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

punychicken

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Mar 1, 2002
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Big new bug identified

New bug discovered in Califonia!

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Scientists said Thursday they have discovered at least a half-dozen new insect species in Southern California, among them the largest bug ever found in the region.
 
new species

Just heard from BBC world service that a new species of centipede has been found - in Central park!
 
erm.....

How about a Teenage Mutant Ninja Centipede? :cool:

aren't all new species mutants? Isn't that how evolution works?

perhaps it's nature's way of filling the evolutionary gap that trancends all the Central Park insects with all the Central Park Joggers? - or maybe a secret collaboration between Nike and Reebok to sell more training shoes? :blah:

what am i talking about? who can say?
 
One hundred new species of frog have been discovered in Sri Lanka. From the BBC:

'More than 100 new frog species have been discovered in the Sri Lankan rainforest.

Researchers say the discovery makes the island, which covers more than 65,000 square kilometres, an amphibian hotspot of global significance.

A team of US, Belgian and Sri Lankan scientists recorded the new frogs as they surveyed the island's disappearing wildlife...

...Discussing the disappearance of old, known species, Madhava Meegaskumbura said: "Given that the island has lost more than 95% of its rainforest habitat, this [most of the newfound frogs are "direct developers", which hatch as tiny adults, missing out the tadpole phase] is hardly unexpected.'
 
This story seems to have been missed by the board

ABSTRACT

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (June 23, 2002 2:32 p.m. EDT) - Scientists working in Brazil's central Amazon have discovered two new monkey species that are about the size of small cats, Conservation International announced Sunday.

The monkeys were discovered by Marc Van Roosmalen, a Dutch scientist working at Brazil's National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus, 1,800 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Van Roosmalen works in a little-explored region of the Amazon near the confluence of the Madeira and Tapajos rivers.

<images on web site>
 
Whale species is new to science

A previously unidentified species of whale has been recorded by researchers.

The creature is a close cousin of the blue whale and has been given the formal scientific name Balaenoptera omurai, reports the journal Nature.

Its Japanese discoverers say the 12-metre-long animal's DNA and anatomical features mark it apart from other whales that use combs to trap food.

Commentators believe the new finding may complicate the debate over whether commercial whaling should be resumed.

It was likely to delay any return to the regular harpooning of certain whale species, they told the BBC.

Food trap

The new discovery was made by a team led by Shiro Wada of the National Research Institute of Fisheries Science in Yokohama.

They examined the DNA of a number of individual whales belonging to the species known as Bryde's whale, also called Eden's whale.

There has been debate for many years over whether this species has the correct taxonomic classification.

"The classification of these whales has been confusing because Bryde's whale has often been confused with Eden's, and we didn't know whether it's one species or two," Dr Wada told the BBC.

His team now argues that in fact there are three separate species - Bryde's, Eden's - and a new whale species, omurai.


All are so-called baleen whales - also called rorquals - which use a comb, or baleen, to trap their food, such as krill.

Controversial 'science'

If the team's assessment is accepted by the international scientific community, it will at a stroke increase the number of known living baleen species from six to eight.

At-a-glance

The other five are the blue whale, which is the world's largest mammal; the humpback whale, fin whale, sei whale and minke whale.

The new findings are based on the study of a dead whale that was washed on to the shore of the Japanese island Tsunoshima in 1998, and several other specimens caught 30 years ago by the often-criticised Japanese scientific whaling programme.

"Without that programme, we would not have made this discovery," Dr Wada stressed.

He said the separate species classification for B. omurai was attributed to its distinct DNA profile, its cranial structure and, in particular, the mammal's smaller number of baleen plates.

Big finding

Commenting on the discovery, Professor Bo Fernholm, from the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, and a former chair of the International Whaling Commission, said the evidence was "quite convincing".

He also said the research could impact the debate over whether countries such as Japan, Norway and Iceland are allowed to resume commercial hunting of whales.

