Unique Ichthyosaur Fossil Discovered in India

According to a new study released this week, a fossil found in the Indian state of Gujarat represents the first nearly complete skeleton of an ichthyosaur from India and the first record from the Jurassic of this country.

Ichthyosaurs. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

Ichthyosaurs were predatory marine reptiles that ranged in size from 1 to 69 feet (0.3-21 m) long.

They swam the world’s oceans for millions of years during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Despite their profound adaptations to the aquatic realm, these reptiles disappeared about 30 million years before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (65 million years ago) that marked the end for dinosaurs and the beginning of the age of mammals.

While many ichthyosaur fossils have been found in North American and Europe, in the Southern Hemisphere, their fossil record has mostly been limited to South America =read more

Gigantic earthworm captured by woman in Australia

An Australian woman discovered a giant earthworm squirming above ground this week after torrential rains in Queensland unearthed the insect.

The photo posted by Australia’s 7 News on Tuesday showed Kelli Mace holding up the two-foot worm, believed to be a digaster longmani, with sticks. The picture was taken on Tamborine Mountain in South East Queensland, where heavy rain has been pounding the region in the last week.

Digaster longmani are rarely spotted because they remain buried in the ground until rain sweeps and flood their homes, news.com.au reported. They are one of the largest worm species and are only found in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales.=read more

The thorny ethics of hybrid animals

Ligers, the hybrid offspring of lions and tigers, may sound like mythological chimeras but they are, in fact, real.

The creatures are primarily man-made, since the habitats of these two big cats overlaps only in India’s Gir Forest. Their mashup names belie their origin stories, with an offspring taking the first half of its name from its father and the second half from its mother. Endless fun can be had with this naming convention:

Lion father + tiger mother = liger. Tiger father + lion mother = tigon. Leopard father + jaguar mother = jagleop. Lion father + jagleop mother = lijagleop.

The fun drains out of this exercise, however, when you learn of the health issues associated with these hybrids. Ligers, for example, grow big… too big for their own organs, in fact.=read more

How many types of spiders are in Britain? Arachnophobes could be in for a shock

A study of the UK’s creepy crawlies even found one rare species that hides on beaches by disguising itself as grains of sand. 

The rare sand running spider is a master of camouflage that lives in sand dunes on a handful of beaches. 

But despite their scary reputation - spiders have been hailed as “crucial” to the environment.

A survey found 654 different species of spider in the UK - with 18 species critically endangered and 84 species endangered or vulnerable.=read more

Ugly' 16ft-long dinosaur is found in the south of France with terrifying 2.5-inch teeth that tore through food like scissors 80 million years ago

An 'ugly' dinosaur with huge scissor-style teeth that roamed the south of France 80 million years ago has been discovered by scientists.

The plant eater - which grew to more than 16 feet long - had an unusually short face with powerful jaws that enabled it to snack on tough riverside palm trees.

Its two-and-a-half inch teeth worked 'like a pair of scissors' as it chewed the hard foliage, before swallowing.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5020113/Ugly-16ft-long-dinosaur-south-France.html#ixzz4wnuzU7e2
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New species of damselfly discovered in Cape York 'a remarkable thing'

A newly discovered insect found on the Cape York Peninsula might look tiny and delicate, but it is causing a big buzz in the bug world.

Queensland Museum entomologist Chris Burwell discovered a new species of damselfly — a small flying insect with two pairs of wings, similar to a dragonfly — during an expedition in Spring Creek, about 20km from Lakeland in far north Queensland.

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AUDIO: Dr Chris Burwell talks about the newly discovered species. (ABC News)

It is the first new species of damselfly to be discovered in almost a decade.

PHOTO: Queensland Museum entomologist Dr Chris Burwell made the exciting discovery. (Supplied: Queensland Museum)

"Damselflies and dragonflies are one of the most well-known groups of insects in Australia, so it was a great surprise to discover a completely new species," Dr Burwell said.

"This one is something that nobody has ever seen before."

The senior curator of entomology made the amazing discovery during a federally funded Bush Blitz expedition in the middle of the far north Queensland wet season=read more

New species of 'mega-carnivore' dinosaur roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago and was 'top of the food chain'

A dinosaur as big as a bus roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago, scientists have revealed thanks to the discovery of several huge three-toed footprints. 

The new species, Kayentapus ambrokholohali, is a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and was identified by its footprints, which are nearly two feet (23 inches) long.

Dinosaurs are recorded as only first appearing on Earth around 230 million years ago, so the new find shocked researchers as it shows they grew big very quickly.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5016995/Mega-carnivore-dinosaur-Africa-200-million-years-ago.html#ixzz4wnuNRMo4
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A model of a saber-toothed cat on display in Germany.

