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Newly Discovered: Previously Unknown Animal Species (Not Alleged Cryptids Or Species Believed Extinct)

Zilch5 said:
New Slime-Spitting Velvet Worm Species Discovered in Vietnam
...
The paper suggests that thousands of unknown species of velvet worms are just waiting to be found throughout the world's tropical rain forests.
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/21195
This echoes something I've been reading about in a thriller, set in Rome, and largely in the ancient underground parts of that city. There are several species of planarian worms that live in the damp parts of the underground, and when one is found in a recovered human corpse, the investigators are able to deduce that the man hadn't been killed where found (or indeed, in another crime scene they knew of) by identifying the exact species of Planarian worm, since the different species live in distinct areas.

(The book is "The Seventh Sacrament", by David Hewson.)

More disgusting info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarian

You can even buy your very own planarian!
http://www.planarians.org/
 
New spiny rat discovered in 'birthplace of evolution'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24167219
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News

Spiny rat found in Indonesia

The rat has unusually coarse, spikey fur on its back and a short tail with a distinctive white tip

Tufts of harsh, bristly hair and a white tail tip are among the defining features of a new rodent species discovered in Indonesia.

The Spiny Boki Mekot Rat was found in the mountain forests of Halmahera, in the Moluccas (Maluku) archipelago.

It was from these islands that Alfred Russel Wallace wrote to Charles Darwin, outlining his theory of evolution.

The region is rich in biodiversity but its wildlife is under threat from logging and mining firms.

Scientists hope the new mammal discovery will encourage greater exploration and conservation of the area.

Their findings are reported in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Under threat
The new rat was found in a remote, hilly region of Halmahera by an expedition team from the University of Copenhagen and Indonesia's Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense.

They laid traps baited with roasted coconut and peanut butter, placed on tree trunks and at burrow openings.

Among their findings was a previously unknown rodent with coarse, brownish grey fur on its back, and a whitish grey belly.

By analysing the rat's DNA and physical features such as its skull and teeth, they determined it was not only a new species, but an entirely new genus.

They named it Halmaheramys bokimekot after nearby Boki Mekot, a mountainous area under ecological threat due to mining and deforestation.

Continue reading the main story
Other new species in 2013
Tailorbird
The olinguito, Bassaricyon neblina, a new mammal carnivore
Cambodian tailorbird, Orthotomus chaktomuk, found in Phnom Penh (above)
A new, smaller-skulled species of the Hero Shrew called Scutisorex thori
A dinosaur named Nasutoceratops titusi, which means big-nose, horn-face
"This new rodent highlights the large amount of unknown biodiversity in this region and the importance of its conservation," said lead researcher Pierre-Henri Fabre, from the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen.

"It's very important that zoologists visit these islands to explore further."

Only six of the new rodents have so far been captured: three adult males and three females.

Little is known about their behaviour, but they are thought to be omnivorous, as the scientists found both vegetable and insect remains in their stomachs.

"This discovery shows how much of the richness of life is left to discover - especially in the Indonesian archipelago," says co-author Kristofer Helgen, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, US.

Prof Helgen was among the team that recently discovered a giant rat living in a volcano crater in Papua New Guinea, as well as a new mammal carnivore in Colombia - the Olinguito.

"There are likely to be more undiscovered species of mammals in Indonesia than in any other country in the world," he says.

"Finding and documenting them is a task made urgent by huge environmental threats, especially logging and mining."

Birthplace of evolution
The new rodent also provides clues to how mammals evolved and spread across the "stepping stones" of the Moluccas - known as one of the birthplaces of evolutionary theory.

It was here in 1858 that the British naturalist Sir Alfred Russel Wallace famously wrote to Charles Darwin, outlining his ideas on the development of new species.

The correspondence led to their eventual co-publishing of a theory of natural selection.

Spiny rat
The rat could be just one of many undiscovered mammal species in Indonesia's remote mountain forests
Wallace had been struck by the incredible diversity of animals and insects in the Moluccas - a transition zone between Asia and Australasia.

He also observed a clear border between species in western and eastern Indonesia, leading him to define a zoological boundary - the Wallace Line.

And the discovery of this new rodent on Halmahera actually supports Wallace's original drawing of the boundary, the researchers say.

Most fauna on the island display eastern, Australasian characteristics. But H. bokimekot is different - its DNA indicates that it first arrived on Halmahera from the west - from Asia.

"It's amazing that the spiny rat once again confirms Wallace's thoughts," says Dr Lionel Hautier, at the Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK.

"And as chance would have it, the discovery comes exactly 100 years after his death."
 
A new species of legless lizard. What's unusual is that it was found at the end of the runway at the Los Angeles airport.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/new-species-of-legless-lizard-found-at-lax-130918.htm
==================

A bustling airport would hardly seem the place to find a new species of reclusive animal, but a team of California biologists recently found a shy new species of legless lizard living at the end of a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.

What’s more, the same team discovered three additional new species of these distinctive, snake-like lizards that are also living in some inhospitable-sounding places for wildlife: at a vacant lot in downtown Bakersfield, among oil derricks in the lower San Joaquin Valley and on the margins of the Mojave desert.

PHOTOS: Top 10 New Species Named

All are described in the latest issue of Breviora, a publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

“This shows that there is a lot of undocumented biodiversity within California,” Theodore Papenfuss, one of the scientists, was quoted as saying in a press release.

Papenfuss, an amphibian and reptile expert at Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, made the discoveries with James Parham of California State University, Fullerton.

“These are animals that have existed in the San Joaquin Valley, separate from any other species, for millions of years, completely unknown,” Parham said.

Legless lizards look a lot like snakes, but they’re different reptiles. The lizards are distinguishable from their slithery relatives based on one or more of the following: eyelids, external ear openings, lack of broad belly scales and/or a very long tail. Snakes, conversely, have a long body and a short tail.

NEWS: New Giant Monitor Lizard Discovered

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 8 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. It’s interesting to consider the LAX-based lizard’s life, considering all of that airplane rumbling overhead!

The researchers are now 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 didn’t need a lot of habitat, so as long as they have some protected sites, they are probably OK.”

Image: Theodore Papenfuss and James Parham/UC Berkeley
 
Owl recorded in Oman could be a new species
By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24374313

The team says the owl belongs to a genus that also includes the Tawny owl, familiar in Britain and Europe

Ornithologists working in Oman say an owl discovered in a remote, mountainous region could be a new species.

Wildlife sound-recordist Magnus Robb told BBC News that he heard the bird's call whilst trying to record the call of another type of owl.

After repeated trips to the remote site, he and a colleague - naturalist and photographer Arnoud van den Berg - captured photographs of the bird.

They have published their observations in the journal Dutch Birding.


Mr Robb's first recordings of the bird's unfamiliar hoot were a serendipitous discovery in March of this year.

"I was listening through my headphones, when I suddenly heard something completely different [to the owl species I was there to record]," he told BBC News.