"This is important because the Japanese want to hunt Bryde's whales.

"The situation then becomes more complex if Bryde's whale is in fact three species."

Estimates of the number of the Earth's species yet to be discovered vary wildly but all are high - perhaps even more than 100 million.

These are thought to be mainly fish, fungi, microbes and insects - on the whole very small organisms.

The identification of a new mammal species is a rarity, especially one as big as a whale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3284843.stm

Emps
 
I believe rynner already posted this at the end of the "Iceland Resumes Whaling" thread today. It's very cool, though. :) DNA testing is changing our information about the world in so many ways, and systematics/taxonomy is certainly one of them.
 
lopaka: Ahhhhhhhhh he did indeed:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=292486#post292486

I have to admit that I rarely have time to peek into the chat area. I thought the discovery of one (or two or even three) species of whales was worthy of the cryptozoology section but the mods should feel free to remove this thread if they see fit (as it just replicates the info over in the other thread).

Emps
 
Three new killer jellyfish discovered

By Paige Taylor
April 22, 2004


RESEARCHERS have discovered three new species of irukandji jellyfish and developed a world-first breeding program for the creatures - breakthroughs being hailed as important steps towards developing an antivenom to treat the animal's often lethal stings.

One of the three new jellyfish species discovered this month off the coast of Broome, in Western Australia's remote Kimberley region, has been described as one of the world's most poisonous creatures.

Of the other new species, one is not generally fatal and the other's toxicity is not yet known.

The poisonous new species - which is transparent and has 12mm bell-shaped bodies - most closely resembles the irukandji species that killed British tourist Richard Jordan, 58, in the Whitsundays in January 2002 and American tourist Robert King, 44, off Port Douglas in April 2002.

The discoveries were made by Lisa-ann Gershwin, a PhD student at Townsville's James Cook University, after her team started an irukandji breeding program to send a steady stream of specimens to the University of Melbourne.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9349289%5E421,00.html

Also posted here:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=26797#26797

Emps
 
any word about the venom in its sting? hehe I'd like to see those buggers upstage the textile cone for most venomous creature ever! :D
 
What is about Australia? They seem to have more venomous creatures than anywhere else. Isn't there a tree that shoots out poisonous spines or something there?
 
hedgewizard said:
What is about Australia? They seem to have more venomous creatures than anywhere else. Isn't there a tree that shoots out poisonous spines or something there?
well not quite. there is a nettle there that causes excruciating and prolonged pain in the area of exposure and if one were to fall into a patch, the pain can be so overwhelming that you can go into shock and die from it. I forgot the name of this nettle, but perhaps someone here can vouch for me. its a nasty plant
 
What is about Australia? They seem to have more venomous creatures than anywhere else.

I worked with an Australian who said that they had great fun winding up the British who emigrated there. They would say things like - "don't lie down on the grass or you'll never get up, the trap door spiders will get you" etc. He said it took about three months or so before they'd realise they were been teased.
 
Rare Filipino rodent

Rare creature discovered

May 28, 2004 - 5:54PM



This tiny, orange-coloured, rodent-like mammal was found by a joint US-Filipino team of biologists at a burnt forest clearing on Mount Banahaw, south of Manila. Photo: AFP


A mouse-like mammal that cannot be found anywhere else in the world has been discovered in a Philippine mountain by Filipino and American biologists.

The new species, which weighs about 15 grams, has an eight cm body, a 10 cm tail, a very large head, and heavily muscled jaws, the department said.

"The whiskers are about five times as long as the head," ithe Philippines Department of Environment and Natural Resources said in a statement.

"The front teeth are very narrow, deep. The colour is bright orange."

The mammal was discovered two weeks ago in a slash-and-burn area on Mount Banahaw, south of Manila, considered a holy site by some Filipino sects.

It was discovered by a team composed of representatives from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Utah Museum of Natural History, the Philippine National Museum, a locally-based conversation group and the environment department.