 

PHOTOGRAPH BY HAUKE-CHRISTIAN DITTRICH, PICTURE-ALLIANCE/D

When modern humans first wandered into Europe some 50,000 years ago, this snaggle-toothed cat was probably there to greet them.

Painstaking genetic analysis of a jawbone dredged up from the bottom of the North Sea has now confirmed the theory that the so-called scimitar cat Homotherium latidens lived in Europe much longer than previously believed.

Until recently, the earliest fossil of a Homotherium in the region dated to about 300,000 years ago, and many paleontologists had assumed that’s when the large cat went locally extinct. (Find out how saber-toothed cats killed even though they had weak bites.)=READ MORE

rare_-bizarre--fish-discovered-in-swiss-alps

Scientists have discovered a fossil of a new species of Coelacanth fish in the Swiss Alps. A team of paleontologists found it on a pass near the mountain resort of Davos in southeastern Switzerland in 2014 and 2015.

The fish skeletons from the Middle Triassic, which are on display at the Natural History Museum of Geneva, are around 240 million years old, according to the museum.

Lionel Cavin, the curator specialist of fossil fish, said it had taken some time to establish what kind of species it is. Scientists named it after a fellow scientist and patron, Foreyia maxkuhni.

A detailed description was published in the online Scientific Reports journal on Friday.

It is believed that the fossil find could open up new pathways to study the evolutionary =READ MORE

More species of snakehead fish found

Confusions over snakehead fish species identity need not bother ichthyologists anymore, as a global digital database of the species has been developed.

A global collaborative initiative involving as many as 10 scientific institutions has barcoded these freshwater fish varieties, which got their name from their unique snake-like snout. The members of the species are found distributed from the Middle East to eastern Asia, Central and West Africa and the Nile.

Earlier, it was widely believed that there were 38 species in this group. However, the DNA-level analysis showed that there were several more species than first thought. The species strength of snakeheads could be 53 or even more, said Rajeev Raghavan, Assistant professor of the Kerala University for Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kochi, which is one of the partnering institutions in the project. =READ MORE

Mini, eight-legged 'monster' discovered lurking under Canadian Arctic sea ice

A new species has been found paddling along the subsurface of the Arctic Ocean – a discovery that marks the first of its kind in Canada.

Aurelie Delaforge, University of Manitoba PhD student at the Centre for Earth Observation Science, first stumbled upon a new form of Monstrilloida zooplankton in the icy waters of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, in 2014. More than 160 different species of these "mini monsters" exist around the world, but none were known to live in Canada, until now.

The findings were published in the journal ZooKeys on Thursday, detailing Delaforge’s discovery of "the first record of Monstrillopsis in Canadian waters."

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• Study: A new species of Monstrillopsis

PHOTOS

Taxonomic drawing of the Monstrillopsis planifrons. (University of Manitoba)

"When we study the Arctic, there are still things we don’t know. This is a good example," Delaforge said in a press release. 

The new crustacean, dubbed the Monstrilloidazooplankton, is just two millimetres long. It has eight legs, a translucent body, one feeble eye, no mouth, and two antennae.

Considering its uncanny appearance, the species was aptly named after the word "monster" – or, in the case of Canada’s new Monstrillopsis planifrons, "flat-headed monster."=READ MORE

New orchid species found in Wayanad

The newly discovered ‘Liparis sanamalabarica’  

Data on ‘Liparis sanamalabarica’ evaluated according to IUCN categorisation

A new species of plant that belongs to the Orchidaceae family, Liparis sanamalabarica, has been discovered from the Thollayiram on the Kattimattom hill ranges under the Meppadi forest range of the southern Western Ghats in Wayanad district.

The small herbaceous orchid has been collected by Pichan M. Salim, senior technical assistant, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here under the supervision of V. Balakrishnan, Head, Community Agrobiodiversity Centre (CABC) of the MSSRF.

“Liparis sanamalabarica is currently known from two localities within the Thollayiram forests regions covering an area of 2 km,” Mr Salim said.=READ MORE

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New species of large gecko discovered

Aathira Perinchery

OCTOBER 20, 2017 00:00 IST

UPDATED: OCTOBER 20, 2017 04:51 IST

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A photo of the Kanger valley rock gecko Hemidactylus kangerensis .Zeeshan Mirza  

8-inch lizard found in Eastern Ghats

Geckos or house lizards usually evoke in us varying degrees of disdain. But a team of scientists’ fascination for these reptiles led them to discover a new species from the Eastern Ghats. The Kanger valley rock geckoHemidactylus kangerensisis the =newest addition to India’s lizard species.=

According to a paper published in the taxonomic journal Comptes Rendus Biologies on Wednesday, researchers, led by Zeeshan Mirza of the National Centre for Biological Sciences, discovered the gecko from Chhattisgarh’s Kanger Ghati National Park. Though named after this park, the species is also found in Jagdalpur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh and in Khamman in the adjoining State of Telangana, which are part of the Eastern Ghats.

