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Old September 2nd, 2013 #61
Alex Linder
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Originally Posted by Nigel Thornberry View Post
I see you as an intrepid traveling zoologist in a past life.
In my dreams... I just find this stuff inspiring, not that I would or could do it. I get sick when surrounded by too many plants, unfortunately.

I get inspired by thinking, well, ok, there's no new continents out there, and the planets are boring as hell since there's no life outside ours, but we still have all these amazing things we don't know and haven't discovered right here. I think that's cool. I love that all the people making the discoveries are white men. And their discoveries are usually in non-white areas.

I feel that in a real way, actual cultural development goes on with these scientists, while we politicals fight a rearguard action against the polluting jews and their feral negroes.

Last edited by Alex Linder; September 2nd, 2013 at 11:28 PM.
 
Old September 2nd, 2013 #62
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Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
In my dreams... I just find this stuff inspiring, not that I would or could do it. I get sick when surrounded by too many plants, unfortunately.

I get inspired by thinking, well, ok, there's no new continents out there, and the planets are boring as hell since there's no life outside ours, but we still have all these amazing things we don't know and haven't discovered right here. I think that's cool. I love that all the people making the discoveries are white men. And their discoveries are usually in non-white areas.
Yeah scientific inquiry is about the noblest of white pursuits. I mean the real trend-setter and most oft-quoted/referenced white man after maybe Adolf Hitler is Charles Darwin.

Guys like Malthus, Woese et al are also really fascinating. However I think explorers like David Livingstone are among the most interesting personalities of the 19th century. Imagine how brave a man would be to travel into what Conrad called the heart of darkness only to come back as a national hero and think it's no big deal. White people have an astonishing ability to introduce warrior spirit and fearlessness into other areas of life, and that's exactly why every major natural discovery was and is found by white men. Scientists, biologists, laymen even.
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I feel that in a real way, actual cultural development goes on with these scientists, while we political fight a rearguard action against the polluting jews and their feral negroes.
Yeah, for sure. I think we're more of a Vanguard tho.
 
Old September 2nd, 2013 #63
Alex Linder
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Originally Posted by Nigel Thornberry View Post
Yeah scientific inquiry is about the noblest of white pursuits. I mean the real trend-setter and most oft-quoted/referenced white man after maybe Adolf Hitler is Charles Darwin.

Guys like Malthus, Woese et al are also really fascinating. However I think explorers like David Livingstone are among the most interesting personalities of the 19th century. Imagine how brave a man would be to travel into what Conrad called the heart of darkness only to come back as a national hero and think it's no big deal. White people have an astonishing ability to introduce warrior spirit and fearlessness into other areas of life, and that's exactly why every major natural discovery was and is found by white men. Scientists, biologists, laymen even.

Yeah, for sure. I think we're more of a Vanguard tho.
Yes, well said. Politics is a lower-order activity, it's just supremely necessary.

I've always tried to position VNN and our cause as a sort of X games thing, attracting the questers, the daring, the high-spirited. The jews are a formidable foe. We want high-spirited men who can defeat them. It's a tricky challenge, and, should attract good men by that very fact of its difficulty. And average men because, well, it's necessary and unavoidable, hence, no way out but through the jews - to emphasize to common men this path alone is necessary to tread, and it's our duty.
 
Old September 3rd, 2013 #64
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"I'm an old man now, and many events of my life have long since floated away on the river of forgetfulness - but The African Easter Egg Hunt shall never be effaced from my memory..."



What a calm, friendly-looking fellow.
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Old September 3rd, 2013 #65
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Originally Posted by N.B. Forrest View Post
"I'm an old man now, and many events of my life have long since floated away on the river of forgetfulness - but The African Easter Egg Hunt shall never be effaced from my memory..."



What a calm, friendly-looking fellow.
You tell me he doesn't look more intelligent and less crazy than your average christian.
 