"The team was scouting the area for rare small mammal species," the environment department said. "The American biologists agreed that the small mammal is something very distinctive and unique."
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Lawrence Heaney of the Field Museum of Natural History, said he was certain that the mammal was not the same species that can be seen anywhere else in the world.

He, however, could not tell yet what particular family or genus the small mammal belongs to.

Eric Rickart, a curator of vertebrates in the Utah Museum, said it was "not related to any of the other rodents" found in the northern Philippines.

"It represents an entirely different branch on a tree of life," he said.

Heany, who has been researching mammals in the Philippines for more than 20 years, noted that the mammal was able to crack "very hard nuts" and eat the seeds inside.

"No other mammal in the area is able to eat the seeds," he said.

The biologists said the unnamed mammal would be shipped to the United States for further study.

The Philippines has at least 52,177 species of plants, animals and other life forms, more than half of which are not found in other countries, the environment department said.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641708583.html
 
Any update on this? The article said that it is a rodent-like creature: is it rodent-like but not a rodent or is it at present unknown whether or not it is a rodent?
 
New mammal discovered in South America

New mammal discovered in South America - and eaten
Saturday June 12 2004 14:05 IST

DPA


HAMBURG: A new species of mammal has been discovered in South America but was promptly converted into roast pork and eaten by Brazilian villagers, the German natural-science cinematographer Lothar Frenz said on Friday.

The animal was the fourth known species of Peccary, a pig-like mammal found between the southern deserts of the United States and Patagonia. Resembling a wild pig, the peccary has dark, coarse hair and a large head with a circular snout and small ears.

News of the discovery of the giant Peccary was held back till shortly before the airing next Wednesday in Germany of the latest documentary by Frenz, who accompanied a Dutch naturalist, Marc Van Roosmalen, on an expedition to the Amazon region of Rio Aripuana.

The most common species are the White-lipped Peccary (Tayassu Pecari) and the Collared Peccary (Pecari Tajacu). A third sort, the Gran Chaco Peccary, was discovered in Argentina in 1974.

Frenz said, the new species' behaviour and colouring were different, along with its size which is 40 kg and 1.30 metres long.

A report appeared on Saturday in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoting Frenz that he saw the first discovered giant peccary struggling valiantly before villagers killed it, flayed it and roasted it on a spit.

Frenz said he and Van Roosmalen abstained from trying the meat, but collected some of the remains for a genetic study.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEW20040612034518&Page=W&Title=&Topic=0&
 
New Brazillian fish species

And before someone asks no it doesn't have well trimmed trouser topiary ;)

New fish species discovered off Brazil

Friday, June 18, 2004 Posted: 1028 GMT (1828 HKT)



RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazilian scientists claimed to have found a new fish species believed to have lurked deep in the south Atlantic Ocean for over 150 million years.

The fish, of the Chimaera genus, is about 30-40 centimeters (12-16 inches) long and is found at depths of 400 to 600 meters (1,300 to 2,000 feet), scientists said Thursday.

"This is a fantastic discovery, because before this we believed there were no Chimaera off the Brazilian coast," said ichthyologist Jules Soto, who discovered the fish.

Soto is the curator of the Oceanography Museum at the Vale do Itajai University and co-author of the fish's scientific description, which will be published in the upcoming edition of the U.S. scientific journal Zootaxa.

Soto said the fish was discovered on a Spanish fishing boat trawling off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state in 2001.

Soto said his students first photographed the Chimaera aboard the vessel as part of a research project, but they were unaware of the fish's importance and threw it back in the ocean.

Soto realized the significance of the discovery while examining the photographs.

"I could see right away it was a very different animal, just from the shape of the fins," Soto said by telephone from Santa Catarina state, 450 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of Rio de Janeiro.

It took Soto and his team two more years to locate more specimens and to complete the scientific work needed to prove it was a new species.

