By accident, a new spiky dinosaur is discovered

At first glance, Judith, the plant-eating, horned dinosaur looks like a triceratops. But it's really not.

It's an altogether new species, and a dinosaur enthusiast literally stumbled upon it.

Researchers introduced the species, the Spiclypeus shipporum in the journal PLOS One.

Judith was named after the location where the fossils were found --- the Judith River Formation in Montana. Despite the name, scientists do not know if Judith was male or female-read more

New species of coral discovered off Farallones

A rare coral species never seen before is growing in the water of the deep, cold Pacific a few miles offshore from the Sonoma County coast.

Unlike the corals that form spectacular reefs in the shallow waters of tropical oceans, the bone-white animal that biologist Gary Williams discovered is a solitary creature barely 15inches tall, with a thousand mouths that feed on microscopic plankton borne by the current flowing past its whip-like stalk.

It is one of more than 5,000 coral species that thrive in the oceans from Alaska to Antarctica and that come in all kinds of colors — from vivid blue and green to yellow, orange and various shades of pink and red.

Williams, of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, found the new species in a rocky area of the sea floor about 30 miles west of Jenner in what is now the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. The new coral is flourishing amid an abundance of other animals that include starfish, sea worms, snails, sponges, sea cucumbers, crabs, nurseries of catsharks and skates, and at least 34 varieties of other fish.read more

New species of bird-eating boa snake with SILVER skin discovered in the Bahama

They have a reputation for being 'silver-tongued' creatures in many folk tales and legends, but now a snake that appears to be covered in the precious metal has been discovered by biologists.

The Silver Boa was first spotted by a team on a remote island in the Bahamas, who later found the remarkably coloured creature was completely unknown to science. 

The team from Harvard University first encountered a metre-long silvery female as she climbed a Silver Palm tree near the water's edge on a remote island in the southern Bahamas.   read more

New species of 'dancing' peacock spiders discovered

Dr Jurgen Otto said the peacock spiders, with their myriad of colour combinations and 'dance moves', are beautiful.

The biologist has shared photographs of the tiny spiders with many arachnophobes who are surprisingly delighted by them, he says.

"Normally people think of spiders as something ugly, scary and dangerous, but they're learning through my photographs and videos they're cute and colourful and adorable," Dr Otto told ABC News.

"Even people who hate spiders, extreme arachnophobes, love these spiders. They can't help it."

The spiders are found in bushland and scrub all throughout Australia.read more

Fossils reveal even creatures in the Antarctic were wiped out by giant impact that killed off the dinosaurs

At the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, a huge meteor slammed into the Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs, along with many other creatures from the period.

Many scientists believe that those that did survive were able to cling on in safe havens close to the poles - perhaps because they were already well adapted to living in extreme conditions.

But a new study now suggests that even n these places, animals were not immune from the mass extinctions, with huge numbers of species being killed off.The fossils were excavated by scientists from the University of Leeds and the British Antarctic Survey on Seymour Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. 

The fossils came from a variety of marine plants and animals, including the paperclip-shaped 'heteromorph', a distant relative of modern squid and octopus.

They grouped the fossils by age and found there was a dramatic 65-70 per cent reduction in the number of species living in the Antarctic around 66 million years ago.

This coincides with the time when the dinosaurs and many other groups of organisms worldwide became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. 

'Previously scientists had thought that the Antarctic could have been a "refuge" from the worst effects of this mass extinction, regardless of whether it was caused by an asteroid impact or by massive volcanic eruptions that stressed the climate,' lead author of the paper, James Witts, a PhD student at Leeds University, told MailOnline.

'This is because the animals and plants that live at high latitudes have to cope with six months of darkness every year and as a result, a supply of food that is not constant throughout the year.'read more

New monkey puzzle tree discovered by accident after 17-years

SCOTS scientists have discovered a new species of monkey puzzle tree that had been “hiding” under their noses for almost two decades.
Researchers from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) have spent the past 17 years studying monkey puzzle trees on New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific.
To their amazement, the team recently realised that the trees included a previously unknown species – the first to be discovered for 47 years.
The tree – which has yet to be officially named – had been “hiding in plain sight” according to-read more

Florida crocodiles: Man-eating Nile beasts confirmed in swamps

DNA tests have confirmed that three man-eating Nile crocodiles have been found living in Florida's swamps.

Unlike local alligators, the species preys on humans and is thought to be responsible for up to 200 deaths a year at home in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is possible more of the beasts are at large in the state, experts say.
It is not known for certain how they reached the US. "They didn't swim from Africa," said University of Florida herpetologist Kenneth Krysko.
One likely possibility was that they were brought in illegally by unlicensed collectors, who then failed to keep them secured or intentionally released them, Mr Krysko told the Associated Press news agency.read more