Old September 3rd, 2013 #66
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You tell me he doesn't look more intelligent and less crazy than your average christian.
Jus' cheelin' wit his big blue balls...self-satisfaction personified...
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Old September 4th, 2013 #67
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Evidence of a new species but everyone is puzzled ...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...social11521844
 
Old September 4th, 2013 #68
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Evidence of a new species but everyone is puzzled ...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...social11521844
Whatever it is, it has now far surpassed the nigger in architecture & reasoning ability. Fascinating.
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Old September 7th, 2013 #69
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New Deely-Bopper Beetle Found in Busy Metropolis



New species aren’t always discovered in remote locations, as an otherwise unknown beetle recently found in a busy metropolis proves.

The aquatic beetle, Hydraena ataneo, was even found on a bustling university campus full of entomologists eager to make such discoveries. It would be like King Midas tripping over a gold brick, existing there for ages right under his feet.

I hope the discovery inspires students to pay attention to what’s on their own campuses. In this case, students undergoing field training at Ateneo de Manila University, in Manila, Philippines, made the find. Manila is the world’s 10th largest megacity. (A megacity is a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people.)

The students from the university’s biology department sampled small creeks, ponds and pools in wooded areas within their sprawling university campus. The hunt was a huge success. They found seven species of water beetles, including this new species. It sports long deely-bopper-type appendages that wiggle around as it moves.

The “deely bopper” isn’t an antenna — it’s part of the bug’s feeding tools.
“I was so amazed that there are new species even in the Ateneo Campus in the middle of Manila,” said Arielle Vidal, who at the time of find was enrolled in the department’s life sciences program. “Then I was sure that I wanted to write my thesis on a taxonomic topic.”

Kimberly Go, her thesis partner, added that they “pushed through and investigated a remote river catchment in Mindoro. We found several new species of the same genus there, too.”

Hendrik Freitag, their thesis adviser and author of a recent ZooKeys paper on the bug, explained, “The long-palped water beetles (genus Hydraena) are in fact one of the most overlooked and diverse genera of aquatic beetles. Only 14 species of this genus — all endemic — are known from the country by now, but many more wait to be named and described.

“All of them display these extremely enlarged palps of the maxilla. These are real mouthpart appendages and not the antennae. Those species that were found in the Ateneo campus must have re-colonized the area after the tree cover has re-established in the last 50 years and the small creeks began to flow again.”

The urban deely bopper beetle has since been spotted outside of the university campus too.

Clister Pangantihon and Dr. Ronald Lagat, both facilitators of the Philippine Aquatic Biodiversity Workshop held at Ateneo earlier this year confirmed, “We found Hydraena ataneo also in the neighboring Province of Cavite during our workshop.”

Museums are full of dried up bugs that scientists have collected, not knowing what they were. Now that this species has been documented, other examples of it were found in such a collection at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria, which boasts the world’s largest scientific collection of water beetles.

This latest study goes to show that small patches of semi-natural habitats can thrive within densely populated and highly urbanized cities and suburbs. Maybe your own backyard is one such oasis?

New Deely-Bopper Beetle Found in Busy Metropolis : Discovery News
 
Old September 12th, 2013 #70
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A new beautiful translucent snail from the deepest cave in Croatia

Scientists discovered a new species of a peculiar cave-dwelling snail in one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world, Lukina Jama–Trojama in Croatia.

The newly discovered species belongs to a genus of minute air-breathing land snails that have lost visual orientation and are considered to be true eutroglobionts, or exclusive cave-dwellers. The study describing the new species was published in the open access journal Subterranean Biology.




This image shows the new species


The new species Zospeum tholussum is a miniature and fragile snail, with a beautifully shaped dome-like translucent shell. Only one living specimen was found during the expedition around the galleries of the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system. The animal was found at the remarkable depth of 980 m, in an unnamed chamber full of rocks and sand and a small stream running through it.

All known species from the cave-dwelling genus Zospeum possess a limited ability to move. Their preference of a muddy habitat and the fact that they are usually located near the drainage system of the cave, in a close proximity to running water, however suggest that these animals are not exactly immobile. Scientists hypothesize that dispersal is achieved through passive transportation via water or larger mammals.




This image shows the single living Zospeum tholussum specimen from the study, photographed in the larger chamber of the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system.