"I know the other Arabian owl sounds quite well, and this was clearly something that didn't fit."

The bird call expert said he had a "good inkling straight away that this could be something new".

"I even phoned a colleague a few minutes later and said, 'I think I've just discovered a new species of owl."

owl
The team have spotted only seven of the owls in a single wadi in northern Oman
Mr Robb, who is involved in an international project called the Sound Approach, which aims to catalogue and understand bird sound, analysed the owls' call in detail.

This revealed that the bird was most likely to belong to a genus, or group of species, known as Strix.

Dr Wesley Hochachka from Cornell University's lab of ornithology commented that, in the last few decades, it had become "more accepted by ornithologists, particularly in tropical areas, that new species are being discovered based on distinctively different vocalisations".

The team plans to gather DNA evidence from the owl's feathers in order to confirm their find genetically.

But Prof Ian Newton, a bird expert from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said he found the evidence that the team had already provided convincing.

"Based on the recordings of songs and calls and on the good-quality photographs, I was also convinced that it should be placed within the genus Strix, which also contains the Tawny Owl of Britain and Europe," he told BBC News.

Mr Robb said he hoped eventually to name the new species the Omani owl, in honour of the Omani people.

"One of the reasons we've gone through this process of describing and confirming this as a new species so quickly is to get conservation for this owl as soon as possible," he explained to BBC News.

"Conservation can only start when this species is accepted and given some official status."

He hopes to return to Oman later this year in to learn more about the owl, its habitat and its behaviour.

So far, he and and his colleagues have found only seven of the birds in a single wadi in the remote, mountainous area of Oman.

"This suggests that it's a very rare creature indeed," he told BBC News.
 
First venomous crustacean found

Experts have found the first venomous crustacean - a centipede-like creature that lives in underwater caves.
The blind "remipede" liquefies its prey with a compound similar to that found in a rattlesnake's fangs.
It lives in underwater caves of the Caribbean, Canary Islands and Western Australia, feeding on other crustaceans.
The venom contains a complex cocktail of toxins, including enzymes and a paralysing agent.
The findings are detailed in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The remipede (Speleonectes tulumensis) breaks down body tissues with its venom and then sucks out a liquid meal from its prey's exoskeleton.
Co-author Dr Ronald Jenner, a zoologist at London's Natural History Museum said: "The unique insights from this study really help improve our understanding of the evolution of animal venoms.
"The spider-like feeding technique of the remipede is unique among crustaceans. This venom is clearly a great adaptation for these blind cave-dwellers that live in nutrient-poor underwater caves."

Crustaceans are a large group of the wider category of animals known as arthropods. They include shrimp, krill, lobsters and crabs.
Most are aquatic, but a few - such as woodlice - live on land.

Dr Bjoern von Reumont, also from the Natural History Museum commented: "This is the first time we have seen venom being used in crustaceans and the study adds a new major animal group to the roster of known venomous animals.
"Venoms are especially common in three of the four major groups of arthropods, such as insects. Crustaceans, however, are a glaring exception to the rule.
"While they can be as varied as tiny waterfleas, krill, crabs and barnacles, not one of the approximately 70,000 described species of crustaceans was known, until now, to be venomous."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24625424
 
WWF: Four year study finds over 400 species new to science in remote region of Amazon.

http://worldwildlife.org/press-rele...g-new-species-discovered-in-amazon-rainforest

Monkey that Purrs like a Cat is Among New Species Discovered in Amazon Rainforest

More than 400 new species described by scientists over four years in vast Amazon rainforest

World Wildlife Fund. Media Contact: Monica Echeverria 202-495-4626 [email protected].. Amal Omer 202-495-4155. [email protected].. October 23, 2013

Washington, D.C. – At least 441 new species of animals and plants have been discovered over a four year period in the vast, underexplored rainforest of the Amazon, including a monkey that purrs like a cat.

Found between 2010 and 2013, the species include a flame-patterned lizard, a thumbnail-sized frog, a vegetarian piranha, a brightly coloured snake, and a beautiful pink orchid, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Discovered by a group of scientists and compiled by WWF, the new species number 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds and one mammal. This total does not include countless discoveries of insects and other invertebrates.

“These species form a unique natural heritage that we need to conserve. This means protecting their home – the amazing Amazon rainforest – which is under threat from deforestation and dam development,” said Claudio Maretti, Leader of Living Amazon Initiative, WWF.

Some of the most remarkable species outlined in the report include:

  • Flame-patterned lizard: This beautiful lizard was found from the hatchlings of eggs collected by scientists in the Colombian Amazon. An elusive species, Cercosaura hypnoides, has not been seen in the wild since the original eggs were collected, raising the prospect that it could potentially be endangered.

    Thumbnail-sized frog: This amphibian is already believed to be highly endangered. In fact, its Latin name, Allobates amissibilis, meaning “that may be lost,” alludes to this as the area where it thrives could soon be opened to tourism. This is now the third Allobates species found in Guyana.

    Vegetarian Piranha: This new species of piranha, Tometes camunani, can span 20 inches wide and weigh up to 9 pounds, and is strictly herbivorous. The freshwater fish inhabits rocky rapids associated with seedlings of plants that grow among the rocks, its main source of food. Tometes is described from the upper drainages of the Trombetas River basin, Para, Brazilian Amazon.

    A brightly coloured snake from the “Lost World”: Found in the mountains of Guyana, this brightly-colored snake species was named Chironius challenger after Arthur C. Doyle's fictional character Professor George Edward Challenger in the novel, The Lost World.

    A beautiful pink orchid: Among the new plant species are a large number of new orchid species, including this splendid pink species, Sobralia imavieirae, officially described by scientists from Roraima in the Brazilian Amazon.

    Caqueta titi monkey: This new species, Callicebus caquetensis, is one of about 20 species of titi monkey, which all live in the Amazon basin. The babies have an endearing trait, “When they feel very content they purr towards each other,” explained scientist Thomas Defler.

Many of the new discoveries are believed to be endemic to the Amazon rainforest and are found nowhere else in the world. This makes them even more vulnerable to rainforest destruction that occurs every minute across the Amazon.

“Compiling and updating data on new species discovered in the vast extension of the Amazon over the last four years has shown us just how important the region is for humanity and how fundamentally important it is to research it, understand it and conserve it. The destruction of these ecosystems is threatening biodiversity and the services it provides to societies and economies. We cannot allow this natural heritage to be lost forever,” Maretti said.

Editor’s Notes:

Photos and credits, and the list of the 441 discoveries can be accessed here:
http://wwf.to/1cbSqLy

Methodology
This research presents a list of the new species from the Amazon Biome discovered from 2010 to 2013. Describing a new species refers to the official process by which a species is identified in the peer-reviewed scientific literature once discovered and therefore formally determined as ‘new’. Species currently awaiting official scientific recognition have not been included.

