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Old December 27th, 2013 #141
N.B. Forrest
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Quote:
The secretive sea creatures
They're up to SOMETHING, that much is certain....

Quote:
It was discovered by international bivalve expert Dr Graham Oliver....
"C-Can I have your autograph, Dr. Oliver? I'm, like, a HUGE fan of your gooey duck-era stuff!"


Quote:
“We would like to thank Dr Oliver and the Belgian conchologist Koen Faussen for their tremendous contribution to this research.”
His clam juice Bloody Marys kick ass with both stomach-feet.

I apologize for this outburst, but it was beyond my control.
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #142
Alex Linder
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[review of top 12 new species discovered in 2013...you just knew the olinguito would take top honors]

Timothy McGrath

January 1, 2014 00:18

12 incredible new species discovered in 2013
Every year we learn a little more about how awesome nature is.


Every year, scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists discover 15,000 new species — on average — and we learn a little more about the wonderful planet we call home.

From walking sharks to giant flying squirrels, these are some of the best new species discovered in 2013.

1) Bassaricyon neblina: Olinguito, the carnivorous raccoon of the Andes


The olinguito had been mistakenly identified for more than 100 years.

The clear winner this year is the olinguito, a member of the raccoon family that lives in the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia. It's been 35 years since a carnivorous mammal was discovered in the Americas, which makes the olinguito a fairly big deal. There were almost two dozen olinguito samples in the United States, most collected in the early 20th century, but they were mislabeled. One olinguito even lived in an American zoo in the 1960s, lying low and refusing to mate with the red raccoons it lived with.

2) Tometes camunani: the vegetarian piranha of the Amazon



Sure, piranhas can eat a pig in 30 seconds, or something like that. Not this piranha. One of more than 440 new species discovered this year in the Amazon, this fish is a strict herbivore. It lives in rocky rapids and eats river weeds. Environmental threats from damning and mining projects suggest we might not have this peaceful little creature for much longer.

3) Siats meekerorum: the top predatory dinosaur before T-Rex


Sue, a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex, on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

Scientists have long wondered: who was the dinosaur boss before Tyrannosaurus Rex came to dominate the scene? Turns out it was the Siats meekerorum, a large predatory species that lead the way for several million years during the Cretaceous period, between 100 million and 66 million years ago. The juvenile specimen found in Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation would have weighed 4 tons and measured 30 feet in length. Adults were likely 6 tons and 40 feet. Its decline saw the rise of the T-Rex, which, during Siat's reign, had only evolved enough to be a "nuisance to Siats, like jackals at a lion kill," according to Lindsay Zanno, the paleontologist who described the find.

4) Orthotomus chaktomuk: the Cambodian tailorbird that's living the city life in Phnom Penh


Nobody went trekking into the Amazon to find this little birdy. It's rare that scientists and researchers find new species in cities, but the Cambodian tailorbird was found living at the edges of Phnom Penh. First spotted in 2009, during screenings for avian flew, the species was described this year in the journal for the Oriental Bird Club. One club member, Richard Thomas, reported, "I went and saw this remarkable new tailorbird myself — in the middle of a road construction site."

5) Zospeum tholussum: the Croatian snail with a transparent shell



The snail shown here is the first and only one of its species yet discovered alive. It was living in the Lukina Jama–Trojama, Croatia's deepest cave system, when researchers at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany found it in a chamber 3,215 feet down. It was living a muddy existence among some rocks, sand, and a small stream.

6) Saltuarius eximius: the leaf-tailed gecko of Australia



The Cape Meilville leaf-tailed gecko is rocking some serious camouflage. It joins six other species in the genus, all of them located in Australia between northern New South Wales and the Wet Tropics of Queensland. “Six individuals have been found," said the scientists who discovered the species, "all in close proximity in an area of granite boulders covered by a rainforest canopy.”

7) Coendou baturitensis: the mountain porcupine of Brazil



This prickly guy, found in the Baturite Range of Brazil, is a new addition to the Coendou genus of prehensile-tailed porcupines of Central and South America. They are solitary herbivores that use their tails to grasp things (like spider monkeys and opossums). Among the features that distinguish this species from its genus-mates are its dark appearance, wide snout, and big, soft nose.

8) Biswamoyopterus laoensis: the giant flying squirrel of Laos.


Underside view of the newly discovered Laotian giant flying squirrel.

The Laotian flying squirrel was discovered in a weird place: on sale at a bush meat market. It is the only known specimen of the new species and lives up to its name. It's 3.5 feet long and nearly 4 pounds. The only specimen of its closest relative, the Biswamoyopterus biswasi, was found in northwestern India in 1981.

