New dinosaur species found from museum vaults

Researchers have discovered what they say are the remains of a new horned dinosaur species which has been lying in the vaults of a British museum for nearly a century.


The remains of Spinops sternbergorum, which belongs to the same family as the Triceratops, were excavated from a quarry alongside a large group of fossils in a so-called “bone bed” in Alberta, Canada in 1916.

But the bones were described as “rubbish” by the Natural History Museum’s keeper of Geology at that time, and lay unnoticed for almost 100 years before experts realised they belonged to an undescribed species.

They were rediscovered by a current group of researchers who decided to take another look at the fossils and realised that they were unlike any others known to science.

Dr Andrew Farke, who led the research team, said: “I knew right away that these fossils were something unusual, and it was very exciting to learn about their convoluted history.

“Here we have not just one, but multiple individuals of the same species, so we are confident that it’s not just an odd example of a previously known species,” Dr Farke was quoted as saying a newspaper.

The find means that paleontologists will have to redefine how the horned dinosaur group, plant-eating dinosaurs sporting large horns and bony frills on their necks, are classified.

Dr Paul Barrett, the Natural History Museum’s resident researcher, said: “This discovery is of particular importance as it has implications on the way we use the spines that extend from the bony neck frill, which may have been used for identification between individuals, in our classifications of these animals.

“These embellishments are central to determining relationships between the groups of horned dinosaurs and are a sign of evolutionary relatedness.”

http://www.discoveryon.info/2011/12/new-dinosaur-species-found-from-museum-vaults.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Discoveryon+%28Discoveryon%29

Mummy Crocs Aid in Nile Crocodile Split (via Chad Arment)

Nile crocodile is two species
Discovery has implications for conservation and management of the iconic species.
Ed Yong
The iconic Nile crocodile actually comprises two different species — and they are only distantly related. The large east African Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is in fact more closely related to four species of Caribbean crocodile than to its small west African neighbour, which has been named Crocodylus suchus.

Evon Hekkala of Fordham University in New York and her colleagues revealed evidence for the existence of the second species by sequencing the genes of 123 living Nile crocodiles and 57 museum specimens, including several 2,000-year-old crocodile mummies.

The results1 resolve a centuries-old debate about the classification of the Nile crocodile, and have important implications for the conservation of both species. "The paper has generated a great deal of interest and support," says Grahame Webb, head of the specialist crocodile group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Croc-infested watersHekkala's work began when she received a sample from herpetologist Michael Klemens of the Wildlife Conservation Society. In Chad, Klemens had stumbled across six crocodiles in a small oasis and, at his guide's recommendation, jumped in with them. Puzzled by their docile behaviour, Klemens took tissue from a dead one. He sent the sample to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where Hekkala and her co-workers sequenced it.

"I kept on sequencing it because I was convinced I was 100% wrong," says Hekkala. "It wasn't even remotely related to the Nile crocodile samples I had been working on."

Hekkala's group collected as many Nile crocodile samples as they could find, including several from ancient mummified animals. All of the mummies were of C. suchus, indicating that the ancient Egyptians had recognized the differences between the two reptiles. Indeed, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the Egyptians selectively used a smaller, tamer crocodile in ceremonies and regarded it as sacred.

The name C. suchus was coined in 1807 by the French naturalist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who singled it out as a subspecies of Nile crocodile. However, his ideas were not widely accepted. "He called it the sacred crocodile in one of his papers," says Hekkala. "We've talked about proposing that as a common name."

Hekkala is now working to formally describe the new species. "Crocodiles are generally very hard to tell apart from their exterior features," she says. Even so, unpublished preliminary work suggests that C. suchus and C. niloticus have distinct skulls, and research in the 1970s by the leather industry suggested that they have different scale patterns.

Hekkala says that her results refute the idea of crocodiles as "living fossils" that have remained unchanged for millions of years. "Our paper shows that the true Nile crocs in east Africa are as young as humans are. C. suchus is only slightly older."
Shrinking range

Analysis of the mummified DNA suggests that both species used to overlap throughout Africa. This is no longer the case. " C. suchus seems to have recently gone extinct from suitable habitats in the Nile, perhaps because C. niloticus grows bigger and is far more aggressive," says Dietrich Jelden at the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in Bonn.