This research has tried to be comprehensive in its listing of new plants and vertebrates, but for the largest group of life on Earth, invertebrates, such lists do not exist – so the total number of new species presented here is an underestimate.

ABOUT WWF
WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, working in 100 countries for nearly half a century. With the support of almost 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat climate change. Visit www.worldwildlife.org to learn more.

About WWF Living Amazon Initiative
The Living Amazon Initiative spearheads WWF Network’s efforts to guarantee an ecologically healthy Amazon Biome that maintains its environmental and cultural contribution to local peoples, the countries of the region and the world, by maintaining ecological processes and services within a framework of that propitiates inclusive economic development with social equity and global responsibility.
 
'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia
October 28th, 2013 in Biology / Plants & Animals

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28, 2013 shows the Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko discovered in Australia's Cape York Peninsula

An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world".

Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found.

It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink—a type of lizard—and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.

"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime—I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.

"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well."

The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago.

While surveys had previously been conducted in the boulder-fields around the base of Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top, identified by satellite imagery, had remained largely unexplored, fortressed by massive boulder walls.

Within days of arriving, the team had discovered the three new species as well as a host of other interesting finds that Hoskins said may also be new to science.

Graphic on three new vertebrate species discovered in a remote part of northern Australia


The highlight was the leaf-tailed gecko, a "primitive-looking" 20 centimetre-long (7.9 inches) creature that is an ancient relic from a time when rainforest was more widespread in Australia.

The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives and has been named Saltuarius eximius, Hoskin said, with the findings detailed in the latest edition of the international journal Zootaxa.

"The second I saw the gecko I knew it was a new species. Everything about it was obviously distinct," he said.

Highly camouflaged, the geckos sit motionless, head-down, waiting to ambush passing insects and spiders.

The Cape Melville Shade Skink is also restricted to moist rocky rainforest on the plateau, and is highly distinct from its relatives, which are found in rainforests to the south.

Also discovered was a small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist, allowing female frogs to lay their eggs in wet cracks in the rocks.

In the absence of water, the tadpole develops within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out.

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28, 2013 shows the Cape Melville boulder-dwelling frog discovered in Australia's Cape York Peninsula

Once the summer wet season begins the frogs emerge on the surface of the rocks to feed and breed in the rain.

Tim Laman, a National Geographic photographer and Harvard University researcher who joined Hoskin on the expedition, said he was stunned to know such undiscovered places remained.

"What's really exciting about this expedition is that in a place like Australia, which people think is fairly well explored, there are still places like Cape Melville where there are all these species to discover," he said.

"There's still a big world out there to explore."

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28, 2013 shows the Cape Melville Shade Skink discovered in Australia's Cape York Peninsula

According to National Geographic, the team plans to return to Cape Melville within months to search for more new species, including snails, spiders, and perhaps even small mammals.

"All the animals from Cape Melville are incredible just for their ability to persist for millions of years in the same area and not go extinct. It's just mind-blowing," Hoskin said.
© 2013 AFP

"'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia." October 28th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-10-lost-world ... ralia.html
 
New species of wild cat identified in Brazil
By Jeremy Coles
Reporter, BBC Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/25086721

Newly recognised southern form of the tigrina (Leopardus guttulus)
Genetic analysis reveals new insights into wild cat taxonomy

A new species of wild cat has been identified in South America using molecular markers, researchers claim.

By comparing DNA sequences, the team revealed that two populations of tigrina in Brazil do not interbreed and are evolutionarily distinct.

Results also show the two populations have contrasting interactions with the closely related pampas cat and Geoffroy's cat.

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

There are at least seven species of small wild cat in the genus Leopardus in Central and South America, which are thought to have first colonised the region during the late Pliocene (2.5 - 3.5 million years ago).

A team of researchers led by Dr Eduardo Eizirik from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil collected samples of DNA from pampas cats (Leopardus colocolo) in the north of the country, Geoffroy's cats (L. geoffroyi) from the south and two separate populations - north eastern and southern - of tigrina (L. tigrinus).

Continue reading the main story
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"We used several different types of molecular markers to investigate the evolutionary history of these species," explained Dr Eizirik.

"These [molecular markers] evolve at different rates, which helps in the sense that they provide information on different time frames," he said.

By comparing these different chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA marker sequences the scientists could track patterns of interbreeding - or hybridisation - between the cat species and populations.

The markers revealed that the southern population of tigrina were actively breeding with Geoffroy's cat in areas where the two species came into contact. In contrast, they found evidence for ancient hybridisation between the north eastern tigrina and the pampas cat.

But what surprised Dr Eizirik and his colleagues most was the lack of evidence for recent mating between the north eastern and southern tigrinas.

"This observation implies that these tigrina populations are not interbreeding, which led us to recognise them as distinct species," Dr Eizirik told BBC Nature.

"This species-level distinction between the tigrina populations we really did not expect to find," he said.

A tigrina from the north east population (Leopardus tigrinus)
The rules of zoological nomenclature mean the north eastern tigrinas (pictured) remain Leopardus tigrinus
It is the rarer north eastern populations that will keep the original scientific name of Leopardus tigrinus because they live geographically closer to the type locality and the more common southern form that will acquire the newly recognised scientific name of Leopardus guttulus.

"Recognising a distinct tigrina species in Brazil highlights the need for urgent assessment of its conservation status...and it may be found to be threatened," Dr Eizirik told BBC Nature.

"[These results] illustrate how much is still unknown about the natural world, even in groups that are supposed to be well-characterised, such as cats," he explained.

"In fact there are many basic aspects that we still don't know about wild cats, from their precise geographic distribution and their diets to even species-level delimitation, as in this case."

Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.
 
Four New Mammal Species Discovered in Democratic Republic of Congo
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 183857.htm

Dec. 16, 2013 — Julian Kerbis Peterhans, a Roosevelt University professor and adjunct curator at The Field Museum who has conducted extensive studies on mammals in Africa, has announced the discovery of four new species of small mammals in the eastern section of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The mammals were found during an expedition to the Misotshi-Kabogo highlands led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and in another nearby forest with the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles (CRSN) Lwiro -- areas that were previously unexplored. "Our discoveries demonstrate the need for conserving this isolated reservoir of biodiversity," Kerbis said.

"Three new species from a single forest (with a fourth from a nearby forest) is quite unique," Kerbis added. "More often such finds would be made on island ecosystems. However, the highlands in which these species reside are isolated from adjacent forests and mountains by savannah habitats and low elevation streams."

In two new papers published in the German journal Bonn Zoological Bulletin, Kerbis and his colleagues describe the two new species of shrews and the two new species of bats.

WCS and CRSN scientists together with Trento Science Museum in Italy are in the process of describing three new frog species and possibly a new chameleon from the same area from these surveys. The team also confirmed the presence of a unique squirrel and monkey whose existence had been recorded in historical surveys and collections dating from the 1950s.