9) Arapaima leptosoma: the giant air-breathing fish of the Amazon



Arapaimas are fresh-water dwellers of South America that can grow to 10 feet and 440 pounds. They have a primitive lung that allows them to breath air, and they've been a valuable food source for Amazonian peoples. The first Arapaima species was described in 1847, and since then, scientists have assumed that it was the only one of its kind. Not so. Donald Stewart, a fish biologist at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, proved there are at least five extant species of Arapaimas. Arapaima leptosoma is distinguished by its slender build and by the horizontal black bar on the side of its head. Two Arapaimas at a Ukrainian aquarium turned out to be leptosomas.

10) The legless lizards of California



Researchers in California are on the trail of legless lizards and found four new ones this year. They look like snakes, but don't be fooled. These lizards ditched their legs several million years ago to make it easy to dig and burrow. Most live underground and never leave an area of just a few square feet. There are more than 200 legless lizard species worldwide, but that doesn't make these new guys any less cool, especially since they were found in some unlikely spots: an empty lot in downtown Bakersfield, among oil derricks in San Joaquin Valley, at the edge of the Mojave desert, and near a runway at LAX.

11) Hemiscyllium halmahera: the walking shark of Indonesia



This shark couldn't care less about swimming. It moves along the ocean floor using its pectoral and pelvic fins as feet. Researchers caught two specimens off the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. They are only two feet long, so don't panic. They're just walking around looking for crustaceans.

12) Leopardus guttulus: the little Brazilian wild cat



We began with cute and we'll end with cute. Check out this little leopard. It's no bigger than a house-cat and is fiercely adorable. The photo above shows the Leopardus tigrinus (known as Oncilla or Tigrillo). Scientists have long assumed that two populations of wild cats in northeastern and southern Brazil were members of a single species. Turns out that's not true. They look nearly identical, but DNA tests confirmed that the two populations were genetically distinct with no evidence of interbreeding. Habitat seems to have played a key role in their evolution. Tigrillos live in savannah regions, while the Leopardus gutullus live in wet Atlantic forests. Different species, but still members of the same cute genus.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/n...overed-in-2013

Last edited by Alex Linder; January 22nd, 2014 at 09:17 PM.
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #143
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Pretty cool, huh? Lots out there still to be found, thought, and created.
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #144
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New Species Discovered by Bay Area Scientists
Molly Samuel, KQED Science | January 3, 2014 | 0 Comments

Most biodiversity news is bad news. Climate change, development and resource extraction threaten plants and animals around the world. But scientists are still discovering species, too. Finding and describing species new to science isn’t just something Charles Darwin did. Scientists at Bay Area institutions are discovering plants and animals all over the world, including some right here in California.


Limeandra barnosii is a nudibranch discovered by scientists at the California Academy of Sciences. It lives in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. (California Academy of Sciences)

“You would think, of course, we’ve done our homework and we’ve already charted our own biosphere, our own map of life on the planet,” said Brian Fisher, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences. While there’s a lot of attention focused on the search for life on other planets, he said, there’s still a lot still to discover here.

Yes - clean your plate first! Besides that - there is ZERO sentient life in the rest of the universe. It exists only in theory, and the theory is wrong. Wrong means there is no evidence for it, it is speculation only.

Last year, Fisher published descriptions of 38 new species of ants in Madagascar. Over the course of his career, he’s described 256 ant species.

“It’s not just discovering something esoteric like an ant,” he said. “It’s actually really trying to understand how ecosystems work, how they’re put together and really, it’s about our long-term sustainability. How are we, as humans, going to maintain clean water, clean environments and this relationship with biodiversity?”

‘You’d think we’ve been everywhere in California, but it’s not true.’

These new-to-science species aren’t all in far-away Madagascar. In 2012, David Wake, a curator of herpetology at Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley, named two new species of salamanders that live in California. Please put them in those fucking annoying state travel ads instead of the talking people.

“It’s a thrill. You never get over it,” he said, of finding a new species. “You’d think we’ve been everywhere in California, but it’s not true.”

Other California discoveries in 2013 include four species of legless lizard, described by Theodore Papenfuss, also of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Berkeley scientists also turned up two new California fungi, one of them on the Berkeley campus. LOL, as you will too if you've ever smelled anyone from Berkeley. And they found two new flowering plants, one in Contra Costa County, the other in Southern California.

The science of taxonomy focuses on naming and categorizing new species, but scientists also work to make sure the the existing family trees are arranged correctly. “We sometimes discover that species described in the past have been wrongly classified when they actually represent an entire group of organisms new to science,” explained Carole Hickman, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Integrative Biology.

Last year, she described a new family of marine gastropods.

