STRANGE ANIMALS -COMEDY FRIENDLY ZOMBIE PRODUCTION HOLSWORTHY AND AREA CRYPTOZOOLOGY GROUP

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

Bahier, a male liger, is pictured in his enclosure at the private zoo "Arche Noah" in the village of Groemitz on the Baltic Sea coast July 17, 2007. Ligers often suffer from genetic defects, like excessive growth. Photo by Christian Charisius/REUTERS

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.

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.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

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.

A vertical image of Dr Chris Burwell outside looking for insects on a tree

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.