Sunday 28 September 2014

Andinobates geminisae-New Species of Poison Dart Frog Discovered

frog
A new species of poison dart frog, Andinobates geminisae, has been discovered in Panama near that country’s Caribbean coast. The bright orange frog measures only about half an inch (12.77 millimeters) in length, and is described as having a rather distinct call in comparison with those of its closest relatives.
A. geminisae was first collected in Panama’s Donoso District by Samuel Valdés, at the time the environment office director for MWH Global, and Carlos de la Cruz, his assistant. The two collected the holotype, or type specimen, of A. geminisae in 2011. Two biologists, Marcos Ponce and Abel Batista, later collected more specimens.
Compared with other frogs in the region, A. geminisae differs in appearance from its closest relatives. According to Andrew Crawford, one of the authors of the study and the scientist responsible for sequencing the DNA of A. geminisae, the new species actually bears a superficial resemblance to the strawberry poison dart frog (Oophaga pumilio). O. pumilio is larger than the diminutive A. geminisae, but sports a somewhat similar orange color.
Crawford explained that this raises an intriguing possibility, namely that the two species of poison dart frog both converged on the bright orange coloration as a means of warding off predators. Known as Müllerian mimicry, this phenomenon occurs when at least two species of animals that have a venomous, poisonous or unpleasant-tasting chemical defense evolve the same or very similar warning signals.
The basic idea is that any predator that learned to avoid individuals from one species would also learn to avoid individuals from the other species. This phenomenon is distinct from Batesian mimicry, in which a species that is not dangerous or bad-tasting evolves warning colors that resemble a species that is.
However, Crawford cautioned that the possibility of Müllerian mimicry remains purely speculative at present in the case of the newly-discovered poison dart frog and the strawberry poison dart frog

Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/09/new-species-of-poison-dart-frog-discovered/#CDQcRy2vtmvf6VLt.99

New snake species found in Ganjam named after Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: A new species of snake, found by a group of herpetologists and snake lovers in Odisha last year, has been named after the eastern state as Lycodon Odishii, becoming the latest addition to the list of 297 species of snakes found in the country.

The Russian Journal of Herpetology, an international science journal, has published a research paper on the new species in its latest edition published on Friday.

"For over 218 years, scientists from across the world were identifying the snake with juveniles of Lycodon Jara. Several attempts to differentiate the snake were made in the past, but proved unsuccessful due to lack of proper documentation. We worked for a year and a half and finally concluded that this was a new species," said the research paper's author Subhendu Mallik, who is also secretary of Snake Helpline, a voluntary organization working for the rescue and rehabilitation of snakes.

The green-coloured snake has a bright white collar on its neck and twin spots on each scale except the collar. The new species, the common name of which is Subhendu's wolf snake, has several similarities with Lycodon Jara. Scientists used to believe that the juvenile Jara has a collar and as it grows old, the collar disappears.

Volunteers of Snake Helpline found the snake in Berhampur in Ganjam district in 2013. "The female snake had a collar. That struck us because how could an adult Jara have a collar? We started our research on the species," said Mallik. A detailed examination of the specimen showed clear morphological differences of at least 12 characters, he added.-read more-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/New-snake-species-found-in-Ganjam-named-after-Odisha/articleshow/43699789.cms

Massive Rat Believed To Be Extinct Rediscovered Near Machu Picchu Ruins

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Known only by two fossils, the Chinchilla rat was recently seen alive and kicking near the Machu Picchu ruins.Known only by two fossils, the Chinchilla rat was recently seen alive and kicking …
Reversing the normal trend, a cat-sized rat, known from fossils alone, has come alive.
Believed to be extinct, the Chinchilla rat was re-discovered near an archaeological site near the Machu Picchu ruins.
The massive rat was known solely by two skulls discovered in 400-year-old Incan pottery. Dug up in 1912, the skulls were believed to belong to a species that was extinct, reports Mongabay.
But in 2009 a park ranger, Roberto Quispe, reported sighting and treating a live Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat near the original archaeological site.
However, not knowing the significance of the find, he released the mammal into the wild. A field study was undertaken to find the rat.
The team of Mexican and Peruvian experts from the Instituto de Ecología of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma in Mexico recently found not only a live sample of the Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat (Cuscomys oblativa) during the study but also discovered seven new species.
According to the IUCN Red List, the species was believed to be extinct because no previous-read more-https://uk.news.yahoo.com/massive-rat-believed-extinct-rediscovered-near-machu-picchu-065532877.html#BrnQmx6

Earth's old water indicates chance of life on other planets

Scientists have confirmed that much of the water on earth is older than the sun — which could indicate the existence of life on other worlds.
Researchers found that much of the water on Earth and across the system predates the sun, which could mean that other planets in the had access to water as they were being formed. That would likely be required to sustain life on any of those planets, as it has done on earth, the researchers said.
The study, ‘The ancient heritage of water ice in the solar system’, was published in Science this week.
By looking at the gases, dust and ice that were around during the formation of the sun, and exploring how much of them were present in the earth, scientists were able to establish that much of the water was brought over from the environment that existed before the sun was formed.
When the Sun was young, it was surrounded by a large disk, the solar nebula, where the planets that now exist in the solar system came from. The team created models to simulate that disk and understand whether the ice was formed as new there, or whether it re-formed already existing water.
They found that the make-up of the water meant that it existed before, meaning that it had existed in interstellar space and so is not limited to planets that were created from the same disk as Earth.
Because what the researchers call life-fostering environments require water, the discovery can help them understand the origins of such planets and assess whether they are likely to exist elsewhere in the universe.
“By identifying the ancient heritage of Earth’s water, we can see that the way in which our solar system was formed will not be unique, and that exoplanets will form in environments with abundant water,” said Tim Harries, a professor at the University of Exeter and a member of the research team. “Consequently, it raises the possibility that some exoplanets could house the right conditions, and water resources, for life to evolve.

