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

Orange, cave dwelling dwarf crocodiles distinct from other dwarf crocs.
https://www.topbuzz.com/a/659521225...d=6596252006929664261&gid=6595212254294049286

Wow, that raises some random thoughts.

The orange cave dwelling dwarf crocodile: what is its armour class? how many hit points? How much damage does it do? Does it sit coiled on a hoard of gold and gems?

More seriously* the way to tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator (apart from whether you see it later or after a while) is the length of the snout. The apparent difference between the dwarf crocodile and the orange cave dwelling dwarf crocodile is the width of the band of gaffer tape keeping its jaws shut. (Well, that and the whole being orange and living in a cave thing.) I can see why they tape up the jaws for handling these beasts, but whose job is it to remove the tape? Scope here for bullying the unpopular intern, I think.

Genuinely seriously: interesting that scientists made an initial assumption that the orange cave dwelling ones were ordinary ones which somehow fell into a cave, couldn't get out, and were condemned to spend their lives interpreting the world above from the shadows thrown on the back wall. However, with modern methods, they were able to determine genetically that they were separate species. It's not that long ago that similar mistakes would have gone undetected.

*But not very seriously.
 
A new little octopus.

No matter how deep scientists venture, the ocean always seems to be full of surprises. In late February, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) took a deep-sea robot for a spin near Hawaii, and they stumbled across a single, small octopus unlike any they’d ever seen before.

For a few years, the NOAA has dispatched the ship Okeanos Explorer to oceans all over the world to explore with its deep-diving robot, the Deep Discoverer. For the first dive of the year, the researchers sent the robot to examine the ocean floor northeast of Hawaii’s Necker Island. As it trawled around about two-and-a-half miles below the surface, the Deep Discoverer came across a tiny, ghost-like octopus hanging out on a large, flat rock all by itself, Sarah Laskow reports for Atlas Obscura.

“This octopus is now confusing several of our shore-based scientists who have never seen anything like this,” one of the researchers can be heard saying on a video taken during the dive.

While the octopus resembles some common species of shallow-water octopi, it has some differences that set it apart, the first being its ghostly color. Most octopi have chromatophore pigments, which allow them to change color. But the mysterious little octopus appears to be missing them, which explains its ghostly, iridescent appearance. Researchers also note that it only had a single row of suckers along each tentacle instead of two, Maddie Stone reports for Gizmodo. ...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=socialmedia



Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...nknown-octopus-180958290/#t4IA3dKK5oyVEiKq.99
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Looks kinda cute, which is difficult to say about an octopus.
 
Millipede so rare 'it doesn't even have a name' discovered

A millipede so rare it is "new to science" and does not even have a common name, has been found in Neath Port Talbot.

Youngsters on a Halloween insect hunt found the bug at Craig Gwladus Country Park, near Cilfrew, on 30 October.

It has since been identified as the Turdulisoma cf turdulorum millipede, so rare it is only the third known site where it has been found.

The first was Aberkenfig, Bridgend, in 2017, by local expert Christian Owen.

It was subsequently confirmed as a new species by Dr Jörg Spelda at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Germany.

All findings have been in south Wales, with the Craig Gwladus discovery uncovered among leaf litter and under old wood along the former Gelliau Colliery Tramroad at the park.
(c) BBC '18.
 
also thrush type birds!
 
Wow, that raises some random thoughts.

The orange cave dwelling dwarf crocodile: what is its armour class? how many hit points? How much damage does it do? Does it sit coiled on a hoard of gold and gems?

More seriously* the way to tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator (apart from whether you see it later or after a while) is the length of the snout. The apparent difference between the dwarf crocodile and the orange cave dwelling dwarf crocodile is the width of the band of gaffer tape keeping its jaws shut. (Well, that and the whole being orange and living in a cave thing.) I can see why they tape up the jaws for handling these beasts, but whose job is it to remove the tape? Scope here for bullying the unpopular intern, I think.

Genuinely seriously: interesting that scientists made an initial assumption that the orange cave dwelling ones were ordinary ones which somehow fell into a cave, couldn't get out, and were condemned to spend their lives interpreting the world above from the shadows thrown on the back wall. However, with modern methods, they were able to determine genetically that they were separate species. It's not that long ago that similar mistakes would have gone undetected.