Remarkably, all of these species were found during the course of a short survey of less than 30 days in 2007. "Given the clear importance of this site, we are working closely with the local communities and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to protect this unique area," reported Dr. Andrew Plumptre, director of WCS's Albertine Rift Program. "The local community has elected to create a new national park here to protect these unique species, but concerns over mining concessions that have been granted in the area are hampering its creation."

Kerbis' colleagues included scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (New York) the Centre de Recherché des Sciences Naturelles (Lwiro, Democratic Republic of Congo) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
 
Deep sea creatures found off Rockall 'new to science'

Four animals previously unknown to science have been discovered in deep water off Scotland, the Scottish government has said.
New species of large sea snail, clam and marine worm were found during surveys by Marine Scotland.
The clams and worm were at a suspected cold seep, an area where hydrocarbons are released from the seabed.
All were discovered around Rockall, the remains of a volcano 260 miles (418km) west of the Western Isles.

If confirmed, the cold seep would be the first to be discovered near Rockall. Some types of commercial fishing could be banned in the area to protect the habitat.

The new sea snail Volutopsius scotiae and clam Thyasira scotiae have been named after the research vessel MRV Scotia.
The sea snails were discovered over an area at depths of up to one mile (1.6km).
Another clam, Isorropodon mackayi, was named after mollusc expert David Mackay.

The new species of marine worm Antonbrunnia has still to be named. It is currently being examined at the National Museum Wales.
The worm was discovered by Dr Graham Oliver inside one of the clams he was confirming as a new species at his laboratory at the museum.

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said it was surprising how the creatures had eluded scientists until now.
He said: "Our oceans are often called Earth's final frontier and these new species prove just how much we still have to learn about this rich marine habitat."
Mr Lochhead added: "The area where these species were found is not currently fished and the confirmation of a cold seep is likely to result in the region being closed to bottom contact fishing."

Jim Drewery, from Marine Scotland Science, oversaw the research on the deep water invertebrates.
He said: "The discovery of these new species is absolutely incredible, especially when you consider that the sea snail measures a relatively large 10cm yet has gone undetected for decades."

Rockall is a rock in the North Atlantic just 30m (100ft) wide and 21m (70ft) high.
Its remoteness and size attracts adventurers.
Earlier this year, Nick Hancock, from Ratho, near Edinburgh, was thwarted by bad weather in his attempt to spend 60 days on the rock.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-25528522
 
Images and vid at link.

New Species Abound
A look at 2013’s noteworthy new species

By Jef Akst | December 26, 2013

The Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, Guyanemorpha spectabilis, which was discovered this year in French Guiana The Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, Guyanemorpha spectabilis, which was discovered this year in French Guiana

IMAGE: ZOOKEYS
The Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, Guyanemorpha spectabilis, which was discovered this year in French Guiana The newly discovered skeleton shrimp, Liropus minusculus, was collected off the California coast. Hochstetter's butterfly orchid, a newly recognized and very rare plantrecently discovered on the Azorean island of São Jorge. Polyergus mexicanus, one of the newly reinstated species of "slavemaker" ants found in St. Louis A new species of leaf-tailed gecko, Saltuarius eximius sp. nov., found in northeastern Australia Body parts from a new scorpion species, Euscorpius lycius sp. n., found in Turkey An artist's rendition of a new tapir species, Tapirus kabomani, formally described this year. Australian humpback dolphins leaping out of the water along the east coast of Queensland, Australia A phylogentic map of a suite of new dwarf gecko species found in the West Indies
New Species Abound Image Gallery

In October, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published a list of 441 new species that have been discovered in the Amazon in the last four years: 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds, and one mammal. That’s “an average of two new species identified every week for the past four years,” read a WWF press release, and “[t]his doesn’t even include the countless discoveries of insects and other invertebrates.”

The findings are a welcome break from news of impending extinctions, and the new species are a reminder of the importance of continued vigilance and conservation. Of course, the Amazon is not the only place where new life is popping up. Thousands of new species are described each year, hailing from nearly every continent and diverse branches of life. In May, The Scientist covered the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University’s annual Top 10, with favorites chosen for their unexpected features or their unique habitats. Here are a few of candidates for the 2013 lineup:

The big one


A pair of Kobomani tapirs caught on camera trap
COURTESY OF FABRÍCIO R. SANTOS
This month, researchers described what is likely to be this year’s biggest new species: the Kobomani tapir (Tapirus kabomani), which roams the open grasslands and forests of Brazil and Colombia. Though it’s the smallest of the tapirs, it’s one of the largest animals in South America. Published in the Journal of Mammology, discovery of the tapir makes it the first new Perissodactyla species, which includes rhinos and horses, discovered in more than 100 years, according to Mongabay.com.

The new tapir species isn’t so new to local tribes, however, who regularly hunt the “little black tapir,” as they call it. “[Indigenous people] traditionally reported seeing what they called ‘a different kind of anta [tapir in Portuguese].’ However, the scientific community has never paid much attention to the fact, stating that it was always the same Tapirus terrestris,” lead author and paleontologist Mario Cozzuol of Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Belo Horizonte told Mongabay.com. “They did not give value to local knowledge and thought the locals were wrong. Knowledge of the local community needs to be taken into account and that's what we did in our study, which culminated in the discovery of a new species to science.”

Mammal in the trees


Wild olinguito at Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Ecuador
WIKIMEDIA, MATT GURNEY
The olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) was this year declared to be a distinct species from its close relative, the onlingo, a member of the raccoon family. The new species was first discovered in a drawer, at Chicago’s Field Museum. Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, found a collection of skin, skulls, and bones that “stopped me in my tracks,” he told BBC News. “The skins were a rich red color and when I looked at the skulls I didn’t recognize the anatomy . . . right away I thought it could be a species new to science.”

On the basis of a grainy video of an olinguito-like animal in the Andes, Helgen and his colleagues headed to Colombia and Ecuador to find the mammal in the trees of cloud forests. Furry, orange, and weighing less than a kilogram, the olinguito is solitary and nocturnal. It is smaller than the olingo, and the two species have differences in their teeth and tails. Helgen’s team published its findings August 15 in ZooKeys, noting that the olinguito is threatened; construction and farming and destroyed nearly half of its forest habitat. “This reminds us that the world is not yet explored and the age of discovery is far from over,” Helgen told BBC News.

City bird


Cambodian tailorbird
JAMES EATON/BIRDTOUR ASIA
A little bird by the name of the Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), first seen during routine checks for avian flu in 2009, is finally recognized by science, according to a study published in the Oriental Bird Club journal. Belonging to the warbler family, the Cambodian tailorbird can be found living in and around the country’s capital city of Phnom Penh. It resembles other tailorbirds, the researchers report, but its plumage, song, and genes support its reclassification as its own species—something that is rare in urban ecosystems.