Saturday 27 September 2014

Ancient African fish dust nourishes Amazon

FishThe Amazon is being fertilised by the remains of ancient fish from Africa.
The nutrient-rich material is being carried in millions of tonnes of dust blown across the Atlantic from the Sahara every year.
Scientists have long recognised the importance of this airborne train to the rainforest's health.
But now a UK team has been able to show that much of the essential phosphorous in the dust is derived from the bones and scales of fish and other organisms.
These are animals that lived in Megalake Chad, a massive body of water that covered north-central Africa thousands of years ago.
When they died, their remains sank into the muddy sediments, which today are exposed in what is one of the windiest places on Earth - the so-called Bodélé Depression.
Satellites regularly catch vast clouds of dust being whipped up in this region of Chad to be thrown across the ocean to South America.
The dust contains the apatite (phosphorus) mineral. Phosphorus is a nutrient essential for photosynthesis.
Scientists were unsure whether this apatite had been weathered out of rocks or perhaps had a biogenic source.
But by examining its crystalline structure,"This is the first time that fish bone and scale phosphorus have been found in dusts," said Prof Karen Hudson-Edwards from Birkbeck, University of London.
"The finding is important because this type of phosphorus is more soluble and available to ecosystems like the Amazon than other types of phosphorus that come from rocks.
"The Bodélé fish phosphorus is like that found in fish bone meal that gardeners use as a fertiliser," she told BBC News.
The determination relied on work carried out at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire.
This facility uses brilliant X-rays to probe the workings of matter on the smallest scales.
Its pictures could discern the delicate, tell-tale chemical signature of biogenic apatite in the Bodélé dusts.
The team's report in the journal Chemical Geology highlights the fact that this important source of phosphorus for the Amazon is finite.
The sediments of Megalake Chad will eventually be completely eroded by the winds blowing through the Sahara.
When that happens, it could have deleterious consequences for the rainforest, says co-worker Dr Caroline Peacock from Leeds University.
"A large part of the phosphorus that the Amazon receives currently is in this more useful soluble form. While the lake sediments remain - that's great. But when they're gone then the Amazon will have to make do with detrital (weathered rock) phosphorus, detrital apatite, which is that much harder to solubilise."
The team's aim is to go back to Chad to investigate precisely how long the important dusts can be sustained. researchers have revealed its true origin.
Satellite image of the Bodélé Depression

Brazil releases 'good' mosquitoes to fight dengue fever

Brazilian researchers in Rio de Janeiro have released thousands of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that suppress dengue fever.
The hope is they will multiply, breed and become the majority of mosquitoes, thus reducing cases of the disease.
The initiative is part of a programme also taking place in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The intracellular bacteria, Wolbachia, being introduced cannot be transmitted to humans.
The programme started in 2012 says Luciano Moreira of the Brazilian research institute Fiocruz, who is leading the project in Brazil .
"Our teams performed weekly visits to the four neighbourhoods in Rio being targeted. Mosquitoes were analysed after collection in special traps.
"Transparency and proper information for the households is a priority. "
Ten thousand mosquitoes will be released each month for four months with the first release in Tubiacanga, in the north of Rio.
'Good' bacteria
The bacterium Wolbachia is found in 60% of insects. It acts like a vaccine for the mosquito which carries dengue, Aedes aegypti, stopping the dengue virus multiplying in its body.
Wolbachia also has an effect on reproduction. If a contaminated male fertilises the eggs of a female without the bacteria, these eggs do not turn into larvae.
If the male and female are contaminated or if only a female has the bacteria, all future generations of mosquito will carry Wolbachia.
As a result, Aedes mosquitoes with Wolbachia become predominant without researchers having to constantly release more contaminated insects.
In Australia this happened within 10 weeks on average.
The research on Wolbachia began at the University of Monash in Australia in 2008. The researchers allowed the mosquitoes to feed on their own arms for five years because of concerns at the time Wolbachia could infect humans and domestic animals.
Three more neighbourhoods will be targeted next, and large scale studies to evaluate the effect of the strategy are planned for 2016.
Dengue re-emerged in Brazil in 1981 after an absence of more than 20 years.
Over the next 30 years, seven million cases were reported.
Brazil leads the world in the number of dengue cases, with 3.2 million cases and 800 deaths reported in the 2009-14 period.-SEE VIDEO LINK AND READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-29356232