And then there’s documenting extinct species. CalAcademy scientists described two extinct sand dollars. And Jeffrey Benca, a grad student at University of California’s Museum of Paleontology, is in the process of publishing a paper about an extinct plant from the Devonian period. Studying that plant, which is related to current-day club mosses, and its relatives “may lead to a better understanding of where the continents were positioned when our distant ancestors, early tetrapods — lobe-finned fishes and amphibians — invaded land,” he said.

The parade of species discovered by scientists at UC Berkeley and the California Academy of Sciences in 2013 also includes, among many others, a caecilian in the Iwokrama Forest in central Guyana (a caecilian is a snake-shaped amphibian), a dwarf gecko from Mt. Namuli in Mozambique, barnacles in the Gulf of Guinea, corals and sea fans in the Pacific, and an Ethiopian mite.

http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2014/0...ea-scientists/
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #145
Alex Linder
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[good name for jews - Ecotobius, or tobies]

An Old World Cockroach Species May Have Originated In North America

January 6, 2014



This is a 44-million-year-old Ectobius cockroach (Ectobius balticus) from northern Europe.

Ectobius is the genus name for a cockroach that inhabits a large portion of northernmost Europe to southernmost Africa. Fossils of the Ectobius found in Europe, dating back 44 million years, had entomologists believing the species originated in the Old World.

However, a recent discovery of four species of Ectobius in North America say otherwise.

The fossilized species of cockroach was found in the 49-million-year-old Green River Formation in Colorado, suggesting that the Ectobius genus actually originated in the New World instead.

This cockroach species became extinct quickly in North America, but continued to thrive in the European region.

“About 65 years ago, several entomologists in the northeastern US noted that four species of Ectobius were present in North America. It was always assumed that these four newcomers were the first Ectobius species to have ever lived in North America. But the new discovery in Colorado proves that their relatives were here nearly 50 million years ago,” stated corresponding author Dr. Conrad Labandeira, from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

One of the species was named E. kohlsi, after David Kohls, who lives near the Green River Formation in Colorado. He has been an avid collector of insect and plant fossils from that location. There are roughly 150,000 insects from the 31,000 slabs of shale in his collection. The Kohls Green River Fossil Insect Collection is located in the Smithsonian’s Department of Paleobiology.

This biogeographic history mimics that of horses, which became extinct in the New World late in the Pleistocene ecological crisis. These horses were re-introduced to North America nearly 11,000 years later by Spanish explorers.

Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...EbTXXBJ4zLt.99
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #146
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Tiny Carnivorous Mammal, Ancestor Of Modern Species, Discovered In Belgium
LiveScience | By Stephanie Pappas



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4550225.html
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #147
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New Fish Species Found in Colombia
06 January 2014

COLOMBIA – Researchers from Colombian National University in Medellin along with researchers from Quindio University have determined the classification for three fish species which were unknown to date.

Néstor Javier Mancera, associate professor in Agriculture Sciences department at the Colombian National University explained the discovery of the new species was done by comparative analysis of fish species already registered and classified.

During the research, 25 fish species were caught from Magdalena river, in Eastern Antioquia region.

After catching them, the comparative analysis was carried out. The fish bone structure was compared in this study. After the comparison, researchers concluded that the three new species found did not belong to any known species.

The new species were named as: Hemibrycon fasciatus, Hemibrycon cardalensis and Hemibrycon antioquiae.

The new species are small (no bigger than 8-9 cm) and, therefore, are not considered good for human consumption. However, they are believed to be relevant to their ecosystem because they serve as feed for commercial fish species.

César Román, from Quindio University, highlighted that South American fish fauna is yet to be discovered compared to other regions, which are less diverse than the South American fauna, like, for example, the European fauna.

- See more at: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/....uHJjHRtf.dpuf
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #148
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New sponge species discovered on Taiwan's coral reefs
CNA 2014-01-04 15:21 (GMT+8)


A sponge.

Researchers from the United States and Taiwan have recently discovered an apparent new species of marine sponge that helps feed coral reef communities around the island of Siaoliouciou off Pingtung county in southern Taiwan.

They made the discovery during research on Taiwan's coral reef ecosystem diversity.

Chris Freeman, a research fellow at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Florida, in collaboration with the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung county, launched the project to jointly explore the diversity of sponges on coral reefs in Taiwan, a spokesman for the aquarium said Friday.

The research aims to examine the relationships between marine sponges and sponge-associated microbes in the context of climate change, and to draw a comparison between sponges in Pingtung's coral reefs and those in other coral reef regions such as the Caribbean.

With the assistance of Fan Tung-yun, a research fellow at the aquarium, Freeman gathered 10 varieties of sponges, including one species they believe has not yet been recorded in the Pacific.

Freeman has taken specimens back to his lab to confirm whether it is a new species.

Sponges are among various kinds of marine animals that acquire nutrients and food by filtering water through their bodies. The diversity and abundance of sponges directly affects the health of the coral reef ecosystem, according to the spokesman.