“The modern discovery of an undescribed bird species within the limits of a large populous city—not to mention 30 minutes from my home—is extraordinary,” study coauthor Simon Mahood of the Wildlife Conservation Society told BBC News. “The discovery indicates that new species of birds may still be found in familiar and unexpected locations.”

Once again, however, as the bird’s small habitat continues to shrink, prompting the researchers to recommend that it be listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

Fish giant


Arapaima sp.
WIKIMEDIA, T. VOEKLER
Sleek, eel-like fish known as arapaima have, for some time, been considered to comprise a single species, but new evidence suggests that a classic division of the group into four species is actually more accurate. Moreover, researchers claim to have found a distinct fifth species of arapaima, according to a study published by SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Donald Stewart in the March issue of Copeia.

“Everybody for 160 years had been saying there’s only one kind of arapaima,” Stewart said in a press release. “But we know now there are various species, including some not previously recognized.”

A common target of Amazonian fisherman, arapaima are commercially important fish. Curious about the recognition of four species of arapaima in the mid-1800s, Stewart closely examined original specimens and found that they were indeed four species after all. One specimen, held at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia in Manaus, Brazil, even represents a fifth species (A. leptosoma), Stewart concluded. The sensory cavities on its head have a unique shape, and the fish has a sheath over part of its dorsal fin that other arapaima don’t have. It also has a distinctive color pattern.

Unfortunately, arapaima have been overfished in the Amazon Basin for more than a century, bringing their current populations to near zero.

Year of the sharks


Scalloped hammerhead sharks
WIKIMEDIA, YZX
Off the coast of South Carolina roams another new species discovered in 2013, the Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilbert), close cousin of the scalloped hammerhead. According to study published in August in the journal Zootaxa, the new shark species is genetically distinct, and has about 10 fewer vertebrae that the scalloped hammerhead.

The Carolina variety was discovered by University of South Carolina fish expert Joe Quattro, who gathered what appeared to be 80 young scalloped hammerheads. Genetic and anatomical analyses proved otherwise, however. In the end, 54 of the 80 sharks belonged to the new species.

Quattro expects that, like the dwindling populations of the scalloped shark, the Carolina shark is rare. “Outside of South Carolina, we’ve only seen five tissue samples of the cryptic species,” Quattro said in a release. “And that’s out of three or four hundred specimens.”

You might think that finding a new species of the largest fish in the ocean is uncommon, and it is, but this year boasts another new shark species: Hemiscyllium halmahera, a shark that “walks” along the sandy bottoms surrounding a remote Indonesian island (see video). Publishing in July in the Journal of Ichthyology, marine biologist Mark Erdmann of Conservation International and his colleagues describe the species. The animals can grow up to 70 centimeters (27 inches) in length, and as with other walking—or epaulette—sharks, females lay their eggs under reef ledges.



And many more

With so many new species populating this year’s scientific literature, there simply isn’t room to cover them all. But suffice it to say that diversity is not what this list is lacking: a new orchid from volcanic islands west of Spain, a tiny crustacean found in an offshore reef cave near California’s Catalina Island, the Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle of the French Guiana rainforests, five species of “slavemaker” ants that steal the young of other ants, a humpback dolphin, two gecko species, and a Turkish scorpion. Plus many more just waiting to be found.

Thumbnail image credit: Wikimedia, Dan McKay

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles. ... es-Abound/
 
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Brazil dolphin is first new river species since 1918
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News

Scientists in Brazil have discovered the first new river dolphin species since the end of World War One.
Named after the Araguaia river where it was found, the species is only the fifth known of its kind in the world.

Writing in the journal Plos One, the researchers say it separated from other South American river species more than two million years ago.
There are believed to be about 1,000 of the creatures living in the Araguaia river basin.

River dolphins are among the world's rarest creatures.
According to the IUCN, there are only four known species, and three of them are on the Red List, meaning they are critically endangered.

These dolphins are only distantly related to their seafaring cousins, tending to have long beaks which let them hunt for fish in the mud at the bottom of rivers.
One of the best known species, the Yangtze river dolphin or baiji is believed to have gone extinct in about 2006.

South America though is home to the Amazon river dolphin, also known as the pink dolphin or boto, said to be the most intelligent of all the river species.

The new discovery is said to be related to the Amazonian, although scientists believe the species separated more than two million years ago.
"It is very similar to the other ones," said lead author Dr Tomas Hrbek, from the Federal University of Amazonas.

"It was something that was very unexpected, it is an area where people see them all the time, they are a large mammal, the thing is nobody really looked. It is very exciting."

The scientists say there are some differences in the number of teeth and they suspect the Araguaia river species is smaller, but most of the clues to their separate nature were found in their genes.
By analysing DNA samples from dozens of dolphins in both rivers, the team concluded the Araguaia river creature was indeed a new species.
They acknowledge though that some experts may question whether or not the discovery is in fact, wholly distinct.

"In science you can never be sure about anything," said Dr Hrbek.
"We looked at the mitochondrial DNA which is essentially looking at the lineages, and there is no sharing of lineages.
"The groups that we see, the haplotypes, are much more closely related to each other than they are to groups elsewhere. For this to happen, the groups must have been isolated from each other for a long time.
"The divergence we observed is larger than the divergences observed between other dolphin species," he said.

The researchers propose that the new species be called the Araguaian Boto, or Boto-do-Araguaia.
They estimate that there are about 1,000 of these creatures living in the river that flows northward for more than 2,600km to join the Amazon.

The researchers are concerned about the future for the new dolphin, saying that it appears to have very low levels of genetic diversity.
They are also worried because of human development.

"Since the 1960s the Araguaia river basin has been experiencing significant anthropogenic pressure via agricultural and ranching activities, and the construction of hydroelectric dams," the authors write in their study.
"The dolphins are at the top of the line, they eat a lot of fish," said Dr Hrbek.
"They rob fishing nets so the fishermen tend to not like them, people shoot them."

They believe that as a result of the threats that it faces, the new species should be categorised as Vulnerable on the Red List.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25841135
 
Giant jellyfish found on Australia beach

Scientists in Australia are working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on a beach in Tasmania.
A family found the 1.5m (5ft) jellyfish on a beach south of Hobart last month.

Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin, of Australia's CSIRO government agency, said that scientists had known about the species for a while but had not yet classified it. She described the specimen as a "truly magnificent animal".

Experts at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) were alerted to the discovery by Josie Lim and her family, who came across it.
"She and her children found the jellyfish and took this amazing photo that just boggles the mind," jellyfish expert Dr Gershwin said.

This species was part of the Lion's Mane group, she said.
These jellyfish "look like a dinner plate with a mop hanging underneath - they have a really raggedy look to them", she said.
The Tasmanian discovery was found stranded belly-up, Dr Gershwin explained.
It was one of a "species I've known about for a while but it's not yet named and classified", she said. "We're very eager to know more about it."
It is one of three new species of Lion's Mane in Tasmania which the scientist is currently working to classify.