More on This Story


New dinosaur species discovered in NM


ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie but it once was real and roamed New Mexico 73-million years ago. The dinosaur can now only be seen in Albuquerque because it’s the only one that’s ever been found.
Wednesday the skull of a new dinosaur species was unveiled at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. It was a big discovery for paleontologist, Doctor Robert Sullivan, who was working In the Bisiti Wilderness in the San Juan Basin just south of Farmington in 2011 and Wednesday his find was made public.
“It’s called an Ankylousaur. It looks vaguely like an armored alligator,” BLM paleontologist Phil Gensler said.
And, while there were all kinds of Ankylousaurs during the Cretaceous Period, Sullivan had discovered the skull and part of the neck of a new one called the Zia Pelta.
“This one here in particular based on traits of its skull is a new species,” Gensler said.
The condition of the dinosaur’s bones is also a unique find.
“Rare that you find something like this that is so well preserved and missing very little of the skull,” Paleontologist Dr. Robert M. Sullivan said.
The rest of the dinosaur’s body is still missing but paleontologists were still able to create a sketch of what the dinosaur may have looked like.
The once heavily armored dinosaur is now on display in Albuquerque.
Paleontologists have spent decades digging in the San Juan Basin and often find dinosaurs there but they say finding a new species is extremely rare.-SEE VIDEO LINK-http://krqe.com/2014/09/24/new-dinosaur-species-discovered-in-nm/

Scientists Discover Six New Species in Peru

 A group of Peruvian and Mexican scientists say they have uncovered at least six new species near South America’s most famous archaeological site: Machu Picchu. The discoveries include a new mammal, a new lizard, and four new frogs. While the scientists are working on formally describing the species, they have released photos and a few tantalizing details about the new discoveries. 
The new mammal—which isn’t named yet—is an bizarre-looking aquatic rodent in the Chibchanomys genus, which until now was only made up of two species. The new mammal doesn’t have any external ears and sports hairs between its toes and on the sides of its legs to help it maneuver through streams. 

“These aquatic rodents are among the rarest and little known in America,” the scientists write in a press release. 

The discoveries are the result a 2012 survey of Machu Picchu National Park and the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, specifically in cloud forests near Wiñayhuayna, another archaeological site on the Inca Trail heading towards Machu Picchu. Despite receiving generally less attention than lowland rainforests, cloud forests are often hugely-rich in species found no-where else and many new species stem from these habitats. 

The team, which was led by Horacio Zeballos the curator of the Department of Mammalogy at the Museum de Arequipa and Gerardo Ceballos from the Instituto de Ecología of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, also uncovered what they think are four new frogs. These include one in the genus Telmatobius, which spends its life in small pools built by the incas. Two other species, one in the genus Bryophryne and another in the genus Oreobates, live in the leaf litter and are born as froglets, skipping the tadpole stage. The fourth, and last new frog, is a tree-dwelling species in the genus Gastrotheca. These are called “marsupial frogs,” because they have a pouch in which they carry their young. 

On the last day of their survey, the team also uncovered a lizard that they believe is a new species from the genus Proctoporus

“Finding a new Chibchanomys and other species…makes me fill with joy,” said Horacio Zeballos, “but [we also have] an enormous responsibility to try to conserve them. Our role must go beyond the scientific description of the species. We must make every effort to protect them.” 

Yet even these new species may not be the end of their findings. 

“We believe that there is a new species of carnivore and several other small and medium size mammals. We will continue our work in early 2015,” Gerardo Ceballos told mongabay.com. 

Of course, none of these new proposed species can be confirmed until they are published in a journal and scrutinized by other researchers. 

But one discovery may outstrip a-READ MORE AND SEE PHOTOS-http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/983145-scientists-discover-six-new-species-in-peru/?photo=2

Sunday 21 September 2014

Deadly violence a natural tendency in chimps, study finds Analysis holds no evidence for ‘human impact’ claims

A new study shows that chimpanzees are like humans in another important way — their natural capacity for violence.
Data collected from 18 chimpanzee research sites and four focused on bonobos show not only that the two groups are different, but that chimps engage in violent and sometimes lethal behavior regardless of human effects on local ecology. The study is described in a Sept. 18 paper in Nature.
“When all the collaborators rated each site in a systematic way according to the degree of human impact, none of those measures proved to be associated with violence,” said Richard Wrangham, the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and a senior author of the study. “In fact, we found that the site with the least violence had the largest human impact, and the site with the most violence was one of the least impacted. There is no overall pattern, statistically.”
The conclusion, Wrangham said, comes after several years of collecting information on virtually every incident of violence at the African research sites.
“We systematically recorded a number of years of observations — including the number of chimps in the community in a year, the rate of violence, and how confident we felt about the evidence in each case,” Wrangham said. “We categorized incidents based on whether they were observed, suspected, or inferred.”
The hope, Wrangham said, is that the study will settle the long-simmering debate about violence in chimpanzee society.READ MORE-http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/09/deadly-violence-a-natural-tendency-in-chimps-study-finds/

A damsel, but not in any distress

29451951Volunteer Dion Warner recently took this stunning image of a small red eyed damselfly at Natural England’s Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve in Somerset.
Natural England reports two new sightings of this species in the last week.
Spokeswoman Emma Lusby said: “This is really exciting as it’s normally found on the east coast. It’s a very unusual visitor to Somerset and quite possibly a sign that they may be colonising the Avalon Marshes reserves.”
Shapwick Heath is one of Natural England’s best reserves with some stunning wildlife, this year boasting ospreys displaying and an increase in breeding bitterns.


Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/damsel-distress/story-22951452-detail/story.html#ixzz3DyWbX7GS 
Follow us: @WMNNews on Twitter | westernmorningnews on Facebook

Read more at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/damsel-distress/story-22951452-detail/story.html#ulToeLv8V1mgcMtK.99

Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone, Kent ferry ports and service stations monitored to spot invasive mosquitoes


Species such as the Asian tiger mosquito can spread dengue fever and chikungunya – a virus causing a fever of up to 40 degrees followed by joint pain that can last for years.
The large, aggressive mosquito bites during the day, unlike indigenous species.It is already a problem in Italy and parts of southern Europe, and has been spotted in France as far north as Lyon.
An invasive mosquito already present in Kent is culex modestus.
This variety can spread West Nile virus, a disease that causes serious flu-like symptoms that last several days.
In serious cases it can cause swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
Experts from Public Health England have been monitoring several locations in north Kent including service stations, ferry ports and the Eurotunnel terminal, hoping to spot the invasive insects before they spread.-READ MORE-http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/invasive-mosquito-species-threaten-kent-23549/

Europeans drawn from three ancient 'tribes'R

Pentre Ifan

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The modern European gene pool was formed when three ancient populations mixed within the last 7,000 years, Nature journal reports.
Blue-eyed, swarthy hunters mingled with brown-eyed, pale skinned farmers as the latter swept into Europe from the Near East.
But another, mysterious population with Siberian affinities also contributed to the genetic landscape of the continent.
The findings are based on analysis of genomes from nine ancient Europeans.
Agriculture originated in the Near East - in modern Syria, Iraq and Israel - before expanding into Europe around 7,500 years ago.

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It really does look like the indigenous West European hunter gatherers had this striking combination of dark skin and blue eyes that doesn't exist any more”
Prof David ReichHarvard Medical School
Multiple lines of evidence suggested this new way of life was spread by a wave of migrants, who interbred with the indigenous European hunter-gatherers they encountered on the way.
But assumptions about European origins were based largely on the genetic patterns of living people. The science of analysing genomic DNA from ancient bones has put some of the prevailing theories to the test, throwing up a few surprises.
Genomic DNA contains the biochemical instructions for building a human, and resides within the nuclei of our cells.
In the new paper, Prof David Reich from the Harvard Medical School and colleagues studied the genomes of seven hunter-gatherers from Scandinavia, one hunter whose remains were found in a cave in Luxembourg and an early farmer from Stuttgart, Germany.READ MORE -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29213892

SPIDER APP

This new app has been launched to help identify spiders around your house.Number of spiders found indoors have increased suddenly at this time of year due to males seeking females.The app is called A SPIDER IN DA HOUSE and has photos,identification tools,information on how to indentify and learn more about 12 of most common found in your house.

Saturday 20 September 2014

RICHARD THORNS TALKS TO GHOSTMAN-MARK ANTONY RAINES

https://soundcloud.com/ghostman-cole/richard-thorns SEE VIDEO PROMO-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBP47rag_dc&feature=youtu.be

Ancient sturgeon in China's Yangtze 'nearly extinct'

This picture taken on 13 April 2014 shows artificially bred Chinese sturgeons released into the Yangtze river in Yichang, central China's Hubei province
The Chinese sturgeon, thought to have existed for more than 140 million years, is now on the brink of extinction, according to local media.
Xinhua reported that no wild sturgeon reproduced naturally last year in the Yangtze river.It was the first time since researchers began recording levels 32 years ago.
Chinese researches say the fall is due to rising levels of pollution in the Yangtze river and the construction of dozens of dams.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences also found that no young sturgeons were found swimming along the Yangtze toward the sea during the period they usually do so.
A researcher told Xinhua that in the 1980s, at least several thousand sturgeon could be found in the river. It is estimated only around 100 fish remain.
"Without natural reproduction, the fish population cannot replenish itself. If there are no further steps taken to strengthen conservation, the wild sturgeon faces the danger of extinction," he said-READ MORE.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29201926

What's the truth of Noah's Ark?-TO WATCH LINK-http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-real-noahs-ark-secret-history/4od

magine what an expert on ancient Babylonian cuneiform tablets might look like and you’ll probably come up with someone like Irving Finkel. His long white beard, Professor Calculus glasses and boyish enthusiasm were endearingly on show in The Real Noah’s Ark: Secret History(Channel 4), which told the story of the most extraordinary discovery of his career.
In 2009, Finkel got hold of a clay tablet about the size of an iPhone dating from around 1750 BC. He immediately recognised its inscriptions as instructions on how to build an ark to survive a deluge – how much rope to use, what shape the Ark should be and, most intriguingly, that the animals should embark “two by two”. We’ve known for 200 years that the flood story in Genesis probably derives from earlier accounts, but this was an exciting new piece in the jigsaw.
Finkel was a delight on screen, whether donning hi-tech glasses to examine the tablet in large-scale 3D or describing with grim relish how Babylonians skinned their unfortunate Jewish captives alive. It was while they were in captivity in Babylon, he argued, that Jews heard the flood story, and when they eventually returned to Jerusalem they turned it into the tale of suffering and redemption we know from the Bible.
Just as things were getting really interesting, though, the programme-makers swerved from historical analysis into a version of Grand Designs and decided to build the Ark according to the tablet’s direction. It seemed an excessively literal approach. While it was mildly diverting seeing them build the coracle-shaped boat – its round shape designed to float rather than travel anywhere – what exactly were they building? Contrary to the title, it wasn’t Noah’s Ark but a Babylonian prophet’s – and one which clearly couldn’t have accommodated two of every animal in the world.
So the key question about the “real” or “mythic” nature of the tablet’s story was left unanswered. To find out more you have to turn to Finkel’s recent book on the subject, which argues that the instructions were not practical guides but aides to make the story sound convincing – what literary critics call “the reality effect”. Interestingly, the Bible cuts out the physical detail because it’s more interested in metaphysical truths. For me that transformation is the most fascinating aspect of the story, and it was unfortunate to see it lost on television.READ MORE-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11093350/Whats-the-truth-of-Noahs-Ark.html