While C. suchus was retreating into the dry interior of western Africa, C. niloticus spread across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. From eastern Africa, the crocodiles could have ridden currents that flow around the cape and into the Caribbean. "Traders used these during the slave trade, so transoceanic dispersal isn't unrealistic," says Hekkala, "especially since crocodiles can store sperm and go without eating for up to 10 months."

The shrinking size of C. suchus ' range has immediate implications for conservation. The newly confirmed species is already declining and is under threat from industries such as oil extraction, as well as from unregulated trading of skin and bushmeat.

Meanwhile, the group's finding halves the range of the traditional Nile crocodile. "It's going to shake things up," says Hekkala. The Nile crocodile has long been viewed as a model for the sustainable use of wildlife and several nations had plans to increase their harvest of the species for its skin. Hekkala's discovery could put paid to that. "Some people are going to be very unhappy," she says.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110914/full/news.2011.535.html
---

Scientists thrill to a thousand new animal species in PNG

A FROG with fangs, a blind snake and a round-headed dolphin are among more than 1000 new species that have been recently found in Papua New Guinea, the environment group WWF said yesterday.

A frog with fangs, a blind snake and a round-headed dolphin are among more than 1000 new species that have been recently found in Papua New Guinea, the environment group WWF said yesterday.

Scientists made the astounding discoveries, which included a river shark and dozens of butterflies, at a rate of two a week from 1998 to 2008, WWF said in a report on the island's natural habitat.

"This report shows that New Guinea's forests and rivers are among the richest and most biodiverse in the world," WWF Western Melanesia program representative Neil Stronach said.

PNG's rainforests are the third-biggest in the world after the Amazon and the Congo, and, while the island covers just 0.5 per cent of Earth's land mass, it contains up to 8 per cent of the world's species, according to WWF.

Read more & see video and photos: http://www.news.com.au/world/scientists-thrill-to-a-thousand-new-animal-species-in-png/story-e6frfkyi-1226083727255#ixzz1QZMvihfX

3 February 2011 Last updated at 19:02

New mosquito type raises concern

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Anopheles gambiae is responsible for the vast majority of malaria cases in Africa

Scientists have identified a new type of mosquito.

It is a subgroup of Anopheles gambiae, the insect species responsible for most of the malaria transmission in Africa.

Researchers tell Science magazine that this new mosquito appears to be very susceptible to the parasite that causes the disease - which raises concern.

The type may have evaded classification until now because it rests away from human dwellings where most scientific collections tend to be made.

Dr Michelle Riehle, from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and colleagues made their discovery in Burkina Faso, where they gathered mosquitoes from ponds and puddles near villages over a period of four years.

When they examined these insects in the lab, they found many to be genetically distinct from any A. gambiae insects previously recorded.

The team grew generations of the unique subtype in the lab to assess their susceptibility to the malaria parasite and this revealed them to be especially vulnerable, more so than indoor-resting insect types.

But Pasteur team-member Dr Ken Vernick cautioned that these mosquitoes' significance for malaria transmission had yet to be established.

"We are in a zone where we need to do some footwork in the field to identify a means to capture the wild adults of the outdoor-resting sub-group," he told BBC News.

Larvae are collected from pools of water for study

"Then we can test them and measure their level of infection with malaria, and then we can put a number on how much - if any - of the actual malaria transmission this outdoor-resting subgroup is responsible for."

The researchers report in Science magazine that the new subgroup could be quite a recent development in mosquito evolution and urge further investigation to understand better the consequences for malaria control.

They also emphasise the need for more diverse collection strategies. The subtype is likely to have been missed, they say, because of the widespread practice of collecting mosquitoes for study inside houses. In one sense this has made sense - after biting, mosquitoes need to rest up and if they do this inside dwellings, the confined area will make them an easier target for trapping. However, the method is also likely to introduce a bias into the populations under study.

Commenting on the study, Dr Gareth Lycett, a malaria researcher from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, said it was an interesting advance that might have important implications for tackling malaria.

"To control malaria in an area you need to know what mosquitoes are passing on the disease in that district, and to do that you need sampling methods that record all significant disease vectors," he told BBC News.

