Atlantic sixgills= A New Species of Shark

FOR DECADES, SCIENTISTS THOUGHT THAT all bigeye sixgill sharks, named for their distinct number of gills (most sharks only have five), belonged to the same species, Hexanchus nakamurai. But new research shows that sixgill sharks swimming in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean are actually a different species from those in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. 

A team of marine biologists led by Toby Daly-Engel, the director of the Shark Conservation Lab at the Florida Institute of Technology, analyzed 1,310 base pairs of two mitochondrial genes found in sharks from the three different oceans. Their results, published in the journal Marine Biodiversity, prove that the Atlantic sixgills are indeed a different type of shark. The newly recognized species is called Hexanchus vitulus, the Atlantic sixgill shark.READ MORE

New plant species from West Bengal named after former President Abdul Kalam

Scientists from the Botanical Survey of India have identified a new plant species from two protected National Parks in West Bengal. Named Drypetes kalamii, it is a small shrub found to be shorter version of its close relative Drypetes ellisii.This adds to the rich floral wealth of India.

Standing just 1 metre tall, the newly described plant is unisexual in nature, which means they have separate male and female plants.

“During the survey and documentation of the flora of Buxa National Park, West Bengal (core area of Buxa Tiger Reserve), in 2011, I came across these plants, but could not identify them. Another author of the paper had collected a new female plant with fruits from Jaldapara National Park, West Bengal. The fruiting specimen can be easily identified in Drypetes. We later found that both the plants belonged to the same species. Further consultations with plant =READ MORE

I looked at it, and it was moving': Worm in woman's eye leads to unique discovery

Imagine looking into your irritated eye for a pesky eyelash, only to pull out a translucent, wiggling worm nearly a half inch long.

"I looked at it, and it was moving," recalled 28-year-old Abby Beckley of Grants Pass, Oregon. "And then it died within about five seconds."

Now, imagine doing that not once but 14 times.

At age 26, Abby Beckley worked on a salmon boat in Alaska.=read more

That's what Beckley endured over a three-week period in August 2016. Her story, published Monday as a case 

Rewrite the bird books: new breeding site found for one of world's rarest birds-The White-winged Flufftail (

Everything we thought we knew about the White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi has been shaken up by recent footage captured by camera trap technology. At Middelpunt Wetland in South Africa, a site previously thought to cater only to non-breeding visiting Flufftails, strange photos were recorded. They depicted intriguing wing-flapping behavior, with both males and females displaying their white wing feathers. Could it be that something more than feeding was going on? It seemed almost too good to be true. But later, the ultimate proof appeared – the unmistakable image of a rotund, speckled juvenile scuttling through the undergrowth. This new knowledge changes everything.=read more

Three new eel species found in Bay of Bengal

Scientists have discovered three new species of eel along the northern Bay of Bengal coast in the past few months.

Dark brown with white dots on the dorsal side, Gymnothorax pseudotile was discovered at the Digha coast of the Bay of Bengal. The other two species, Gymnothorax visakhaensis (uniformly brown) and Enchelycore propinqua(reddish brown body mottled with irregular creamy white spots), were discovered from the Visakhapatnam coast of the Bay of Bengal.

While Gymnothorax pseudotile is about 1 feet to 1.5 feet long, Gymnothorax visakhaensis is about a foot long. Enchelycore propinqua is the smallest of them measuring less than a foot.

A description of all the three new species was published in the journal Zootaxa.

Anil Mohapatra, a Zoological Survey of India ( ZSI) scientist who is behind all the three discoveries, said that while the specimens of the first two species can be found upon a considerable search, the third one is relatively rare. Scientists =read more

Orangutan population in Borneo has HALVED in just 16 years as hunters and habit loss drive the creatures to extinction

Nearly 150,000 orangutans from the island of Borneo have disappeared in just 16 years.

Between 1999 and 2016 over half of the population of the endangered apes have perished on the South-East Asia island.

Many of those losses were apparently driven by the demand for logging, oil palm, mining, paper, hunting and the resulting deforestation. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5396487/Borneo-orangutans-plummeted-nearly-150-000.html#ixzz57N2Eg4xj
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Half human, half BEAST: Expert lifts lid on bombshell sighting of ‘new species'

Speaking to The Daily Star Online exclusively, Jonathan Downes announced that a new ape-like creature, with human features, could be lurking within southeast Asia.

Jonathan, 59, has devoted his life to Cryptozoology – the study that seeks to validate the existence of entities from folklore record such as Bigfoot or The Loch Ness Monster.

Cryptids aim to prove animals, that are known to be extinct, are in fact alive.

One of the beasts – apparently featured in the video above – is believed to be hiding in the wilderness of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The figure appears to run away from a group of bikers, into the wilderness.

It is better known in the local community as an Orang Pendek.=read more