*But not very seriously.
The teeth of the lower jaw of a crocodile are visable when the mouth is shut. The largest alligator is the black caiman at a maximum of 20 feet. The biggest crocodile is the saltwater crocodile at 28 feet and possibly as much as 30. Nile crocs probably top the 25 foot mark on occasion.
 
Is it an orange worm?

A London-based business specializing in sustainable building materials says it has paid $25,000 to name a newly discovered genus of wormlike amphibian after President Donald Trump.

EnviroBuild announced Tuesday that it would be using Dermophis donaldtrumpi as the name for the caecilian — an amphibian with no legs and poor eyesight. The business says the name still will need to undergo peer review, but that other animals have been named after presidents in the past.

Co-founder Aidan Bell authored a blog post that likened the qualities of the animal, which is native to Panama, to Trump.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...like-amphibian-named-donald-trump/2358123002/
 
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Is it an orange worm?

A London-based business specializing in sustainable building materials says it has paid $25,000 to name a newly discovered genus of wormlike amphibian after President Donald Trump.

EnviroBuild announced Tuesday that it would be using Dermophis donaldtrumpi as the name for the caecilian — an amphibian with no legs and poor eyesight. The business says the name still will need to undergo peer review, but that other animals have been named after presidents in the past.

Co-founder Aidan Bell authored a blog post that likened the qualities of the animal, which is native to Panama, to Trump.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...like-amphibian-named-donald-trump/2358123002/
I'm guessing that it excretes through its mouth.
 
Do they taste good?
 
A new diminutive delight.

Indian researchers have discovered a new species of frog - in a roadside puddle.

Sonali Garg, a PhD student at Delhi University, and her supervisor SD Biju found the new species in the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot in southern India. The species belongs to a new Indian frog group or genus which the scientists have named Mysticellus. The name is derived from Latin and means mysterious and diminutive.

The scientists discovered the narrow-mouthed frog after three years of extensive explorations, and have confirmed that it represents an entirely new species and genus of microhylid frogs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47208169
 
Nice new Tarantula.

Scientists discover bizarre tarantula with a soft HORN protruding from the back of its head
  • Researchers discovered the horned tarantulas during surveys in central Angola
  • Though other horned spiders exist, new species is unique in that its horn is soft
  • It hunts insects, is equipped with venom that isn't typically dangerous to humans
PUBLISHED: 23:23, 12 February 2019 | UPDATED: 23:23, 12 February 2019

A new species of tarantula discovered in Angola is quite unlike anything scientists have seen before. The unusual creature boasts a long, backward-facing horn that juts from its head – and, unlike other so-called unicorn spiders, the Angola species’ protuberance is completely soft. Researchers say the new tarantula belongs to a group known as the horned baboon spiders, though the purpose of its strange horn is so far still a mystery.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...uding-head.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
 
Thanks for all the info Lordmongrove. These are some fascinating posts. Sad about the Tapanuli orang-utan, but I do wonder about the veracity of the claim a little (it seems a bit convenient given the context), but saving the wilderness in Indonesia is still very important. I also liked the horned tarantula Ramon, freaky tho it was. But still no Bigfoot huh?
 
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Not a cryptid. However, it is a tiny species of bat, first discovered in Greece in 2001, and then in Britain 9 years after that. Now it has been found in a different location and notably different habitat elsewhere in Britain.

Cute.

From a Fortean point of view, a mammal that is barely known to science despite there being a colony of them in Britain.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-47582943

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They are quite amazing. Even one of a jellyfish!

Speaking of which:

In the deepest chasms of the Indian Ocean, a mysterious new creature's been spotted, potentially for the first time.
Diver Victor Vescovo was on a pioneering trip to the bottom of the Java Trench -- believed to be the deepest point in the Indian Ocean -- as part of the Five Deeps Expedition, that's being filmed for Discovery Channel.