Recent years had seen "huge blooms" of jellyfish in Tasmanian waters, she said, but scientists were not sure why.
"We're very keen to find out why jellyfish are blooming in such super-abundances in these southern waters," she said.

The world's largest jellyfish shares the same genus - Cyanea - as the Lion's Mane. Found in the North Atlantic and Arctic, the Cyanea Arctica can grow up to 3m (10ft) across the body, Dr Gershwin said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26062303
 
1mm long? I'm not surprised we never found it before.

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-24/n ... ns/5279626

Scientists from the Queensland Museum have discovered two new species of goblin spiders on the state's Darling Downs.

Dr Barbara Baher says her team discovered the Opopaea broadwater, also known as the jellybean goblin spider in Dalby.

They also discovered the Leichhardteus badius, or reddish brown swift spider, while exploring a rainforest in the Bunya Mountains last year.

The museum says the genus name Leichhardteus was chosen to honour German explorer and scientist Ludwig Leichhardt, who came to Australia in 1842 to study wildlife.

It says the species name badius refers to the Latin badium, meaning reddish brown in reference to the body colour.

It was also chosen to honour former Greens senator Bob Brown, who rescued rainforest environments.

Dr Baher says the jellybean goblin spider is only one millimetre long and has an armour-like shell.

"That helps them to protect themselves from desiccation because they're very small, so they're very sensitive about humidity, so they have developed this little shell," she said.

Dr Baher says they are important discoveries.

"It's important to know about the species who are around us because if you don't know them, we can't protect them, and they will extinguish before we even know them," she said.
 
New bird family discovered in Asia
By Ella Davies
Reporter, BBC Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/26433081

Elachura, a unique bird family

The spotted wren-babbler has a new title

A unique family of birds containing just one species has been discovered by researchers.

Scientists investigating families within the Passerida group of perching birds identified 10 separate branches in their tree of life.

The analysis also revealed that the spotted wren-babbler sat on its own branch and was not related to either wrens or wren-babblers.

Experts recommend the distinctive bird should now be referred to as Elachura.

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The discovery is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"This single species is the only living representative of one of the earliest off-shoots within the largest group of [perching birds], which comprises [around] 36% of the world's 10,500 bird species," said Prof Per Alstrom from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, who undertook the study alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.

Elachura formosa is a small perching bird - or passerine - that is found from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China.

Prof Alstrom describes it as "extremely secretive and difficult to observe, as it usually hides in very dense tangled undergrowth in the subtropical mountain forests."

"However, during the breeding season, when the males sing their characteristic, high-pitched song, which doesn't resemble any other continental Asian bird song, it can sometimes be seen sitting on a branch inside a bush."


He suggests the bird had previously been overlooked because it looks "strikingly similar" to wrens and wren-babblers.

"This similarity is apparently either due to pure chance or to convergent evolution, which may result in similar appearances in unrelated species that live in similar environments - some wren-babblers can be neighbours to the Elachura," Prof Alstrom explained.

The biologists made their discovery by analysing the molecular differences in the DNA of the birds to understand what they had inherited, and thus reveal their evolutionary heritage.

This method has been widely used in recent years and is responsible for a number of surprising discoveries including the revelation that a peregrine falcon is more closely related to a bullfinch than a sparrowhawk.

"Molecular analyses have been instrumental in resolving the relationships among birds, and have revealed multiple totally unexpected relationships, such as between flamingos and grebes, between falcons, parrots and passerines, and between larks and the bearded tit," explained Prof Alstrom.

"It is possible that more such cases will be discovered in the future, as more and more species are being analysed. However, I doubt that there are many - if any - such unique species as the Elachura left to be identified."

Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.
 
Lurking in the darkness of Chinese caves, five new species of armored spiders come to light
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 111529.htm
Date: March 14, 2014 Source: Pensoft Publishers

This image shows the male holotype of Sinamma oxycera, one of the newly described species.
Credit: Shuqiang Li; CC-BY 4.0

Armored spiders are medium to small species that derive their name from the complex pattern of the plates covering their abdomen strongly resembling body armor. Lurking in the darkness of caves In Southeast China, scientists discover and describe five new species of these exciting group of spiders. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The common name armored spiders is given to the engaging family Tetrablemmidae. Distinguished by their peculiar armor-like abdominal pattern, these tropical and subtropical spiders are mainly collected from litter and soil, but like the newly described species some live in caves. Some cave species, but also some soil inhabitants, show typical adaptations of cave spiders, such as loss of eyes. The genus Tetrablemma, for example, to which two of the new species belong, is distinguished by having only 4 eyes.

All these new spiders are collected from the South China Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The South China Karst spans the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. It is noted for its karst features and landscapes as well as rich biodiversity. UNESCO describes the South China Karst as "unrivalled in terms of the diversity of its karst features and landscapes."

Colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Professor Shuqiang LI have investigated more than 2000 caves in the South China Karst. Several hundred new species of cave spiders are reported by Shuqiang Li and colleagues. As a result, the total known spider species of China increased from 2300 species to 4300 species in the last 10 years.

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Pensoft Publishers. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:
Yucheng Lin, Shuqiang Li. New cave-dwelling armored spiders (Araneae, Tetrablemmidae) from Southwest China. ZooKeys, 2014; 388: 35 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.388.5735
 
Dracula ants! Great name.

Six new Dracula ants from Madagascar: Minor workers become queens in Mystrium
March 31st, 2014 in Biology / Plants & Animals

This image shows a living Mystrium species. Credit: Brian Fisher

Six new species of Dracula ants from the Malagasy region have been discovered by scientists at the California Academy of Sciences. The discoveries, by postdoctoral fellow Masashi Yoshimura from Japan and curator of entomology Brian L. Fisher, represent a completely new twist in the typically rigid caste system of ants, where anatomy is typically destiny. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

"The genus Mystrium is the most mysterious group within the bizarre Dracula ants," said Yoshimura.

Mystrium species have unique features such as long, spatulate mandibles that snap together (Gronenberg et al. 1998); wingless queens that in some undetermined species are even smaller than workers (Molet et al. 2007); and large, wingless individuals intermediate between workers and queens, which behave like queens (Molet et al. 2012).

"Mystrium was a difficult group to identify because of the remarkable variation within each species." Yoshimura said.

"Our team has explored Madagascar and its surrounding islands for 20 years and collected thousands of specimens to solve the mysteries of Mystrium," said Fisher, an expert on Malagasy ants.

Different pattern of 'reproductive castes' can be seen in a single genus Mystrium. Credit: Dr. Masashi Yoshimura

Fisher explained why Mystrium poses such a fiendish problem Mystrium to taxonomists, who identify new and different species. "Mystrium has three different styles in reproduction within a single genus, and the role of an individual in a colony is not always obvious by its appearance. Ants that look similar may be minor workers in one species but queens in another species." This makes classifying the Dracula ants extremely difficult, he said.