Growing to over eight inches long, the adult Kanger valley rock gecko is fairly large. The researchers found them in abandoned houses in the national park =READ MORE

New clione species found in Sea of Japan, 5th in the world

TOYAMA--A new species of clione, commonly known as an “angel in drift ice,” was discovered in the waters of Toyama Bay here, northwestern Japan, a Japanese university team announced Oct. 12.

There is a possibility that it is endemic to the Sea of Japan, according to the team led by Zhang Jing, 50, professor of chemical oceanography at the Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research of the University of Toyama.

In August 2016, about 30 tiny cliones were caught in a net that was cast out to catch plankton in a field trip conducted in Toyama Bay. They measured between 0.5 millimeters to 5 mm.

Clione expert Tomoyasu Yamazaki, 34, the director of the Shellfish Museum of Rankoshi in Hokkaido, conducted DNA tests on the mysterious shell-less conch, and concluded it is a =read more

Why Race Is Not a Thing, According to Genetics

Today, scientists routinely map the genomes of the long dead, from Neanderthals to medieval kings. What they’re finding out, says British geneticist Adam Rutherford in A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, rewrites the story of human life on Earth—with some unexpected twists.

Speaking from the BBC studio in London where he hosts the weekly radio program Inside Science, Rutherford explains how the development of farming changed human biology; why the most important story our genes tell is that we are all family, despite race or tribe; and why it's not genes that turn people into mass shooters.

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COURTESY OF THE EXPERIMENT

Paleogenetics is transforming our understanding of ancient human history. Explain how it works and share with us a few Wow! moments.=read more

Ten new cockroach species uncovered in Tasmania

Most people squirm even at the word cockroach, but did you know 10 completely new species have been discovered in Tasmania since 2014.

Three of the new species were found in QVMAG natural sciences collections officer Simon Fearn’s backyard.

While some might be turning away in disgust at the thought of more cockroaches, Mr Fearn said the bad rap was not justified.

About five out of 5000 species of cockroaches were pests, contaminating food and spreading disease.=read more

Intercell Conflict Could Form New Species

There are wars raging inside all of us. An organism’s identity can be simplified to a cellular compatibility between two genomes — one in a cell’s nucleus, and small copies of another in mitochondria. Researchers have found that they don’t always match, sparking “mitonuclear conflict” and competitive friction that they believe spawns new species. They’ve tested their theory on different populations of tiny crustaceans, where incompatible nuclear and mitochondrial DNA explained their genetic differences. The evidence isn’t irrefutable, but further study could reveal the evolutionary bridge between one species and the next. 

There are wars raging inside all of us. An organism’s identity can be simplified to a cellular compatibility between two genomes — one in a cell’s nucleus, and small copies of another in mitochondria. Researchers have found that they don’t always match, sparking “mitonuclear conflict” and competitive friction that they believe spawns new species. They’ve tested their theory on different populations of tiny crustaceans, where incompatible nuclear and mitochondrial DNA explained their genetic differences. The evidence isn’t irrefutable, but further study could reveal the evolutionary bridge between one species and the next. 

Species not seen in 90 years spotted in Shropshire nature reserve project Read more at https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/north-shropshire/whitchurch/2017/10/14/species-not-seen-in-90-years-spotted-in-shropshire-nature-reserve-project/#6xqqitPEKJqwzpII.99

The multi-million pound Marches Mosses BogLife project, which is a partnership between Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Shropshire Wildlife Trust, is one year into a five-year scheme.

Dr Joan Daniels, Marches Mosses BogLife officer, said there has already been great progress in restoring Britain’s third largest lowland raised bog in Whixall, near Whitchurch, with species not sighted since the 1930s recorded.

She said: “Some of the wildlife on site has become so diminished there are populations we do not know about because they are so small.

“As we have been re-wetting the site, some species, which have not been recorded since the 1930s, have been discovered as well as species not recorded before.

“Some really rare bog species have already spread.

“It is exciting as we do more bunding, species will be able to multiply.”

In addition the project also aims to restore swamp, fen, willow and alder carr wet woodland, and the habitats missing from the edge of the bog. These areas will provide homes for willow and marsh tit and rare bog wildlife such as elongated sedge and the beautiful purple bordered gold moth.

The funding will pay for the acquisition of a further 63 hectares of peatland, and enable water levels to be raised over 600 hectares to improve the raised bog

Read more at https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/north-shropshire/whitchurch/2017/10/14/species-not-seen-in-90-years-spotted-in-shropshire-nature-reserve-project/#6xqqitPEKJqwzpII.99