"You need to determine what they feed on, when and where, and whether they are infectious. And where non-house-resting mosquitoes are contributing to disease transmission, devise effective control methods that will complement bed-net usage and house spraying. A recent 12m-euro multinational project (AvecNET), funded by the European Union, and led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has the specific aims of doing just this."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 200 million cases of malaria worldwide each year, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, most of them in Africa.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

3 February 2011 Last updated at 19:02

New mosquito type raises concern

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Anopheles gambiae is responsible for the vast majority of malaria cases in Africa

Scientists have identified a new type of mosquito.

It is a subgroup of Anopheles gambiae, the insect species responsible for most of the malaria transmission in Africa.

Researchers tell Science magazine that this new mosquito appears to be very susceptible to the parasite that causes the disease - which raises concern.

The type may have evaded classification until now because it rests away from human dwellings where most scientific collections tend to be made.

Dr Michelle Riehle, from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and colleagues made their discovery in Burkina Faso, where they gathered mosquitoes from ponds and puddles near villages over a period of four years.

When they examined these insects in the lab, they found many to be genetically distinct from any A. gambiae insects previously recorded.

The team grew generations of the unique subtype in the lab to assess their susceptibility to the malaria parasite and this revealed them to be especially vulnerable, more so than indoor-resting insect types.

But Pasteur team-member Dr Ken Vernick cautioned that these mosquitoes' significance for malaria transmission had yet to be established.

"We are in a zone where we need to do some footwork in the field to identify a means to capture the wild adults of the outdoor-resting sub-group," he told BBC News.

Larvae are collected from pools of water for study

"Then we can test them and measure their level of infection with malaria, and then we can put a number on how much - if any - of the actual malaria transmission this outdoor-resting subgroup is responsible for."

The researchers report in Science magazine that the new subgroup could be quite a recent development in mosquito evolution and urge further investigation to understand better the consequences for malaria control.

They also emphasise the need for more diverse collection strategies. The subtype is likely to have been missed, they say, because of the widespread practice of collecting mosquitoes for study inside houses. In one sense this has made sense - after biting, mosquitoes need to rest up and if they do this inside dwellings, the confined area will make them an easier target for trapping. However, the method is also likely to introduce a bias into the populations under study.

Commenting on the study, Dr Gareth Lycett, a malaria researcher from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, said it was an interesting advance that might have important implications for tackling malaria.

"To control malaria in an area you need to know what mosquitoes are passing on the disease in that district, and to do that you need sampling methods that record all significant disease vectors," he told BBC News.

"You need to determine what they feed on, when and where, and whether they are infectious. And where non-house-resting mosquitoes are contributing to disease transmission, devise effective control methods that will complement bed-net usage and house spraying. A recent 12m-euro multinational project (AvecNET), funded by the European Union, and led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has the specific aims of doing just this."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 200 million cases of malaria worldwide each year, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, most of them in Africa.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

New Caddisfly species to the UK discovered

A caddisfly species has been found for the first time in the UK


January 2011. The insect, discovered by Stuart Crofts, was found near a small stream flowing through woodland near Masham, North Yorkshire. The last time a new species of caddisfly was found in the UK was in 1965.

Pollution sensitive insects
Caddisflies are fascinating, spending the majority of their life as larvae in freshwater before emerging as adult flies. They are pollution sensitive insects and commonly used as a litmus test for the health of the environment. They help support healthy bird and fish populations as they provide an important food source and they are often imitated by fly-fishermen in their artificial flies to catch fish.

Synagapetus dubitans, is a small caddisfly of around 5mm. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I identified it" said Stuart Crofts, a former international fly fisherman and Coordinator of the Adult Caddisfly Occurrence Scheme. "To find a species new to the UK is amazing, a great honour and very humbling experience".

"The discovery of a new species of caddisfly in the UK is fantastic news." said Craig Macadam, Conservation Officer with Buglife. "Springs and seepages in woodlands can be very important habitats. Now that we know this species is here we can help to protect its habitat."