The Lukina Jama–Trojama is the deepest cave system in Croatia, extraordinary for its vertical shape, long pits and great depth of -1392 m. From an ecological point of view this cave system is extremely interesting for having three microclimatic layers: firstly entrance icy part with the temperature of about 1 °C, secondly, middle part with the temperature up to 2 °C and bottom part with temperature till 4 °C. These unusual living conditions make the cave extremely interesting for scientist from a biodiversity point of view.

A new beautiful translucent snail from the deepest cave in Croatia | Earth | EarthSky
 
Old September 13th, 2013 #71
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New species of native plants discovered

September 14, 2013


Lepidium limenophyla

A review of New Zealand native plants has uncovered an extra 11, while listing 2580 as under threat.

Scientists have for the first time recorded the conservation status of every known New Zealand native vascular plants, including flowering plants, conifers, ferns and clubmosses.

The list records the threat status of 2415 plants that have been formally described and given scientific names.

It also includes the threat status of a further 166 native plants, that have been discovered but have yet to be formally described.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/new-...overed-5583725
 
Old September 13th, 2013 #72
Alex Linder
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[article on olinguito]

Every year, scientists discover thousands of new species—about 20,000 in 2011 and 18,000 in 2012—and occasionally they even rediscover a species thought to be extinct. Then the process follows a pattern. A few become iconic or get drafted into the zoo circuit. But the vast majority are quickly forgotten by all but dedicated scientists—and face endangerment or extinction. The excitement that greets new species simply doesn’t translate into enthusiasm for their preservation. Today we’re living in the golden age of animal discovering, finding more new species than at any other point in modern history. Advanced technology has allowed us to infiltrate deeper into dense terrain than ever before, uncovering 1,200 new species in the overgrown jungles of the Amazon alone. Meanwhile, DNA testing has proved that there’s more species variety than the naked eye can detect, as the olinguito’s surprising emergence proves.

http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...w_species.html
 
Old September 13th, 2013 #74
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New PHL bird species found in Northern Luzon
September 13, 2013 4:03pm

Just five days after the discovery of a new species of water beetle in the mega-city of Manila, a new species of bird was found living up in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range—proving once again that the Philippines lives up to its status as a biodiversity hotspot.



http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story...northern-luzon

The Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler was discovered and announced in September 2013 by an international team of scientists from Kansas University and the Philippine National Museum, after two years of elusive expeditions. The 10-cm-tall bird had earlier been confused for its close cousin, the Cordilleran Ground-Warbler. Photo: Univ. of Kansas via PHL National Museum

The extremely elusive Sierra Madre Ground-Warbler was discovered by an international research team hailing from the University of Kansas (KU) and the Philippine National Museum (PNM), after two years of expeditions on the mountain from 2009-2011.
 
Old September 18th, 2013 #75
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Default Four new species of ‘legless lizards’ discovered living on the edge


BERKELEY —

California biologists have discovered four new species of reclusive legless lizards living in some of the most marginal habitat in the state: a vacant lot in downtown Bakersfield, among oil derricks in the lower San Joaquin Valley, on the margins of the Mojave desert, and at the end of one of the runways at LAX.

“This shows that there is a lot of undocumented biodiversity within California,” said Theodore Papenfuss, a reptile and amphibian expert, or herpetologist, with UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, who discovered and identified the new species with James Parham of California State University, Fullerton. The discoveries raise the number of California legless lizard species from one to five.


The herpetologists named the new snake-like lizards after four legendary UC Berkeley scientists: museum founder Joseph Grinnell, paleontologist Charles Camp, philanthropist and amateur scientist Annie Alexander and herpetologist Robert C. Stebbins, at 98 the only one of the group still alive.

“These are animals that have existed in the San Joaquin Valley, separate from any other species, for millions of years, completely unknown,” said Parham, who obtained his doctorate from Berkeley and is now curator of paleontology at the John D. Cooper Archaeology and Paleontology Center. “If you want to preserve biodiversity, it is the really distinct species like these that you want to preserve.”