The fish, which Soto has named Hydrolagus mattallansi, has a snub nose, winglike side fins, a spiky back fin and stinger tail. It is closely related to sharks and skates.

The Chimaera can sense the presence of other animals by scanning the electromagnetic field around it, but it also has large eyes that can sense even the smallest bit of light, Soto said.

Ichthyologists called the new Chimaera an "important discovery."

"Deep water fish have been little studied here and it's very difficult to get information about that environment. The sad thing is that environment is being devastated by industrial fishing so species new to science are likely disappearing even before they are discovered," said Adriano Lima, an Ichthyologist at Rio de Janeiro's National Museum.

Scientists have identified about 25,000 fish species in the world but suspect there may be as many as 40,000 yet to be discovered.

Soto said it was rare that such a large vertebrate animal should be undiscovered but that the deep waters off Brazil's coast have not been extensively explored.

He claimed to have discovered three other new species that he is still in the process of describing.

Chimaera evolved 400 million years ago during the Devonian Period and are one of the oldest fish species alive today.


http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/18/brazil.newfis.ap/index.html
 
Worlds smallest fish

Indeed the world's smallest vertebrate...
It's not Brazilian, but this seemed the closest match.
I notice it's Australian, that seems inevitable, Australia seems well stocked with weird animals, and poisonous animals, and weird poisonous animals....
Back to the microfiche....

At:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3920183.stm
World's tiniest fish identified


The stout infantfish lives exclusively in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the nearby Coral Sea
The smallest, lightest animal with a backbone has been described for the first time, by scientists in the US.
The miniscule fish, called a stout infantfish, is only about 7mm (just under a quarter of an inch) long.

It lives around Australia's Great Barrier Reef and has snatched the "world's smallest vertebrate" title from the 1cm-long dwarf goby fish.

The infantfish, which is no longer than the width of a pencil, is described in the Records of the Australian Museum.

The first specimen of the tiny creature (Schindleria brevipinguis) was collected way back in 1979, by the Australian Museum's Jeff Leis, during fieldwork in the Lizard Island region of the Great Barrier Reef.

Philip Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
But the creature was not properly studied for years, until HJ Walker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California, US, and William Watson of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, US, picked up the case.

"It was a really good day when I first looked under the microscope and recognised something that I knew was a new species," said Dr Walker. "But at the time I didn't realise that I was looking at the world's smallest vertebrate."

Only six specimens of the stout infantfish have ever been found.

The females - at around 8.4mm - seem to be bigger than males, who usually measure in at a diminutive 7mm. They are what scientist term "paedomorphic", which means they retain many infantile characteristics, even when adult.

Baby features

The stout infantfish gets its name from its babyish features, and the fact that it is unusually stout compared to other species of infantfish.

Its tiny frame is matched by its short lifespan, which is thought to be a mere two months. This quick turnover might actually work in the fish's favour, allowing it to keep up with a world that is changing fast.

"It's interesting that these animals experience several generations a year," said Dr Watson. "This suggests they could evolve quickly as well.


Scientist HJ Walker with a jar holding the World's smallest vertebrate
"They live in a specialised habitat that could be threatened by global warming or human development, but they may have the ability to evolve as fast as their environment changes."

Philip Hastings, the curator of the Scripps Marine Vertebrates Collection, says the identification of the stout infantfish is another demonstration that scientists do not yet have a complete picture of marine animals.

"Anytime a scientist identifies an 'extreme' in the world it is important," said Dr Hastings. "Think about the whole envelope of life. Most of us systematists describe things that fill in the dots in the middle of the envelope.

"This new discovery is pushing the edge, increasing the size of the envelope.

"It's important because it demonstrates that we're still expanding our knowledge of the limits of the diversity that's present on this planet and there are still significant discoveries to me made."
 
So neither of these are the one that swims up yer urinary tract are they?
 
That's exactly what I was just wondering. Burroughs could have made it up for all I know.
 
At least it makes a change from the usual "deer with different antlers" species you usually get.
 
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