Synagapetus dubitans is more commonly found in central Europe

Courtesy of The Riverfly Partnership, Riverfly Recording Schemes and Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/caddisfly.html

New Caddisfly species to the UK discovered

A caddisfly species has been found for the first time in the UK


January 2011. The insect, discovered by Stuart Crofts, was found near a small stream flowing through woodland near Masham, North Yorkshire. The last time a new species of caddisfly was found in the UK was in 1965.

Pollution sensitive insects
Caddisflies are fascinating, spending the majority of their life as larvae in freshwater before emerging as adult flies. They are pollution sensitive insects and commonly used as a litmus test for the health of the environment. They help support healthy bird and fish populations as they provide an important food source and they are often imitated by fly-fishermen in their artificial flies to catch fish.

Synagapetus dubitans, is a small caddisfly of around 5mm. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing when I identified it" said Stuart Crofts, a former international fly fisherman and Coordinator of the Adult Caddisfly Occurrence Scheme. "To find a species new to the UK is amazing, a great honour and very humbling experience".

"The discovery of a new species of caddisfly in the UK is fantastic news." said Craig Macadam, Conservation Officer with Buglife. "Springs and seepages in woodlands can be very important habitats. Now that we know this species is here we can help to protect its habitat."

Synagapetus dubitans is more commonly found in central Europe

Courtesy of The Riverfly Partnership, Riverfly Recording Schemes and Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/caddisfly.html

A menagerie under the sea

A 10-year ‘census’ of the world’s oceans has brought over a thousand previously unknown species to light, with hints that there are many more.

God told Adam in the Garden of Eden to name all the fowl of the air and beasts of the field – but not the fishes, which he couldn’t see. That was left to the just-completed, decade-long first Census of Marine Life, in which 2,700 researchers from more than 80 countries – including Israel – participated.


The $650 million census spanned oceans from the North Pole to Antarctica and smaller seas such as our own Mediterranean, from the surfaces to the depths. It used divers, submersible vehicles, nets, sonar, electronic and acoustic tagging, genetic identification, listening posts and communications satellites to count some 250,000 species, including 1,200 newly discovered ones, from microscopic to large mammals. They also took 5,000 specimens in glass jars awaiting taxonomic description.

The researchers discovered cold-water corals extending off Mauritania in North Africa for over 400 kilometers and half a kilometer deep that comprised one of the world’s longest reefs. They tested a Caribbean clam species found to have thrived for at least 65 million years even though it had been thought extinct in the early 1800s. And off the coast of Chile are newly discovered microbial mats covering an area the size of Greece.

But it is only the beginning, as according to Jesse Ausubel – a co-founder of the global project who works for Rockefeller University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that helped fund the census – an estimated one billion marine species actually exist.

BUT THE census not only counted the known species and discovered new ones; it also assessed the movements of species and – using historical databases – learned whether they have grown increased or are disappearing due to environmental factors.

A vast amount of information, videos and photos is available at its official Web site at www.coml.org.

Ausubel and Prof. Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marché (who focused on the Mediterranean) came to Israel recently to discuss the census and brief marine scientists at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem.

Among the local experts who took part in the census were Prof. Yossi Loya, a marine ecologist at Tel Aviv University’s zoology department and a member of the prestigious academy; Prof. Alex Keynan, an academy senior adviser who was the director of the Biological Institute in Nes Ziona in the 1950s and 1960s; Aahron Kaplan of the Eilat InterUniversity Marine Station; Ruthy Gertwagen of the University of Haifa; and Barak Herut, director-general of Haifa’s Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute.

The all-day session discussing the findings and impact of the census was chaired by academy president Prof. Ruth Arnon.

KEYNAN TOLD the audience that Ausubel, with whom he has cooperated for 20 years, was the “first scientist to identify the phenomenon of global warming” and the man in charge of many ambitious marine study projects.

The New York expert noted that 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water; when continents are left black on a world map and the water given color, it is an unusual image indeed.

“The oceans are getting crowded and being used more, even though much remains unexplored. The number of large ships weighing over 100 gross tons has tripled since 1960,” he said.

“There are oil drillers, fishing trawlers, wind propellers to produce electric power and undersea wave machines. Ships travel such a large variety of routes that a depiction of them looks like a railroad map. Undersea telecommunications cables have been laid everywhere.