Sponges keep the reef alive by recycling vast amounts of organic matter to feed snails, crabs and other creatures, according to an international research report.

Freeman suggested that Taiwan should protect its diverse and rich coral reef sponges in its waters, particularly in the Kenting National Park, the spokesman noted.

The spokesman added that Taiwan's sponges will play a key role in Freeman's research and said the results of his research will be published in major international journals.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-s...00054&cid=1104
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #149
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Entomologists Discover Seven New Wasps — But They're All Real Pests
By Gabrielle Jonas on January 4, 2014 9:25 AM EST


A newly-discovered wasp that plays a significant role in the abundance of Aphids
Phaenoglyphis kenaii, along with six other wasps belonging to the Charipinae sub-family, indirectly play havoc with the human food supply
.

Entomologists have discovered seven new wasp species — all of which are parasites feeding off of other parasites. Unfortunately, in so-doing, the wasps have unwittingly spared the lives of billions of Aphids — the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions — thereby reducing the number of plants humans get to eat, lead researcher Dr. Mar Ferrer-Suay, an entomologist at the Universitat de Barcelona, told the International Science Times.

Ferrer-Suay and her colleagues spent some serious time looking at wasps at the Smithsonian Institution's and The Canadian National Collection of Insects, and described their findings in an article published in January's issue of the Annals of the American Entomological Society. They also found 16 wasp species — members of the subfamily Charipinae — until now not thought to be in the area known to zoologists as the Nearctic region, comprising Greenland, North America, and northern Mexico.

The subfamily Charipinae are all very small wasps, with smooth and shiny bodies, widely distributed world-wide. "In the Charipinae from the Nearctic region, I have identified the specimens for the first time," Ferrer-Suay told the International Science Times. "This subfamily has a very complicated taxonomy because they are very small wasps with very few diagnostic features. In this collection we found seven new species."

The wasps Ferrer-Suay and her colleagues identified and named are parasitoids, which are even meaner than parasites, because they inevitably sterilize or kill their hosts. But it gets even worse than that. These are hyperparasites: parasites who feed on another parasite. The writer and satirist Jonathan Swift wrote on hyperparasites in "On Poetry: A Rhapsody": "So nat'ralists observe, a flea/Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;/And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em./And so proceeds Ad infinitum."

But scientists know that every creature — even hyperparasites — have a purpose. "The Charipinae play an important biological role in Aphid trophic relationships," Ferrer-Suay said. "They parasite the primary parasitoid that are already parasitizing the Aphid, so as a consequence the number of primary parasitoids decrease and the population of Aphids increase, so the presence of the Charipinae affect the biological control of Aphids — themselves, significant pests." In other words, the Charipinae allow the Aphids to thrive by killing their parasites.


The seven new species are:

1. Alloxysta buffingtoni

2. Alloxysta huberi

3. Alloxysta neartica

4. Alloxysta texana

5. Alloxysta vicenti

6. Phaenoglyphis jeffersoni (America's third president was a naturalist)

7. Phaenoglyphis kenaii

"To determine to species level unidentified specimens is always a huge news in the entomological world," said Ferrer-Suay. "The knowledge about the different Charipinae species is very poor because not many entomologists have focused on them," she said, adding, "It is always important in science to discover new species." The researchers used stereomicroscopy (an imaging technique involving a microscope which uses light reflected from a surface rather than transmitting through it) and a field-emission gun environmental scanning electron microscope (which produces images of a sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electrons) to help identify the wasps.

According to Ferrer-Suay, the field of science that encompasses the description, identification, and classification of organisms is getting short shrift nowadays. "Taxonomy is the basis of biodiversity, but regrettably this task has become unpopular in recent times."

http://www.isciencetimes.com/article...s-nearctic.htm
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #150
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Ecuadorian Scientists Discover 35 New Species



Quito, Jan 4.- Ecuadorian scientists presented to the world 35 new species discovered through Noah's Ark project, fostered by the Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) and the Ministry of Environment.

Through the study of samples and DNA, the researchers discovered eight reptiles like the case of Anyalioides rubrigularis, a lizard from the upper basin of Zamora River, published today El Telegrafo newspaper.

Among the new species are also Swastizia yasuniense, a plant from Yasuni, and 26 amphibians, like Hypsiboas alfaroi, a tree frog from Alfaro.

According to experts, Noah's Ark project is part of a program of taxonomic and genetic characterization of Ecuadorian biodiversity.

This project aims to create a domestic information system with data from each of the species to prevent biopiracy.

With that purpose, 1,254 specimens of fungi, flora, amphibians, reptiles and mammals were collected in 2013.

The areas with greatest diversity were also determined, such as Sangay National Park, Podocarpus, Yasuni, ecological reserve Cotacachi-Cayapas and Cutucu mountains.