"The discovery of the division of females into major and minor forms were the key to solving this complicated puzzle," explained Yoshimura. "We found that all species in Mystrium share a common original components consisting of male, usual large queen, and major and minor workers.
Furthermore, the major or minor workers develop as reproductives in some species and even take over queen's position. They are revolutionaries finding in the anatomy-is-destiny world of ants! Taxonomists usually compare the anatomy of ants of the same caste to find differences between species. But in the case of the genus Mystrium, we need to compare individuals from the same original phenotype, not on the their current functional role (caste)," he said.

The authors have reclassified all species into three subgroups based on the reproductive styles, and developed a new taxonomic framework for this complicated group featuring innovative pictorial keys to the species. The illustrations include color photographs showing every hair in focus (produced using a computer-assisted method called auto-montage), and drawings for all castes. The paper looks more like a picture book than your average scientific treatise. "I learned drawing techniques from Japanese manga," Yoshimura says.

Six new Dracula ants from Madagascar: Minor workers become queens in Mystrium

This is a pictorial key combining full-focused color images and drawing. Credit: AntWeb and Dr. Masashi Yoshimura

"To name three of the species we chose words that evoke the air of mystery around this genus, calling them Mystrium labyrinth, Mystrium mirror, and Mystrium shadow." Yoshimura said.

More information: Yoshimura M, Fisher BL (2014) A revision of the ant genus Mystrium in the Malagasy region with description of six new species and remarks on Amblyopone and Stigmatomma (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Amblyoponinae). ZooKeys 394: 1-99. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.394.6446

Additional:

Gronenberg W, Hölldobler B, Alpert GD (1998) Jaws that snap: control of mandible movements in the ant Mystrium. J Insect Physiol 44: 241-253. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1910(97)00145-5

Molet M, Peeters C, Fisher BL (2007) Winged queens replaced by reproductives smaller than workers in Mystrium ants. Naturwissenschaften 94: 280-287. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0190-2

Molet M, Wheeler DE, Peeters C (2012) Evolution of Novel Mosaic Castes in Ants: Modularity, Phenotypic Plasticity, and Colonial Buffering. Am Nat 180: 328-341. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/667368

Provided by Pensoft Publishers

"Six new Dracula ants from Madagascar: Minor workers become queens in Mystrium." March 31st, 2014. http://phys.org/news/2014-03-dracula-an ... rkers.html
 
Pilbara study uncovers unique fly community
March 31st, 2014 in Biology / Plants & Animals

A fly from the same family (Dolichopodidae) as the 19 newly described species found in the Pilbara. Credit: Sam Fraser-Smith

A Sydney-based entomologist has described a new single-species fly genus, found only at Millstream near Karratha.

Pilbara octava is a member of the family Dolichopodidae, and one of 19 new species that Australian Museum expert Dr Daniel Bickel described during a survey of Pilbara flies.

He says it helps tell the tale of a time when much of central Australia was moist and forested and the various species he found in the Pilbara were widely-distributed across the continent.

"As it gets drier a lot of these species can only survive in areas where there's like permanent water," he says.

"Places like Millstream, which is an old river system that has permanent water holes, certainly might be a sort of place where you would find these sort of things."

He also recorded 25 flies already described.

"One of the things that also came through in this...is how many species are actually not only just Australian but they are actually found in New Guinea and some even go out to the Solomons," he says.

Dr Bickel says he found only one species (Parentia vulgaris) that is not of a "tropical" genus.

"It's from a group that otherwise is only [found in] southern Australia and New Zealand and something which is much more of a typical Gondwanan cool-adapted group," he says.

"It also gets into the Queensland tropics.

"Often what you find in these genera, you find most of the genus are often tied to a certain habitat or a certain climatic region.

"And yet there's always a few that break out and sort of adapt — that's the way that these things get around and expand their ranges."

While Dr Bickel did some collecting of his own near Cape Range and further inland, he says most of the survey involved studying unclassified material already preserved in collections at CSIRO Canberra, the Australian Museum in Sydney, and the WA Museum.

"I didn't do any DNA bar coding on this," he says.

"I'm just doing very basic description, morphologic description.

"A lot of the specimens that are used, these are the old dried specimens.
"You can't get good DNA barcodes out of them."

He says Chevron agreed to fund the whole-of-Pilbara study when it asked him for an inventory of Barrow Island flies.

"We can now say what's on the island and if there's any change that occurs there we can say we had a baseline set of data to begin with."

Provided by Science Network WA

"Pilbara study uncovers unique fly community." March 31st, 2014. http://phys.org/news/2014-03-pilbara-un ... nique.html
 
Mummy-making wasps discovered in Ecuador

Some Ecuadorian tribes were famous for making mummified shrunken heads from the remains of their conquered foes. Field work in the cloud forests of Ecuador by Professor Scott Shaw, University of Wyoming, Laramie, and colleagues, has resulted in the discovery of 24 new species of Aleiodes wasps that mummify caterpillars. The research by Eduardo Shimbori, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil, and Scott Shaw, was recently published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Among the 24 new insect species described by Shimbori and Shaw, several were named after famous people including the comedians and television hosts Jimmy Fallon, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as the Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Kingman, American poet Robert Frost, and Colombian singer and musician, Shakira.

The Shakira wasp causes its host caterpillar to bend and twist in an unusual way, which reminded the authors of belly-dancing, for which the South American performer is also famous. In a previous work, Shaw had named a species after David Letterman.

"These wasps are very small organisms, being only 4 to 9 millimeters long, but they have an enormous impact on forest ecology," Shaw said. Aleiodes wasps are parasites of forest caterpillars. The female wasps search for a particular kind of caterpillar, and inject an egg into it. Parasitism by the wasp does not immediately kill the caterpillar, but it continues to feed and grow for a time. Eventually, feeding by the wasp larva causes the host caterpillar to shrink and mummify, then the immature wasp makes its cocoon inside the mummified remains of its conquered prey.

When it completes its development, the young wasp cuts an exit hole from the caterpillar mummy and flies away to mate, and continue this cycle of parasitic behavior. "Killing and mummifying caterpillars may sound bad, but these are actually highly beneficial insects," Shaw says. "These wasps are helping to naturally control the populations of plant-feeding caterpillars, so they help to sustain the biodiversity of tropical forests."

Shaw tells more about the behavior of parasitic wasps and other insects in his forthcoming book, Planet of the Bugs, due to be published by the University of Chicago Press in September.

The field research was conducted by Shaw at the Yanayacu cloud forest research station of Napo Province, in the eastern Andes slopes of Ecuador. Previous research by Shaw had discovered nine species of mummy-making wasps at the site, and others are known from around the world, but the full extent of these insect's biodiversity in Ecuador did not become apparent until recently, when Shimbori and Shaw collaborated to name them all. The research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, called Caterpillars and Parasitoids of the Eastern Andes.