“There are offshore gas and oil fields in the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, off Indonesia and in other locations.” Ausubel added that there has always been natural noise in the seas from underground earthquakes and the presence of whales and other creatures. But with shipping and other human interventions, the level of noise now doubles every decade and affects marine creatures. “Soon, there will be more human noise in the oceans than natural noise.”

COMPARING THE new data on marine species’ numbers, habitats and behaviors with those obtained from documents going back millennia – Greek philosopher Aristotle in the Fourth Century BCE identified crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks and fish, and is often referred to as the father of marine biology – has now produced much information on changes, said Ausubel. During the project, participants have written many books, some of them put online. The census also produced a documentary film titled Oceans that has had $83 million in box office income so far, making it the fourth most successful documentary ever.

“The public took huge interest in the discoveries,” Ausubel said. Even sculptures were made based on the images, and songs were written about the creatures.

“There are also thousands of new technical papers. We looked at the diversity, kinds, distribution and abundance of marine creatures and where they travel, and we found that life in the oceans is richer than we imagined. The species are more connected and more scattered since earlier in human history,” he said. But many of the larger species are endangered compared to the smaller and microscopic species. Certain kinds of fish have declined in number by 90%. There is clearly a decline in the abundance of many species; it is very worrisome and saddening. But at the same time, seals and some whales, as well as sea birds, have recovered a lot. Chinese researchers found a lot of jellyfish species.”

According to Ausubel, new habitats are created even when a whale dies and sinks to the sea floor.

“A whole community can form around it. Even an empty dollhouse suspended under the surface can, over time, develop into a home for a variety of marine species,” he noted.

“Mud volcanoes near Spain and Portugal have produced new varieties of creatures.” One creature with rasta-like hair was named for the late reggae singer Bob Marley, while a new deepwater lobster discovered by Ausubel himself in 2007 in the Philippine Sea was called Dinochelus ausubeli; “my mother had a T-shirt with its image on it.”

The scientists discovered sea worms in the Gulf of Mexico with a lifespan of 500 to 600 years.

“Israelis have discovered plenty of worms that can actually find oil,” Ausubel said in his lecture.

“We prepared maps and found that many creatures lived where the Gulf of Mexico oil spill took place. Comparisons can be made of before and after.”

There are also “alien species” that, when geographical changes occurred, arrived in oceans and seas where they were not native. “The digging of the Suez Canal made the Mediterranean Sea the capital of 800 alien species. Some animals such as southern elephant seals and bluefin tuna swim great distances and are very cosmopolitan,” said Ausubel.

“Some are making incredible journeys – both vertical and horizontal. There are shrimp that can climb 400 meters up and down, as if they were on the Eiffel Tower.”

Census scientists developed ways to use graphic images to depict characteristics of species. For example, “hot spots” containing a large number of a certain certain type of creature; on a map, they appear as squares of a certain color.

Many creatures underwent analysis of their mitochondrial DNA, with each getting a barcode.

Ausubel noted that high school pupils in New York “bought a lot of sushi, extracted DNA and then persuaded scientists to identify the types of fish. It turned out that half of the sushi sold in NY is mislabelled. Cheap tilapia was presented as pricey albacore tuna.”
The Italian researcher Danovaro said that the Mediterranean Sea will not become more salty due to the proliferation of desalination plants that leave salt residue behind.


Instead, the melting of Arctic glaciers due to global warming will make the Mediterranean and oceans less saline, he suggested.

Danovaro, on his first visit to Israel, said the Israeli scientists had been very valuable to the project. Although the body of water on Israel’s west coast comprises only 0.8%of the world’s seas, it contains 6% of its marine life, said Danovaro.

But larger species such as sharks have been nearly wiped out by pollution, fishing and other causes, allowing smaller creatures, such as nematode worms, to thrive.

At the beginning of the census, Danovaro discovered a multi-celled sea creature near Crete that was the first known to live in an environment totally lacking oxygen. It is found in salt pockets at a depth of 3.5 kilometers – a very hostile environment, and as salty as the Dead Sea. It receives its energy, he said, by bonding with sulfates and sulfides in the water.