SENESCYT head, Rene Ramirez, said that more than $2 million USD were allocated to the research project and its first phase and due to the importance of it an investment of $11 million USD is expected.(Prensa Latina)

http://www.cadenagramonte.cu/english...35-new-species
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #151
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New crayfish discovered in W.Va.



The common name for a newly discovered crayfish species is the "Tug Valley crayfish," but West Virginians might find more amusing the creature's scientific name -- Cambarus hatfieldi, named for the feuding Hatfield family from that region.

By John McCoy

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The scientific name of a newly discovered crayfish conjures memories of one of history's most famous feuds.

Researchers have named the reddish-orange crustacean Cambarus hatfieldi for the Hatfield family that, according to legend, executed three McCoy brothers near a creek where the crayfish is found.

"One of the places it's really common is on Mate Creek near Red Jacket, right in the heart of Hatfield-McCoy country," said Zac Loughman, the biologist who first suspected the 4 1/2-inch-long critter might be a new species. "As a tried-and-true West Virginian, I knew its name would have to be 'hatfieldi.'"

Loughman has been collecting and identifying crayfish since his days as a Marshall University graduate student. Three of his specimens turned out to be new species -- the Greenbrier crayfish, found in the upper Greenbrier River watershed; the Coalfield crayfish, found in the Guyandotte and Big Sandy rivers; and the Tug Valley crayfish, the colloquial name for C. hatfieldi.

He collected his first Tug Valley specimens in 2009.

"When I first collected one, I noticed something different in the shape of its claw in relation to its carapace," said Loughman, an assistant professor of biology at West Liberty University. "It looked like [the Angled crayfish], which is found just across the ridge in [Virginia's] Clinch and Tennessee River systems. My academic brain said it should be that, but my gut said it might be something new."

His gut was right.

"We compared the Tug Valley specimen's morphology and genetics with those of the animal from the Clinch, and we found we were dealing with a new species," Loughman said.

Loughman and four colleagues -- fellow West Liberty professor Evan Lau, student Raquel Fagundo, Stuart Welsh of the U.S. Geological Survey and Roger Thoma of the Midwest Biodiversity Institute -- collaborated on the paper that described the new crayfish to the rest of the scientific world.

The discovery became official when the paper was published in Zootaxa, an international academic journal that focuses on new species.

Biologists had collected and identified crayfish from the Tug River watershed before, but had never noticed the subtle differences between more common species and the species that now carries the valley's name.

"There were records of two species of crayfish interspersed throughout the region, the Teays River crayfish and the Big Water crayfish," Loughman explained. "They look similar. Telling the difference comes down to bumps on claws and the shapes of their [noses]."

Loughman wondered why two species were reported for the Tug River, since it is unusual for more than one species to occupy a specific niche within an ecosystem.

When Loughman and Welsh collected crayfish specimens in the Tug and its West Virginia tributaries, they at first thought they were dealing with the Big Water species. Thoma, who simultaneously collected species from Kentucky tributaries of the Tug, believed the same thing.

Loughman's suspicion and, later, his discovery that they were dealing with a separate Tug Valley species cleared up the picture.

Naming the new species after the Hatfield clan might have turned a few strait-laced scientific heads, but Loughman said the proposal sailed through the peer-review process without a shred of resistance. The Tug Valley crayfish, Cambarus hatfieldi, officially took its place in the scientific lexicon when the group's paper was published in Zootaxa on Dec. 19.

Loughman's next project -- if funding comes through -- will focus on the Teays Valley area between Charleston and Huntington, where two yet-unnamed species of blue crayfish are known to exist.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201401020121?page=2
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #152
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Modelling finds new range for rare plant
Posted by Lucy - NaturePlus host on Jan 2, 2014 3:06:58 PM
by Hayley Dunning, Science Web Editor

A species of nightshade thought to be restricted to one area of Peru has been found in 17 other locations with the aid of habitat modelling.

Museum botanists Dr Tiina Särkinen (now at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) and Dr Sandra Knapp discovered the new species of nightshade, named this week as Solanum pseudoamericanum, in 2012 in the Andes. When they first found it, they thought this species only occurred in two river valleys in southern Peru. By using a method known as species distribution modelling, they predicted other regions of Peru where the plant might also be found, based on the environmental conditions at the original collection sites.


An example of the newly discovered Solanum pseudoamericanum, collected on 7 March 2012.
The flowers are on the left and the berries on the right.

A collecting field trip to northern Peru the following year uncovered the nightshade in 17 new locations predicted by the model. The success of the project proves the method of species distribution modelling can work in complex climatic regions such as the Andes, where there is an abundance of undiscovered species and data coverage is generally poor.