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Pensoft Publishers. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:
Eduardo Shimbori, Scott Shaw. Twenty-four new species of Aleiodes Wesmael from the eastern Andes of Ecuador with associated biological information (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae). ZooKeys, 2014; 405: 1 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.405.7402

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 111038.htm
 
Student discovers new praying mantis species in Rwanda: Female bush tiger mantis hunts prey on ground and underbrush

Circling the light trap used to lure insects out of the thick, wet night in Rwanda's mountainous Nyungwe Forest National Park, Riley Tedrow reached to the leaf litter on the ground and nabbed a male and female of what turned out to be a new species of praying mantis.

Tedrow, a third-year student at Case Western Reserve University, was part of a research team led by Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Gavin Svenson, in possibly the first effort to collect mantids in the park. The scientists have found no records of others doing so.

In Nyungwe, they worked with Kabanguka Nathan and Nasasira Richard, from the Kitabi College of Conservation and Environmental Management located near the park.

The researchers call the new animal Dystacta tigrifrutex -- bush tiger mantis -- named for the female, whose features indicate she hunts prey strictly on the ground and in the undergrowth. The male, on the other hand, flies.

The female provided a couple of bonuses. Soon after she was placed in a screened enclosure, she laid an egg case, called an ootheca, and the researchers were later able to see the emerging first instar nymphs -- the insect's first stage.

The researchers describe the adults, the egg case and the instar nymph stage in a paper published in the journal ZooKeys.

Their two-weeks of collecting in Rwanda last summer turned up a wealth of finds.

"It took eight months to identify all the species," said Tedrow, an evolutionary biology major.

Tedrow and Svenson were able to compare the new mantis with similar specimens in the Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität in Berlin, Germany as well as the U.S. National Museum insect collection, which is on loan to Svenson and is located at the Cleveland museum. None fit with the new specimens.

Tedrow reviewed hundreds of papers describing mantises and found none fit.

Using 21 measurements taken from the bush tigers' bodies, coloring and more, Tedrow and Svenson concluded that specimens were from the genus Dystacta, which, until now, had one species: D. alticeps.

Compared to D. alticeps, the overall length of male and female bush tigers are shorter by a third to a half, have fewer spines on parts of their legs and have different coloration patterns on the underside region, called the prosternum, where the front legs attach.

"Dystacta alticeps, the sister species, is spread all over Africa," said Svenson, curator of invertebrate zoology at the museum and an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve. "The new praying mantis species was found in the high altitude rain forest region of southwestern Rwanda and probably only lives within Nyungwe National Park, which adds significant justification for protecting the park to ensure species like this can continue to exist."

A good look at the male genitalia can help determine one species from another, or how closely related the two are. But hungry ants ate the lower abdomen and accompanying parts while the male specimen was drying in the Rwandan heat.

The biologists didn't know it at the time, but, "unfortunately, they targeted the most important species in the box," Svenson said.

The bush tiger was the only new species to science described from the trip. The researchers also found a dozen new to Rwanda.

The experience has Svenson rethinking the nighttime collecting techniques. Traditionally, entomologists collect the animals that come directly to the bright light traps, but Tedrow found the bush tigers in the fringe of light -- what would be the shadows of daytime.

Svenson, Tedrow and fellow researchers will return to Ngyungwe in June to collect more mantises where they found the bush tiger and to search several other locations in the park. They hope to return with a complete male and more new species and learn whether the bush tiger's habitat is limited or more broadly spread. The park includes three distinct habitats: montane, bamboo and lowland forests.

Journal Reference:
Riley Tedrow, Nathan Kabanguka, Richard Nasasira, Gavin Svenson. A new species of Dystacta Saussure, 1871 from Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda (Insecta, Mantodea, Dystactinae). ZooKeys, 2014; 410: 1 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.410.7053

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 115930.htm
 
http://www.newscientist.com/article...spike-in-jellyfish-activity.html#.U4TgffldWSo

Purple monsters may herald spike in jellyfish activity

Could Australia have had schools of mysterious, technicolour purple jellyfish swimming off its shores all along without anybody noticing? After one such creature, previously unknown in Australia – and probably to science – washed up on a Queensland coast last week, jellyfish scientist Lisa-ann Gershwin has received a string of reported sightings dating back to 2008.

With its metre-long arms and a huge purple bell, Gershwin from the CSIRO, Australia's national research agency, in Brisbane, says she's never seen anything like the specimen that washed up on Coolum beach on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland on Wednesday morning.

Rest of article at link.

It's very curious that global climate change seems to be causing an almost spontaneous generation of new species. How is that happening? Is evolution a much shorter process than we thought?
Or...were these jellyfish frozen in suspended animation in ice somewhere, and they just thawed out?
 
There appear to be a lot of very deep sea animals coming to the surface these days. Sharks, fish, squid & etc. Perhaps, there's something very wrong going on in the deep oceans?
 
Mythopoeika said:
It's very curious that global climate change seems to be causing an almost spontaneous generation of new species. How is that happening? Is evolution a much shorter process than we thought?
Natural selection normally works in "If it ain't broke, dont fix it!" mode. In other words, it only weeds out mutations, which are normally a Bad Thing.

But this only applies if the environment stays constant. If the environment changes, than the old status quo may no longer be optimised for the new conditions. Then Natural Selection says to any mutations, go ahead, see if you can breed. And the ones that do start to overtake the old order in reproductive success - in other words, the species is evolving. This continues until the environment steadies up again, and another stable period ensues, when nothing much changes.

This process is known as Punctuated Equilibrium:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium
 
Humpback whale subspecies revealed by genetic study

A new genetic study has revealed that populations of humpback whales in the oceans of the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere are much more distinct from each other than previously thought, and should be recognised as separate subspecies. Understanding how connected these populations are has important implications for the recovery of these charismatic animals that were once devastated by hunting.

The team, led by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and Oregon State University, analysed the largest and most comprehensive genetic dataset so far compiled for this iconic species. The findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week, show that humpback whales of the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere are on independent evolutionary trajectories.

Known for their amazing acrobatics, humpback whales annually undertake the longest migration of any mammal between their winter breeding grounds and summer feeding grounds. Although they travel vast distances, it appears their populations do not cross paths.

Lead author, Dr Jennifer Jackson of the British Antarctic Survey explains: "Despite seasonal migrations of more than 16,000 km return, humpback whale populations are actually more isolated from one another than we thought. Their populations appear separated by warm equatorial waters that they rarely cross.

"The colour of the bodies and undersides of the tail (the 'flukes') of humpback whales in the northern oceans tend to be much darker than those in the Southern Hemisphere. Until this study we didn't realise that these kinds of subtle differences are actually a sign of long-term isolation between humpback populations in the three global ocean basins. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 220422.htm
 
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