He worked with a team of researchers to retreive sediment samples from a deep salty basin that lacked oxygen bubbles in the water.

He studied them for signs of life.

“These extreme envirionments have been thought to be exclusively inhabited by viruses, bacteria and archaea.

The bodies of multicellular animals were previously discovered, but were thought to have sunk there from upper – oxygenated – waters. Our results indicate that the animals we recovered were alive. Some, in fact, also contained eggs.”

The creatures his team found were new members of the group Loricifera that were active and apparently reproducing despite a complete absense of oxygen. After Danovaro’s discovery, it is believed that more like it will be found.

The eastern Mediterranean is considerably warmer than the waters at the other end, near Spain and Portugal, said Danovaro, thus very different species live in each spot.

“But some important species have decreased so much that they don’t have an ecological role anymore. This is a threat to biodiversity, with more pollution, acidification and temperature changes affecting species.

“But at least the marine life maps of the Mediterranean are much better now than they were before.”


By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=201805

A menagerie under the sea

A 10-year ‘census’ of the world’s oceans has brought over a thousand previously unknown species to light, with hints that there are many more.

God told Adam in the Garden of Eden to name all the fowl of the air and beasts of the field – but not the fishes, which he couldn’t see. That was left to the just-completed, decade-long first Census of Marine Life, in which 2,700 researchers from more than 80 countries – including Israel – participated.


The $650 million census spanned oceans from the North Pole to Antarctica and smaller seas such as our own Mediterranean, from the surfaces to the depths. It used divers, submersible vehicles, nets, sonar, electronic and acoustic tagging, genetic identification, listening posts and communications satellites to count some 250,000 species, including 1,200 newly discovered ones, from microscopic to large mammals. They also took 5,000 specimens in glass jars awaiting taxonomic description.

The researchers discovered cold-water corals extending off Mauritania in North Africa for over 400 kilometers and half a kilometer deep that comprised one of the world’s longest reefs. They tested a Caribbean clam species found to have thrived for at least 65 million years even though it had been thought extinct in the early 1800s. And off the coast of Chile are newly discovered microbial mats covering an area the size of Greece.

But it is only the beginning, as according to Jesse Ausubel – a co-founder of the global project who works for Rockefeller University and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that helped fund the census – an estimated one billion marine species actually exist.

BUT THE census not only counted the known species and discovered new ones; it also assessed the movements of species and – using historical databases – learned whether they have grown increased or are disappearing due to environmental factors.

A vast amount of information, videos and photos is available at its official Web site at www.coml.org.

Ausubel and Prof. Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marché (who focused on the Mediterranean) came to Israel recently to discuss the census and brief marine scientists at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem.

Among the local experts who took part in the census were Prof. Yossi Loya, a marine ecologist at Tel Aviv University’s zoology department and a member of the prestigious academy; Prof. Alex Keynan, an academy senior adviser who was the director of the Biological Institute in Nes Ziona in the 1950s and 1960s; Aahron Kaplan of the Eilat InterUniversity Marine Station; Ruthy Gertwagen of the University of Haifa; and Barak Herut, director-general of Haifa’s Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute.

The all-day session discussing the findings and impact of the census was chaired by academy president Prof. Ruth Arnon.

KEYNAN TOLD the audience that Ausubel, with whom he has cooperated for 20 years, was the “first scientist to identify the phenomenon of global warming” and the man in charge of many ambitious marine study projects.

The New York expert noted that 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water; when continents are left black on a world map and the water given color, it is an unusual image indeed.

“The oceans are getting crowded and being used more, even though much remains unexplored. The number of large ships weighing over 100 gross tons has tripled since 1960,” he said.

“There are oil drillers, fishing trawlers, wind propellers to produce electric power and undersea wave machines. Ships travel such a large variety of routes that a depiction of them looks like a railroad map. Undersea telecommunications cables have been laid everywhere.

“There are offshore gas and oil fields in the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, off Indonesia and in other locations.” Ausubel added that there has always been natural noise in the seas from underground earthquakes and the presence of whales and other creatures. But with shipping and other human interventions, the level of noise now doubles every decade and affects marine creatures. “Soon, there will be more human noise in the oceans than natural noise.”