PICTURES OF TORMENTIL MINING BEE AND TORMENTIL NOMAD BEE

Tormentil mining bee. Pic: Paddy Saunders ANDRENA TARASATA -Tormentil mining beeTormentil nomad bee. Pic: Steven FaulkNORMANA ROBERTJEOTIANA- TORMENTIL NOMAD BEE.

Two rare bee species discovered on Cornwall nature reserve

Two rare species of bee have been discovered on a nature reserve in Cornwall, a wildlife trust says.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust said the tormentil nomad and the tormentil mining bees had been found at its Bartinney reserve near Sennen.
Both are moorland species that had seen "dramatic declines" since the 1970s, it said.
The mining bee collects tormentil pollen to feed larvae, and the nomad bee steals the mining bee's nests.
Underground chambers
Both species were discovered during a survey being carried out by Paddy Saunders for Natural England.
He said: "The tormentil mining bee needs lots and lots of flowering tormentil very near to nest sites, from which to collect pollen to feed their larvae that live in small chambers slightly underground.
"The nomad bee is a 'cuckoo' bee and goes into the nests of tormentil mining bee and steals its nest and stored pollen."
He added: "It needs a big tormentil mining bee colony to sustain a population of the nomad, so it is a super rare bee.
"The fact that Bartinney Nature Reserve supports both these rare bees is very significant."
Liz Cox, from the trust, said staff and volunteers were "absolutely delighted" two such important species had been found.-READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-29177916

JAWS?

A fisherman believes he saw a GREAT WHITE SHARK  20  miles off port of falmouth.Looking at picture its  hard to say ,rumors of great white sharks off coast of Britain have been around fro years.
 It is absolutely NOT a great white shark. It's a basking shark.

It is possible that they visit us, but there has never been a verified sighting, and they are so rare now it is extremely unlikely. However this was not one :-)Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones's profile photo
info@marinediscovery.co.uk
Penzance

RARE BIRD GETS HELP

As part of MAURITIUS FOUNDATION FOR WILDLIFE a Paignton Zoo senior bird keeper is helping build a breeding station for the   MAURITIUS PINK PIGEONS.At the moment the population of this bird is only 400,their have a reputation of being very aggressive.link-westernmorningnews-island expedition for tom to save rare bird.

Three new species of Australian crayfish found

THREE NEW SPECIES of crayfish have been discovered in Victorian and New South Wales wetlands by Australian researchers and volunteers from the Australian Crayfish Project.
Australia hosts one of the world's most diverse crayfish fauna, yet it remains poorly studied, explains Dr Robert McCormack, lead researcher.
"The project is discovering dozens of new species or new populations that were never known to exist. Our aim is to find and identify all species of freshwater crayfish and their habitat," says Robert.A new species, the eastern swamp crayfish (Gramastacus lacus), is the world's smallest crayfish. (Credit: Rob McCormack)

World's smallest crayfish

One of these new species, named Gramastacus lacus, holds the title of being one of the world's smallest crayfish. It is found in scattered populations across the coastal lakes and swampy areas of New South Wales. These critters are prolific and live in burrows up to a meter deep, which they use to avoid drought. Research about this new species was published earlier this year in ZooKeys.
The second species, currently being described by Rob McCormack and Jim Fetzner from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, in the USA, will be a new member of the genus Euastacus and it is known from a single river in eastern Victoria.
The new species, Dr McCormack says, "occurs in mainly permanent, small-to-medium-READ MORE-http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/09/three-new-species-of-australian-crayfish-found

Kurixalus viridescens,New tree frog species found in Vietnam

Kurixalus viridescens, a new tree frog species found in Vietnam. Photo: Nguyen Thien Tao
A team of Vietnamese and Japanese scientists discovered a new species of tree frog in Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces.
They named the creature Kurixalus viridescens. It was found in Hon Ba Nature Reserve in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa and Bi Doup-Nui Ba National Park in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.
The discovery was published in a September issue of Current Herpetology - the official English journal of the Herpetological Society of Japan.
Japan’s Masafumi Matsui and Vietnam’s Nguyen Thien Tao and Hoang Minh Duc said they described the frog as a distinct species because it is divergent genetically and morphologically from all known congeners.
The species differs from the other congeners due to an immaculate green dorsum, which is usually maculated gray to brown in the other species.
With this new species, Vietnam is now home to seven species of Kurixalus, and can be regarded as the center of speciation of the genus, they said.-READ MORE-http://www.thanhniennews.com/education-youth/new-tree-frog-species-found-in-vietnam-31376.html