Papenfuss and Parham reported their discovery on Sept. 17 in the journal Breviora, a publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

Legless lizards, represented by more than 200 species worldwide, are well-adapted to life in loose soil, Papenfuss said. Millions of years ago, lizards on five continents independently lost their limbs in order to burrow more quickly into sand or soil, wriggling like snakes. Some still have vestigial legs. Though up to eight inches in length, the creatures are seldom seen because they live mostly underground, eating insects and larvae, and may spend their lives within an area the size of a dining table. Most are discovered in moist areas when people overturn logs or rocks.

Herping the Central Valley


For the past 15 years, Papenfuss and Parham have scoured the state for new species, suspecting that the fairly common California legless lizard (Anniella pulchra), the only legless lizard in the U.S. West, had at least some relatives. They discovered one new species – yellow-bellied like its common cousin – under leaf litter in protected dunes west of Los Angeles International Airport. They named that species A. stebbinsi, because Stebbins grew up and developed an early interest in natural history in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains.

Because many sandy, loamy areas, including dunes and desert areas, offer little cover for lizards if they emerge, Papenfuss distributed thousands of pieces of cardboard throughout the state in areas likely to host the lizard. He returned year after year to see if lizards were using the moist, cool areas under the cardboard as resting or hunting grounds.

This technique turned up three other new species in the Central Valley (see sidebar): A. alexanderae, named after Annie Alexander, who endowed the UC Berkeley museum in 1908 and added 20,000 specimens to its collections; A. campi after Charles Camp, because of his early-career discovery of the Mt. Lyell salamander in the Sierra; and A. grinnelli after Joseph Grinnell, who in 1912 first noted habitat destruction around Bakersfield from agriculture and oil drilling.

Interestingly, all these species had been collected before and were in collections around California, but when preserved in alcohol, the lizards lose their distinctive color and look identical. Papenfuss and Parham identified the species through genetic profiling, but they subsequently found ways to distinguish them from one another via belly color, number and arrangement of scales, and number of vertebrae. However, two species – the previously known common legless lizard of Northern California and the newly named southern species found at LAX and apparently broadly distributed south of the Tehachapi Mountains – remain indistinguishable except by genetic tests or, now, the location where they are found.

Species of special concern


Papenfuss and Parham are working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to determine whether the lizards need protected status. Currently, the common legless lizard is listed by the state as a species of special concern.

“These species definitely warrant attention, but we need to do a lot more surveys in California before we can know whether they need higher listing,” Parham said.

Papenfuss noted that two of the species are within the range of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, which is listed as an endangered species by both the federal and state governments.

“On one hand, there are fewer legless lizards than leopard lizards, so maybe these two new species should be given special protection,” he said. “On the other hand, there may be ways to protect their habitat without establishing legal status. They don’t need a lot of habitat, so as long as we have some protected sites, they are probably OK.”

Papenfuss says they are not yet in danger of going extinct, since he has found some of the lizards in protected reserves operated by the CDFW, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and a private water reserve outside Bakersfield, in addition to the El Segundo Dunes near LAX.

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/...g-on-the-edge/
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Old October 1st, 2013 #76
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New Species of Spiny Rat Found in Indonesia
September 24, 2013



In the remote mountain forests of Halmahera (map), the largest island of the Maluku archipelago in Indonesia lurks the newest member of the rodent family sporting spiky brown fur and a stubby tail. Scientists first discovered the distinctive rodent, called the Boki Mekot rat (Halmaheramys bokimekot), while on an expedition to Halmahera in 2010. When lead researcher Pierre-Henri Fabre, of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, realized it might represent something new, “I was very excited, but I didn’t trust that it could belong to a new genus,” he said. Genetic work, and anatomical comparisons that revealed—among other things—subtle differences in its skull and teeth from other rat species, confirmed that the new rat didn’t fit into the existing rodent family tree. Instead, Fabre and colleagues found that it belonged to an entirely new genus, and that several million years of evolution separated it from relatives like common brown and black rats. The researchers named the new species after the Boki Mekot region of Halmahera Island. They published their findings September 20 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society.