COMPARING THE new data on marine species’ numbers, habitats and behaviors with those obtained from documents going back millennia – Greek philosopher Aristotle in the Fourth Century BCE identified crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks and fish, and is often referred to as the father of marine biology – has now produced much information on changes, said Ausubel. During the project, participants have written many books, some of them put online. The census also produced a documentary film titled Oceans that has had $83 million in box office income so far, making it the fourth most successful documentary ever.

“The public took huge interest in the discoveries,” Ausubel said. Even sculptures were made based on the images, and songs were written about the creatures.

“There are also thousands of new technical papers. We looked at the diversity, kinds, distribution and abundance of marine creatures and where they travel, and we found that life in the oceans is richer than we imagined. The species are more connected and more scattered since earlier in human history,” he said. But many of the larger species are endangered compared to the smaller and microscopic species. Certain kinds of fish have declined in number by 90%. There is clearly a decline in the abundance of many species; it is very worrisome and saddening. But at the same time, seals and some whales, as well as sea birds, have recovered a lot. Chinese researchers found a lot of jellyfish species.”

According to Ausubel, new habitats are created even when a whale dies and sinks to the sea floor.

“A whole community can form around it. Even an empty dollhouse suspended under the surface can, over time, develop into a home for a variety of marine species,” he noted.

“Mud volcanoes near Spain and Portugal have produced new varieties of creatures.” One creature with rasta-like hair was named for the late reggae singer Bob Marley, while a new deepwater lobster discovered by Ausubel himself in 2007 in the Philippine Sea was called Dinochelus ausubeli; “my mother had a T-shirt with its image on it.”

The scientists discovered sea worms in the Gulf of Mexico with a lifespan of 500 to 600 years.

“Israelis have discovered plenty of worms that can actually find oil,” Ausubel said in his lecture.

“We prepared maps and found that many creatures lived where the Gulf of Mexico oil spill took place. Comparisons can be made of before and after.”

There are also “alien species” that, when geographical changes occurred, arrived in oceans and seas where they were not native. “The digging of the Suez Canal made the Mediterranean Sea the capital of 800 alien species. Some animals such as southern elephant seals and bluefin tuna swim great distances and are very cosmopolitan,” said Ausubel.

“Some are making incredible journeys – both vertical and horizontal. There are shrimp that can climb 400 meters up and down, as if they were on the Eiffel Tower.”

Census scientists developed ways to use graphic images to depict characteristics of species. For example, “hot spots” containing a large number of a certain certain type of creature; on a map, they appear as squares of a certain color.

Many creatures underwent analysis of their mitochondrial DNA, with each getting a barcode.

Ausubel noted that high school pupils in New York “bought a lot of sushi, extracted DNA and then persuaded scientists to identify the types of fish. It turned out that half of the sushi sold in NY is mislabelled. Cheap tilapia was presented as pricey albacore tuna.”
The Italian researcher Danovaro said that the Mediterranean Sea will not become more salty due to the proliferation of desalination plants that leave salt residue behind.


Instead, the melting of Arctic glaciers due to global warming will make the Mediterranean and oceans less saline, he suggested.

Danovaro, on his first visit to Israel, said the Israeli scientists had been very valuable to the project. Although the body of water on Israel’s west coast comprises only 0.8%of the world’s seas, it contains 6% of its marine life, said Danovaro.

But larger species such as sharks have been nearly wiped out by pollution, fishing and other causes, allowing smaller creatures, such as nematode worms, to thrive.

At the beginning of the census, Danovaro discovered a multi-celled sea creature near Crete that was the first known to live in an environment totally lacking oxygen. It is found in salt pockets at a depth of 3.5 kilometers – a very hostile environment, and as salty as the Dead Sea. It receives its energy, he said, by bonding with sulfates and sulfides in the water.

He worked with a team of researchers to retreive sediment samples from a deep salty basin that lacked oxygen bubbles in the water.

He studied them for signs of life.

“These extreme envirionments have been thought to be exclusively inhabited by viruses, bacteria and archaea.

The bodies of multicellular animals were previously discovered, but were thought to have sunk there from upper – oxygenated – waters. Our results indicate that the animals we recovered were alive. Some, in fact, also contained eggs.”