New spider species discovered in garden near Longreach, scientist 'excited' by venom's potential applications

New spider species discoveredA new species of spider discovered in western Queensland has a venom that could potentially be useful in the production of pharmaceuticals, a scientist studying the animal has said.
The tarantula, which is yet to have been given a scientific name, was discovered in a garden on a property near Longreach.
Queensland Museum's Dr Robert Raven said the Longreach species was one of 20 from across Australia that he was currently studying.
Dr Raven said it was important to know more about the Longreach species because its venom may be useful for medicinal purposes.
"These things have killed dogs and cats quite easily, and anything that affects a dog or a cat is particularly very exciting from the point of view of looking at pharmaceutical applications for the venom," he said.
Dr Raven says tarantulas have been found in the Longreach area for decades.
But he said identifying them as a different, undescribed species is a new conclusion.
"There have been collections that have made from the Longreach area dating back into the 1930s, but we have only recently come to the conclusion that it is a different species to the other ones," he said.
"Longreach is about the point where everything starts - and the exciting thing about Longreach is that it has some amazing cultural things, and natural history is no different.
"It is an interesting changeover point for natural history just around there."
Dr Raven has been studying spiders for almost 40 years, and said more research was needed to find out more about the new species.-READ MORE-http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-17/new-spider-species-discovered-in-western-queensland/5749078
"They are tarantulas, and they are on a protected list with Parks in Australia," Dr Raven said.
"The thing is that people like these things because they are so big, they get them into the markets and they sell them for about $250 each for a medium-sized specimen.
"So as these things are being taken out of the wild, we are actually heavily depleting what's a fairly limited

WEIRD WEEKEND 2014: Friday Night Part Three

WEIRD WEEKEND 2014: Friday Night Part Two

WEIRD WEEKEND 2014: Friday Night Part One

Thursday 18 September 2014

Giant squid found snd deiced

New Zealand scientists defrost giant squid after catching ,Scientist Kat Bolstad, left, from the Auckland University of Technology, and student Aaron Boyd Evans examine a rare giant squid in Wellington, New Zealand. The colossal squid, which weighs 350 kilograms (770 pounds) and is as long as a minibus, is one of the seas most elusive species. Picture: AP Source: APIT was a calm morning in Antarctica’s remote Ross Sea, during the season when the sun never sets, when Capt. John Bennett and his crew hauled up a creature with tentacles like fire hoses and eyes like dinner plates from a mile below the surface.A colossal squid: 350 kilograms, as long as a minibus and one of the sea’s most elusive species.It had been frozen for eight months until yesterday, when scientists in New Zealand got a long-anticipated chance to thaw out the animal and inspect it - once they used a forklift to maneuver it into a tank.The squid is a female, and its eight arms are each well over a metre long. Its two tentacles would have been perhaps double that length if they had not been damaged.Kat Bolstad, a squid scientist from the Auckland University of Technology who was leading a team examining the creature, described it as “very big, very beautiful.”“This is essentially an intact specimen, which is almost an unparalleled opportunity for us to examine,” she said. “This is a spectacular opportunity.”Many people around the world agreed: About 142,000 people from 180 countries watched streaming footage of the squid examination on the Internet.Reach...Bolstad works on a colossal squid as it is defrosted at Te Papa labs in Wellington. The squid was caught by a fishing boat longline in the Antarctic over the summer and kept on ice until scientists worked to thaw it out to begin examining the specimen. Picture: AFP Colossal squid sometimes inhabit the world of fiction and imagination, but have rarely been seen in daylight.Remarkably, Capt Bennett and his crew on the San Aspiring toothfish boat have caught two giant squid. Their first, hauled in seven years ago, is on display in New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa.Capt Bennett said there was so much excitement about his previous catch, he thought he had better save the latest one for research.“It was partly alive, it was still hanging onto the fish,” Capt Bennett recalls.“Just a big bulk in the water. They’re huge, and the mantle’s all filled with water. It’s quite an awesome sight.”Susan Waugh, a senior curator at Te Papa, said scientists hope to find out more about where the creature fits in the food chain, how much genetic variation there is among different squid types, and basic facts about how the colossal squid lives and dies.Giant...Scientists had to use a forklift to move the frozen squid into the tank. Picture: APShe said scientists plan to further assess the condition of the squid before determining whether to preserve it for public display.Mr Bolstad said it’s possible that ancient sightings of the species gave rise to tales of the kraken, or giant sea-monster squid.She said sperm whales often eat colossal squid and are known to play with their food, and sailors may have mistaken that for epic battles.“On the other hand, we don’t really know what the grog rations were like at that time at sea, either,” she said.“So it may be that we’ve got a bit of a fisherman’s story going on there, too.” 

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Yorkshire's prehistoric past unearthed: Shark egg case among hoard of fossils discovered inside a disused mine tip Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2756404/Doncaster-original-home-JAWS-Shark-egg-case-hoard-fossils-unearthed-inside-disused-tip.