In the trench's murky depths, Vescovo and his team spotted what they think is a previously unseen species of jellyfish.
They captured footage of the creature, which the team describes as an "extraordinary gelatinous animal" which "does not resemble anything seen before."


Photo and story:
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/new-jellyfish-creature-indian-ocean/index.html
 
Mine monsters.

The Beast of Beddau has joined the Maerdy Monster as a new bug species found at old coal mine sites in the UK.

The small, white millipede is one of more than 900 different species found during a three-year study which highlights the importance of colliery spoil sites in south Wales to wildlife.

It was found at the old Cwm Colliery near Beddau, described as one of the most biodiverse in the region.

Researchers had already discovered the 12mm-long Maerdy Monster.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47882928
 
Two new birdies, maybe.


Two new bird species have been discovered by zoologists from Trinity College Dublin while on research trips to the Indonesian islands.

The Wakatobi white-eye and the Wangi-wangi white-eye birds may have been found by the Irish team on islands close to each other but they are very different species. Details of their discovery on the Wakatobi Archipelago of Sulawesi in Indonesia are published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, the journal in which Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace published their game-changing original ideas about the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species in 1858.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/sci...hospital&utm_campaign=morning_briefing_digest
 
A new project which promises great advances.

For centuries biologists have identified new species at a painstakingly slow pace, describing specimens' physical features and other defining traits, and often trying to fit a species into the tree of life before naming and publishing it.

Now, they have begun to determine whether a specimen is likely a novel species in hours—and will soon do so at a cost of pennies. It's a revolution driven by short stretches of DNA—dubbed barcodes in a nod to the familiar product identifiers—that vary just enough to provide species-distinguishing markers, combined with fast, cheap DNA sequencers.

"Biodiversity science is entering a very golden era," says Paul Hebert of the University of Guelph in Canada. On 16 June, a team he leads will launch a $180 million global effort to identify more than 2 million new species of multicellular creatures. Other teams are also adopting the approach to comb samples for new species in their labs—or even directly in the field. With the world losing species faster than they are discovered, biologists are welcoming the technology.

"For many years I dreamed of changing the rules by being able to bring a portable genomic lab [to] where the samples are," says Massimo Delledonne, a genomicist at the University of Verona in Italy who recently performed barcoding studies in a forest on the island of Borneo that quickly revealed a new species of snail. "Field barcoding is now ready for prime time."

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...ly_2019-06-06&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=2850152
 
This thread is being established to contain items relating to the discovery of brand new species.

This scope does not include:


 
A zombie master bee.

A new species of bee fly in Australia has been named after Game of Thrones villain the Night King.

Paramonovius nightking was given its name because it thrives in winter, has a crown of spine-like hairs and turns other insects into "zombies", researchers said.

It is about 1cm long (0.3 inches) and can be found during the winter in a small area of Western Australia.

Some 230 new wildlife species have been named in Australia in the past year.

Paramonovius nightking was originally discovered in 2012 by a pair of "citizen scientists" in Wandoo National Park. Years later, Xuankun Li, a PhD student at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), confirmed that it was a new species.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48824890?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
This small 'squirt' of a shark actually squirts - and it glows!
Pocket-sized shark squirts glowing clouds from pockets

A pocket-sized pocket shark found in the Gulf of Mexico has turned out to be a new species.

And the mysterious pouches that it’s named for, up near its front fins? Scientists say they squirt little glowing clouds into the ocean.

Researchers from around the Gulf and in New York have named the species the American pocket shark, or Mollisquama (mah-lihs-KWAH-muh) mississippiensis (MISS-ih-sip-ee-EHN-sis).

It’s only the third out of more than 500 known shark species that may squirt luminous liquid, said R. Dean Grubbs, a Florida State University scientist who was not involved in the research. He said the other two are the previously known pocket shark and the taillight shark , which has a similar gland near its tail.

“You have this tiny little bulbous luminescent shark cruising around in the world’s oceans and we know nothing about them,” said Grubbs, the immediate past president of the American Elasmobranch Society — scientists who study sharks, skates and rays. “It shows us how little we actually know.” ...

FULL STORY: https://www.apnews.com/55ffecf7b6944f90b3d79391c3ace9db
 
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