A Handsome Find

The new rodent has spiky brown fur with white highlights, as well as a long face and a relatively short, stumpy, white-tipped tail. “All in all I think this is quite a handsome rat,” said study co-author Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Helgen was recently involved in discovering another new species, the Olinguito. (Related: “Newly Discovered Carnivore Looks Like Teddy Bear.”) “This is one of the least known parts of the world in terms of mammals,” Helgen said. The Maluku islands bridge Asia and Australia, and house incredible plant and animal diversity, both between islands and also within islands. “As a mammalogist, these islands really get me excited, they’re an ideal place to go to find new species of mammals,” he said. Lawrence Heaney, curator of mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, said he wasn’t surprised at the discovery of a new rodent species on Halmahera, given how little researchers know about the island’s rich biodiversity. “But the fact that [the spiny rat is] different at the genus level rather than at a species level is interesting from an evolutionary perspective,” Heaney said. “It shows the tremendous diversification of rodents in the region.”

Rat Catching

Researchers used toasted coconut and peanut butter treats to lure the spiny Boki Mekot rats into little cages. And so far, Fabre and colleagues have only captured three males and three females. The rat’s short tail, and the fact that it was found on the ground, suggest that it is terrestrial, rather than arboreal or aquatic, said Fabre. The researchers found fruit and insect remains in one rat’s stomach, but they will need more information to determine the rodents’ actual diet. Fabre hopes to go back and catch more Boki Mekot rats so that he can learn more about this new species. He also expects to find other new mammalian and bird species on the island. Finding more animal species on Halmahera would help researchers understand how organisms spread out and diversified in the archipelago. “It’s a tremendous crucible of evolution, with species from east and west mixing on the central island, Halmahera,” said Helgen. “It’s only now that we’re starting to discover many of the animals that live on these islands, and each one that we discover can give us new clues into the millions of years of interaction between the two great continents, Asia and Australia.” Studying the Maluku islands’ biodiversity would also allow scientists to determine how humans are impacting the area. With a growing human population and increased logging and mining on the islands, Fabre said he hoped that the discovery of the new rat species would help emphasize the need to conserve the island’s rich flora and fauna.

—Sandeep Ravindran

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic....imals-science/
 
Old October 1st, 2013 #77
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New Eyeless Fungus Beetle Found in Cave
Posted by Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato in Weird & Wild on September 25, 2013

Scientists have discovered a new species of fungus beetle that dwells in a single cave in Arizona. Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, tiny Ptomaphagus parashant has evolved to cope with life in the darkness. The insect once had wings and eyes, but after spending millennia inside such tight quarters, its ancestors eventually began to lose the now frivolous appendages, according to a new study that will be published in the Coleopterists Bulletin (a coleopterist is a beetle scientist).



“Obviously, the eyes don’t fall off in a 24-hour period,” said study co-author Jut Wynne, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University. “With these types of animals, they’re really shedding those features … over evolutionary time. This animal likely entered caves about 200,000 years ago.” Most cave-dwelling animals subsist in an absolute or at least partially dark environment, which means eyesight is not much of an asset. And since the cave is only about 260 feet (80 meters) in length and just tall enough to crawl through, flight is not much of an advantage to a beetle, either.


Jut Wynne collects samples on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Photo by Nicholas Glover

So the bug traded in its outer-world traits for longer legs and extended antennae, which help it navigate in the gloom. (Also see “Pictures: 101 New Species of Beetles.”)

Cave Cutie

Wynne began exploring the limestone cave in Arizona’s Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in 2005. Compared with the Grand Canyon’s many caverns, this particular grotto is rather unremarkable, he added. “It’s a crawly cave with a low ceiling,” Wynne said. “When I first set foot in that cave in ’05, I had no idea we were going to find several new species.” (Explore an interactive of the world’s largest cave.) The scientist set bait traps of chicken livers and sweet potatoes to attract bugs, which he then collected and froze for later examination. One of them was the newfound fungus beetle—which, as its name suggests, likes fungi.