Mapping species

Species distribution modelling uses climatic data to help map the range of a new species, speeding up the process of cataloguing it worldwide and providing a way to accurately predict where that species might be found again.

The approach may be particularly useful when dealing with critically endangered species, where there is an urgent need to find and conserve remaining populations.
The work is part of a larger project to map the distribution patterns of all the endemic Solanaceae species in Peru, and to look for components of rarity; what sorts of things make plant species rare. With this information, researchers hope to be able to better describe, and then conserve, plant diversity in Peru.

Hidden diversity

Species distribution modelling has been used successfully for vertebrates before, but has not been widely tested in plants. Dr Knapp belives this may be because collecting plants is seen as reasonably straightforward, but this case study suggests that it is not always true.

Solanum pseudoamericanum was not originally collected because it looks a lot like a common weed. ‘Collecting is extremely biased, and this raises the question of how we deal with absences,’ Knapp said. The new species represents a category of ‘hidden diversity’, where new discoveries can be obscured by their physical similarity to known, common species.

Open data

The research, and all its associated geographical and specimen data, is published this week in the open-access journal PhytoKeys. By publishing the results and original specimens as open data, said Knapp, large specimen datasets can be combined by other researchers globally to produce more general analyses of diversity.

To follow the adventures of the Solanaceae seekers, read the Museum blog Nightshades: the paradoxical plants.
For more information about nightshades and their global distribtuion, visit the Solanaceae Source scratchpad.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/comm...omGateway=true
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #153
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Fossil of new ‘big cat’ species discovered
Friday, January 3, 2014 in Other News

LOS ANGELES — The oldest big cat fossil ever found — which fills in a significant gap in the fossil record — was discovered on a paleontological dig in Tibet, scientists recently announced.

A skull from the new species, named Panthera blytheae, was excavated and described by a team led by Jack Tseng — a graduate student at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the time of the discovery, and now a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

“This find suggests that big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected,” Tseng said.

The announcement was made in a scientific paper published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, on Nov. 13.

The authors
Tseng’s coauthors include Xiaoming Wang, who has joint appointments at USC, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the AMNH, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Graham Slater of the Smithsonian Institution; Gary Takeuchi of the NHM and the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits; Qiang Li of the CAS; Juan Liu of the University of Alberta and the CAS; and Guangpu Xie of the Gansu Provincial Museum.

DNA evidence suggests that the so-called “big cats” – the Pantherinae subfamily, including lions, jaguars, tigers, leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards — diverged from their nearest evolutionary cousins, felinae (which includes cougars, lynxes, and domestic cats), about 10.8 million years ago.

However, the oldest fossils of big cats previously found are tooth fragments uncovered at Laetoli in Tanzania (the famed hominin site excavated by Mary Leakey in the 1970s), dating to just 3.8 million years ago.

Using magnetostratigraphy — dating fossils based on the distinctive patterns of reversals in the Earth’s magnetic field, which are recorded in layers of rock — Tseng and his team were able to estimate the age of the skull and other fossils belonging to the new species at between 4.10 and 5.95 million years old.

The new cat takes its name from Blythe, the snow-leopard-loving daughter of Paul and Heather Haaga, who are avid supporters of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/fos...ed/170602.html
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #154
Roger Bannon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Bannon View Post
Evidence of a new species but everyone is puzzled ...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...social11521844
They found the answer, a spider.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...ystery-solved/
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #155
Alex Linder
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New Species of Dinosaur Found in Spain’s La Rioja Region
Published at 11:49 am EST, January 1, 2014

New Species of Dinosaur Found in Spain’s La Rioja Region


Dinosaur Footprints

Spanish researcher Ignacio Diaz Martinez says fossilized footprints found in northern Spain’s La Rioja region point to the existence of a previously unknown species of dinosaur.

Study of the footprints indicates that large number of a tall, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaur inhabited La Rioja 120 million years ago, Diaz told Efe.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the newly discovered species is the presence of claws on its feet, the 32-year-old PhD said.



La Rioja is especially rich in fossilized dinosaur footprints.

Diaz, who plans to hold off on naming the new species until his findings are endorsed in peer-reviewed scientific journals, said he would prefer a moniker related to La Rioja.
In his doctoral dissertation at the University of La Rioja, Diaz suggested the designation Riojadopus amei.

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews....-region/28570/
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #156
Alex Linder
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[in 2005 one could discover new rainforests without ever getting out of his chair...]

Protect the Mozambique forest found on Google Earth, scientists say

Mount Mabu rainforest teeming with new and unique species including pygmy chameleons and bronze-colour snakes


This pygmy chameleon is one of many such unique and new species discovered in the Mount Mabu forest of Mozambique.

A remote rainforest in Mozambique discovered using Google Earth has so many new and unique species that it should be declared a protected area, scientists say.