Yorkshire's prehistoric past - complete with swamps, a tropical rainforest and even sharks - has been revealed in enormous detail after scientists unearthed fossils in Doncaster.
As well as the 310 million-year-old shark egg case, several horseshoe crabs and some previously unrecorded seed pods were discovered at the disused Yorkshire Main Colliery in Edlington. 
Some of the fossilised plants and creatures may even be entirely new to science, claim experts
READ MORE


Sunday 14 September 2014

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.co.uk/ a blogsite byTabitca Cope

Friday, 12 September 2014

giant swimming dinosaur fossil unearthed



Spinosaurus fossil: 'Giant swimming dinosaur' unearthed
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News
A giant fossil, unearthed in the Sahara desert, has given scientists an unprecedented look at the largest-known carnivorous dinosaur: Spinosaurus. The 95-million-year-old remains confirm a long-held theory: that this is the first-known swimming dinosaur. Scientists say the beast had flat, paddle-like feet and nostrils on top of its crocodilian head that would allow it to submerge with ease. The research is published in the journal Science.
Lead author Nizar Ibrahim, a palaeontologist from the University of Chicago, said: "It is a really bizarre dinosaur - there's no real blueprint for it. "It has a long neck, a long trunk, a long tail, a 7ft (2m) sail on its back and a snout like a crocodile. "And when we look at the body proportions, the animal was clearly not as agile on land as other dinosaurs were, so I think it spent a substantial amount of time in the water."
Very interesting and makes me think of several lake monster reports .The last  reported sighting of the Wast Water Creature  stated about a spiked back......perhaps a frill like this creatureCould there be more types of these creatures found? All exciting stuff for cryptozoologists .

Saturday 13 September 2014

Spinosaurus-more information

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered4 min 36 secDownloadTranscriptiWorkers at the National Geographic Museum in Washington grind the rough edges off a life-size replica of a spinosaurus skeleton.Mike Hettwer/National GeographicThere once was a place on Earth so overrun with giant, meat-eating predators that even a Tyrannosaurus rex would have been nervous. One predator there was even bigger thanT. rex, and scientists now say it's apparently the only aquatic dinosaur ever found.The swimming monster is called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. It was 50 feet long — longer than a school bus, and 9 feet longer than the biggest T. rex.“It just goes to show ... that evolution is pretty tricky, and does all sorts of weird and wonderful things. And that's what makes the living world — and even the dead parts of the living world — so amazing.- Thomas Holtz, paleontologist, University of MarylandA replica of its skeleton is being assembled in a cavernous room at the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. As workmen worked to finish erecting the exhibit, I walked around the beast with paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim from the University of Chicago. He collected the bones and, along with Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, determined that it was indeed a swimmer.Ibrahim describes the place in North Africa where this spinosaurus lived 97 million years ago as a "river of giants.""Big predatory dinosaurs, giant fish, crocodile-like predators. In fact, the place was really pretty predator-heavy, so I call it the most dangerous place in the history of our planet," Sereno says.It was swampy, with many rivers. Now it's a desert, where Ibrahim looks for dinosaur bones. But he didn't find spinosaurus's bones, exactly. They found him.But first, more about the dinosaur: It takes up most of the room. Its jaw is long, with interlocking front teeth like a crocodile's — good for catching fish, very big fish. Then there are the pits in the bones of its jaw. "These openings house pressure receptors to detect movement of prey underwater," says Ibrahim.iWho's your daddy? A model of the Cretaceous predator spinosaurus gets rock star treatment during a photo shoot for the October issue of National Geographic.Mike Hettwer/National GeographicSpinosaurus's nostrils are back near its eyes — better for breathing while half-submerged. It has a long, serpentine neck. Its long front legs are tipped with footlong claws. "Probably used to tear apart prey into bite-size chunks," Ibrahim says gleefully. Along its back, the dinosaur has 7-foot-tall bony spines that stick up like a picket fence. In life, they supported an enormous sail-like crest.The hips and back legs are narrow and small, considering all the weight they carried. On land, spinosaurus probably shuffled on all fours — a lousy walker, but a great swimmer. Plus its bones are solid, not hollow like most dinosaurs'. That suggests that, as in whales and penguins, the bones of spinosaurus acted as ballast. And its feet are wide, like a wading bird's.Ibrahim's voice in describing this creature has a new-father's pride. Actually, not so new — as he writes in this week's issue of the journal Science, he and his team spent years examining each of the skeletal characteristics that led them to conclude that this dinosaur was made for swimming.Now, it was well-known that big swimming reptiles existed in prehistoric times. But dinosaurs are a very different order of animal than reptiles, and nobody had an inkling that dinosaurs could swim until this one turned up.In fact, spinosaurus bones were first discovered 100 years ago, by a German scientist in Egypt. The find puzzled researchers. "A lot of the skeleton was missing," explainsThomas Holtz, a paleontologist at the University of Maryland. "It was sort of a mystery dinosaur, and the mystery was furthered when all the specimens were destroyed during World War II."

Science

The 500-Pound 'Chicken From Hell' Likely Ate Whatever It Wanted

They had been in a museum in Munich that was bombed by Allied planes. Scientists were left with just drawings and, over time, a few more bones that surfaced in Africa. Until recently, paleontologists figured the creature must have lived on land and snagged fish out of rivers — like a giant heron with teeth.