The white spot where the eye once was contains an eye remnant. Photograph courtesy Jut Wynne

Though the fungus beetle isn’t Wynne’s only claim to fame—he’s also discovered the state’s first cave-adapted centipede as well as a new genus of cricket—he said it’s his cutest. “I think they’re cute little beetles,” Wynne said. “They’re a nice chestnut-brown color, and they have an elongated antennae and cute, long legs. They have a very peaceful existence if you think about it.” The next step is to figure out how these bugs interact with other animals within the cave, which is still replete with mysteries. The bait traps have captured hundreds of animals and may lead to further discoveries. (See more cave pictures.)

Follow Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato on Twitter.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic....found-in-cave/
 
Old October 1st, 2013 #78
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Old October 17th, 2013 #79
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A Stunning New Species of Dragon Tree Discovered in Thailand

Oct. 17, 2013 — The newly discovered dragon tree species Dracaena kaweesakii from Thailand is characterized by its extensive branching. The new species reaches an impressive 12 m in both height and crown diameter, and has beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream flowers with bright orange filaments, all highly distinctive features.


This image demonstrates the thickness of a trunk base in a large tree of Dracaena kaweesakii showing the corky, fissured surface.

The study describing this exciting new species was published in the open access journal Phytokeys by an international team of scientists.

Dracaena kaweesakii is a relative of the beautiful Canary Island dragon tree Dracaena draco. It is an ecologically important species found only on limestone hills and mountains that are often associated with Buddhist temples in Thailand.

Dracaena kaweesakii is extracted from the wild for use in horticulture in Thailand and is one of the more popular species due to its extensive branching. Dracaena species in general are thought by Thai people to bring luck to households that have them, hence their popularity. A number of populations of D. kaweesakii are protected by proximity to temples or having been transplanted into their gardens. There is no direct evidence yet of over-extraction but sustainability studies are needed at population level to insure the protection of this beautiful species.

"Dracaena kaweesakii is thought to be endangered through having a limited distribution, destruction of limestone for concrete and extraction of trees for gardens," comments Dr Wilkin about the conservation status of the new dragon tree species.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1017100902.htm
 
Old October 17th, 2013 #80
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New Species Of Giant Fish Found In Brazil's Amazon
Published October 16, 2013 /
Fox News Latino



Researchers working in the murky waters of the Amazon River in Brazil have discovered a new species of giant fish.

The arapaima is an air-breathing fish that ranges between six and seven feet in length and is found only in the waters of the Brazilian Amazon. The discovery by scientists from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry marks the first discovery of a new species of arapaima since 1847.

"Everybody for 160 years had been saying there's only one kind of arapaima," Donald Stewart, a professor in the department, said in a statement. "But we know now there are various species, including some not previously recognized. Each of these unstudied giant fishes needs conservation assessment."

In the mid-1800s, it was generally accepted that there were four types of arapaima. But in 1868, Albert Günther, a scientist at the British Museum of Natural History, lumped all arapaima under one category and his views have been widely accepted since.

Examining 19th century literature on the fish and examining preserved specimens of the arapaima, Stewart concluded that all four of the species – and the fifth one – were distinct.

Understanding the differences of the fish, Stewart said, is important in maintaining its health and the ecology of the Amazon in a broader sense. The arapaima is one of the most hunted fish in the region and thus their numbers have been on the decline.

"Abundances of arapaima in large expanses of their natural habitat today are near zero, largely as a consequence of overfishing," said Dr. Leandro Castello, an authority on arapaima in Brazil, told the International Business Times. "The likely impacts of this magnitude of overfishing on species diversity are not good."

A preserved specimen of the newest member of the arapaima family has already made its way to a museum in the Ukraine. While Stewart acknowledged he was unsure how it got there, he said he hopes the publicity the fish is currently receiving will prompt future research and preservation of the arapaima.

“I don’t know how it got there; someone must be culturing them and sent them to the Ukraine,” Stewart told the National Geographic. “Hopefully it will get more people in Brazil looking more closely at what’s swimming around out there.”

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lif...brazil-amazon/
 
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