Pygmy chameleons, a bronzed bush viper and butterflies with shimmering yellow wings are among the species in the forests covering Mount Mabu in northern Mozambique.

Discovered in 2005 by scientists using satellite images, the forests, previously only known to local villagers, have proven to be a rich ecosystem teeming with new species of mammals, butterflies, reptiles, insects and plants. The mountain forests have been isolated from a much larger forest block for millennia, meaning there has been no migration between this site and the next mountain for tens of thousands of years, allowing unique species to evolve in isolation.

One such species is a golden-eyed bush viper with bronze-edged scales (Atheris mabuensis) which Julian Bayliss, a conservation scientist for Kew Gardens, found by stepping on during a survey. His team is also waiting to describe a further two species of snake. A new species of chameleon (Nadzikambia baylissi) has already been described from the site, and the researchers are also describing another. The size of a human palm, with a warm yellow chest, green eyes and a spiky crest along its back, Rhampholeon sp. are commonly known as pygmy chameleons.

Bayliss's team has identified 126 different species of birds within the forest block, including seven that are globally threatened, such as the endangered spotted ground thrush (Zoothera guttata). There are an estimated 250 species of butterfly, including five which are awaiting to be described, like Baliochila sp., a vibrant specimen which has shimmering yellow wings dusted with black. New species of bats, shrews, rodents, frogs, fish and plants are also waiting to be described.

"The finding of the new species was really creating an evidence base to justify its protection," explained Dr Bayliss, "and now we've got enough to declare a site of extreme biological importance that needs to be a protected area and needs to be managed for conservation."

In first step to making the forest an internationally recognised protected area – such as a national park – the team have submitted an application to have its importance officially recognised . This "gazetting" application has been accepted on a provincial and national level, but is currently waiting to be signed by the government.

If the application is successful, then the forest will be protected from logging concessions seeking valuable hardwoods currently threatening the mountain.

"The people who threaten Mabu are already there, and really what we're trying to do now is a race against time towards its conservation. It's getting there early enough to get the wheels in motion to make it a protected area before it's too late," said Bayliss.

http://www.theguardian.com/environme...rth-mount-mabu
 
Old January 7th, 2014 #157
N.B. Forrest
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Let's encase kikes in amber, so that our lightbulb-headed posterity can laff or vomit 40 million years from now.
__________________
"First: Do No Good." - The Hymiecratic Oath

"The man who does not exercise the first law of nature—that of self preservation — is not worthy of living and breathing the breath of life." - John Wesley Hardin
 
Old January 22nd, 2014 #158
Alex Linder
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New spider species discovered by USU students
By Morgan JacobsenJanuary 20th, 2014 @ 8:58pm



LOGAN — Stephanie Cobbold and Lori Spears knew they had found something rare.

A spider they had collected while earning Ph.D.s in ecology at Utah State University wasn't fitting any description in their species identification keys. But they knew the odds of discovering a new species in Utah were slim at best, and the two researchers weren't about to get their hopes up.

Cobbold and Spears sent the spider to Herbert Levi, an arachnid classification expert at Harvard. Months later, he had the answer.

"He said, 'Yes, it's a new species,'" Spears said.

The Journal of Arachnology ratified the discovery in November in an official description of the spider, which bears the name Theridion logan after its discovery in Logan Canyon.

"I was very, very excited," Cobbold said Friday. "Discovering a new species is something that many biologists dream about."

So far, the spider is known to exist in Cache County's Green, Logan and Blacksmith Fork canyons — and nowhere else, according to Cobbold.


Spears says finding a new species in Utah is especially significant because most new species are discovered in tropical areas, which have greater biological diversity.

"When new species are found, we usually think of areas that are remote and not well-studied," Spears said. "We basically found this spider right next door to campus. It goes to show that new species can even be found in our backyard."

This new spider suggests that other species remain to be discovered, which is exciting. Given that this spider was found near the city of Logan, I would imagine that there must be several other undescribed species in the more remote parts of Utah.
–Stephanie Cobbold, Ph.D.

At only 1 to 2 millimeters long, Theridion logan is black and white with a series of chevron shapes on its abdomen. Although the shrub-dweller is in the same family as the black widow, it poses no threat to humans, Spears said.

Spears says the spider wasn't classified until now probably because it was either misidentified or it wasn't collected by researchers.

Though the spider appears to have a limited range that is frequented by recreationists, Cobbold said there is no immediate cause for concern.

"Some people have expressed concern that parts of the canyons ... might become closed to the public to protect this new species," Cobbold said. "We do not have nearly enough information to know whether Theridion logan truly has a restricted range or not, and we have no evidence suggesting that this spider is affected by recreational use of the canyons."

