Scotland and others have carried out "intensive monitoring" for rats following a four-year project aimed at eradicating them.
Two years is the internationally agreed criterion for rat-free status, the conservationists said.=READ MORE

New species of 'indestructible' tardigrade discovered in a parking lot in Japan

A new species of tardigrade has been discovered in Japan.
Tardigrades are small animals that exist all over the planet and are known for being able to survive in incredibly hostile environments.
Previously, researchers knew of only 167 taridigrade species in Japan.
But new research published by scientists from Poland's Jagiellonian University in the journal Plos One details the discovery of a new species in a Japanese parking lot.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5447555/New-species-tardigrade-discovered-Japan.html#ixzz57N2JRbxE
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