Science

Maybe Dinosaurs Were A Coldblooded, Warmblooded Mix

"But we were wrong," Holtz says. "It just goes to show, you know, that evolution is pretty tricky and it does all sorts of weird and wonderful things. And that's what makes the living world — and even the dead parts of the living world — so amazing."

Science

Fossil Fans Get Their Dino-Fix Before Smithsonian Renovates

But no more amazing than the way Ibrahim found this new specimen. It started in 2008 in Morocco. A local fossil hunter showed him an odd chunk of bone, a dinosaur bone, but one that puzzled him. Ibrahim didn't make much of it at the time. Then, several years later, he was visiting colleagues at a museum in Italy."My Italian colleagues said, 'We have something you have to see. It just arrived here. It's a partial skeleton; it was spirited out of North Africa. We don't really know where it came from.' "Ibrahim looked at the bones. "And my jaw just dropped," he remembers. "There were just long spines, skull bones, leg bones, and I thought, 'This is amazing.' "He saw something familiar in the bones. "It looked exactly like that chunk of bone I had seen in Morocco several years earlier," he says. "And I thought, 'You know what? This could actually be the same skeleton.' And so I thought, 'All I need to do now is travel back to Morocco and find this one man in the middle of the Sahara.' "Ibrahim laughs when he remembers this; his Italian colleagues thought he was crazy.But if he could find that fossil hunter, maybe he could find the rest of the bones. So, during several trips to Morocco, Ibrahim searched for the guy with the fossils. No luck. He didn't know the man's name, only that he had a mustache. Then last year, Ibrahim was drinking a cup of mint tea in a Moroccan cafe. He says he was ready to quit searching. He looked up and there was a man dressed in white walking by — with the mustache. It was the fossil hunter.Ibrahim stopped him, and begged the man to show him where that first chunk of bone had come from. He said the Italians wanted to repatriate the bones in their possession to the right place — he had to be sure this was, indeed, the source of those bones.The man agreed to drive Ibrahim into the desert. They stopped and climbed partway up a mountain, to a hole that had been dug in the rock. And there was the rest of the dinosaur's skeleton.Scientists now know what the real Spinosaurus aegyptiacus looked like — and that it swam. The Moroccan and Italian bones have been reunited, and will go back to Morocco. And now we know that Earth, apparently, once was home to a 50-foot, swimming, carnivorous dinosaur.dinosaurstyrannosaurus rexpaleontology

nomads-find-helps-solve-the-mystery-of-the-spinosaurus.html


From The New York Times:

A Lost-and-Found Nomad Helps Solve the Mystery of a Swimming Dinosaur

A model of the largest known predatory dinosaur, and the only dinosaur known to spend much of its life in water, will be displayed in Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/science/a-nomads-find-helps-solve-the-mystery-of-the-spinosaurus.html

Calathus juan -ANDCalathus carballalae- Two new species of carabid beetles found in Ethiopia

There are more than 150 species of beetles in the genus Calathus, 17 of which have only been found in the mountains of the Ethiopian Highlands. Now scientists have found two new ones — Calathus juan and Calathus carballalae — and have described them in Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
C. juan is named for Juan Novoa, the son of one of the authors, in recognition of his help on various beetle-collecting expeditions. Adults are black and shiny, and are 9.5-11.5 millimeters long. It was found under stones at the base of giant, tree-like plants called lobelias (Lobelia rhynchopetalum) at almost 3,600 meters above sea level.
This is a drawing of Calathus carballalae, one of the new species found in Ethiopia.
(Photo Credit: ESA)
C. carballalae is named for Regina Carballal, the wife of the first author, also for collaboration on Coleoptera-collecting expeditions. It was found under stones on barren soil nearly 4,150 meters above sea level.

Bloom is of a new species of plant discovered on Gunung Kanthan

Bloom is of a new species of plant discovered on Gunung KanthanPETALING JAYA - A new species of plant, Meiogyne kanthanensis, with citrus-smelling flowers was discovered on a limestone hill in Perak last year
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (Frim) plant taxonomist Dr Ruth Kiew who made the discovery on Gunung Kanthan, said the plant was so rare that only three trees of its kind were seen.
An international scientific journal published in New Zealand known as Phytotaxa reported that the plant's flower had an interesting smell.
"The flower...(has) a fruity aroma, a complex scent reminiscent of pomelo, citrus, lychee, plum and lemon grass," it said.
The report was co-authored by Dr Kiew, Frim Forest Biodiversity director Dr Saw Leng Guan, and Frim research officers Joanne Tan and Ummul Nazrah Abdul Rahman.
It also mentioned the discovery of two other new species - Gymnostachyum kanthanense and Vatica kanthanensis - both also found on the hill.
Tan said in an interview that scientists had not noticed the plant there before, and that its flower was only visible during certain times of the year.
"We try to be there nearly every month, but might miss some of the flowering seasons," she said.
Flora and Fauna International (Asia-Pacific) regional director Tony Whitten said the discovery meant that experts would have to survey Gunung Kanthan's endemic species and surrounding hills.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/science-and-tech/bloom-new-species-plant-discovered-gunung-kanthan#sthash.cfPtoZo4.dpuf