The discovery indicates there is still much to learn about Utah's wildlife, Cobbold said.

"This new spider suggests that other species remain to be discovered, which is exciting," she said. "Given that this spider was found near the city of Logan, I would imagine that there must be several other undescribed species in the more remote parts of Utah."

Cobbold and Spears made the discovery while studying spider communities at USU. Spears continues to work at the university as the coordinator of the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey and Cobbold just finished working as a biologist for Idaho Fish and Game.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=28429716
 
Old January 22nd, 2014 #159
Alex Linder
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New species of toad discovered in Amazon rainforest

Dead-leaf toad uses poison to protect itself and lives in the Peruvian Andes, reports Mongabay.com


[I]Adult female Rhinella yunga, a dead leaf toad discovered in the Peruvian Amazon

Scientists have described a previously unknown species of dead-leaf toad in the Peruvian Andes.

The species, which is a master of camouflage, is named Rhinella yunga after the Yungas, the montane forest ecoregion it inhabits. It lives in leaf litter, where it blends in with its cryptic coloration and leaf-like body shape.

Until its description in the journal ZooKeys, Rhinella yunga was classified in the Rhinella margaritifera group. While Rhinella margaritifera is applied to dead-leaf patterned toads over a vast geographic area, the group likely consists of a number of undescribed species, according to Jiří Moravec, the lead author of the ZooKeys paper.

"It appears that large number of still unnamed cryptic species remains hidden under some nominal species of the Rhinella margaritifera species group," said Moravec, a biologist at the National Museum Prague in the Czech Republic.

To date 16 species are recognized in the Rhinella margaritifera group. Like other toads in the Bufonidae family, Rhinella yunga has toxic glads on the back of its head.

"The poison is excreted by the toads when stressed as a protective mechanism," explained a statement from Pensoft, the publisher of ZooKeys. However unlike its close relatives, Rhinella yunga lacks a tympanic membrane, the membranous part of the hearing organ typically seen on both sides of a toad's head.

The Rhinella yunga individuals used in the study were collected in Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park and the Pui Pui Protected Forest in the Yungas, montane forests on the Eastern slope of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. The yungas, which represent the upper reaches of the Amazon rainforest, have experienced a sharp increase in deforestation in recent years, according to satellite data.

http://www.theguardian.com/environme...zon-rainforest
 
Old January 22nd, 2014 #160
Alex Linder
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New Species Of Sea Anemone Found In Antarctica, Mysterious Edwardsiella Andrillae Lives Upside Down Under Ice

By Philip Ross
January 18 2014 5:55 PM


A recently discovered species of sea anemone, Edwardsiella andrillae, dot the underbelly of the Ross Ice Shelf.

Mother Nature is full of surprises. Scientists exploring the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica’s largest floating body of ice, stumbled on something completely unexpected. A new species of sea anemone, dubbed Edwardsiella andrillae, was found dangling in the water hundreds of feet below the ice shelf.

Researchers from the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program, or ANDRILL, discovered the sea anemone while testing underwater equipment, including a remote-controlled robot. The team had drilled a hole through hundreds of feet of ice and dropped survey equipment down it when they chanced upon the strange species of sea anemone.

"We were doing survey work and melted a hole through [850 feet] of ice," Frank Rack, ANDRILL’s executive director, told ABC News. "We deployed the robot and as it got closer, the cameras detected anemones."

Tens of thousands of them, in fact. The anemones were opaque-white in color, measured about .63 to .79 inches in length and had stringy bodies topped with tentacles. While most sea anemone species cling to rocks or reefs, this new species found underneath Antarctica actually suspended itself from the bottom of the ice like fire sprinklers sticking out from a ceiling. This is the first known species of sea anemone to live in ice.

"The pictures blew my mind," Marymegan Daly of Ohio State University, who studied the specimens retrieved by ANDRILL team members in Antarctica, said in a statement, according to Nature World News.

The species, named for the expedition team that found it, was actually discovered in 2010, but was publicly announced last month in an issue of the journal PLOS One. The study notes that scientists still don’t know much about the mysterious new species of anemone, including how it is able to survive in such a harsh environment.

"Just how the sea anemones create and maintain burrows in the bottom of the ice shelf, while that surface is actively melting, remains an intriguing mystery," Scott Borg, head of the Antarctic Sciences Section in the NSF's Division of Polar Programs, said, according to Alaska Native News. "This goes to show how much more we have to learn about the Antarctic and how life there has adapted."

According to the Guardian Liberty Voice, the researchers also noted several other odd species living underneath the Ross Ice Shelf, including a fish that swims upside down, treating the base of the ice shelf like the sea floor. They also saw an unknown organism they dubbed the “eggroll” based on its shape, size and color.

http://www.ibtimes.com/new-species-s...ide-down-under
 
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