The creatures his team found were new members of the group Loricifera that were active and apparently reproducing despite a complete absense of oxygen. After Danovaro’s discovery, it is believed that more like it will be found.

The eastern Mediterranean is considerably warmer than the waters at the other end, near Spain and Portugal, said Danovaro, thus very different species live in each spot.

“But some important species have decreased so much that they don’t have an ecological role anymore. This is a threat to biodiversity, with more pollution, acidification and temperature changes affecting species.

“But at least the marine life maps of the Mediterranean are much better now than they were before.”


By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=201805

New species abound in Peru, but so do threats

By Roberto Cortijo (AFP)


LIMA — Each year, a new bird is found and every four years a new mammal discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, a haven for biodiversity where conservation and danger often go hand in hand.

Although Peru is known for its Andes mountain range, the Amazon actually covers 60 percent of the country's territory. It is a hotbed of bio-activity and is home to 25,000 species of plants -- 10 percent of the world's stock.

Thanks to the Amazon, Peru has the world's second-largest bird population (1,800 species) and is among the top five countries for mammals (515 species) and reptiles (418 species).

This year alone, scientists stumbled upon a previously unknown leech and a new type of mosquito.

The animal population has grown in recent years, namely adding a mini poison dart frog with a fire-red head and blue legs (Ranitomeya amazonica), a purple-throated Sunangel hummingbird (Heliangelus viola) and a "tyrannosaurus leech" with eight teeth (Tyrannobdella reina).

More than 1,200 new species of plants or animals have been discovered in 10 years in the Amazon, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature. But paradoxically, the novel species are often discovered during the very activities that threaten the Amazon the most.

"Most of these discoveries don't happen during scientific expeditions, which are often costly. They most often come when workers are digging exploration sites for oil, mining or lumber companies," said WWF Peru's Amazon program director Michael Valqui.

"This type of discovery is also simultaneously endangering the species that is being discovered in its one and only habitat."

Peru, home to one of the biggest forest lands -- 700,000 square kilometers (270,270 square miles) -- is also a magnet for resource extraction.

The number of concessions granted has doubled since 2006 to cover 16 percent of the territory, according to the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America.

At the same time, Peru boasts of being on the cutting edge of conservation, with 15 percent of its territory under protected status.

"And we're aiming for 30 percent," said Environment Minister Antonio Brack.

Environmentalists, though, worry about the future of biodiversity and the species living outside these protected zones.

"There are no clear signals as to what the country intends to do to protect biodiversity," said Ivan Lanegra, representative of the influential government-funded Peruvian ombudsman office.

Gerard Herail of France's IRD research and development institute in Lima noted that "a mining or hydrocarbons firm is not innately destructive. The key is whether or not it is 'clean'," or uses cleaner methods and technologies.

More species are disappearing than are being discovered around the world, noted Ernesto Raez, who heads the Sustainable Development Center at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima.

"In other words, species are disappearing before we discover them," he added.

But the IRD says the very context of their disappearance allows the group to "develop biodiversity conservation strategies," such as those deployed successfully for the huge arapaima or paiche fish (Arapaima gigas), one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Twenty-one species remain in "critical danger" of extinction in Peru, according to 2004 numbers, including the short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata) and the sharp-eared bat (Tompoeas ravus). The leaf-eared mouse (phyllotis andinum) is believed to have already disappeared.

The Lima gecko (Phyllodactylus sentosus), a minuscule nocturnal lizard also in critical danger, illustrates the sometimes complex relationship between threat and conservation.

The gecko finds its habitat in the darkest corners of the huacas, pre-Hispanic burial grounds or ritual sites that dot Lima and the coast.

"But archeologists' maintenance work, crucial for conservation, is exactly what's destroying the gecko's habitat" and triggering its downfall, said Valqui.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g_3zOtgQRjjeXOrm-Ds2PlylB39Q?docId=CNG.081ed8ef951580bf2ea69716935b211d.441

New species abound in Peru, but so do threats

By Roberto Cortijo (AFP)


LIMA — Each year, a new bird is found and every four years a new mammal discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, a haven for biodiversity where conservation and danger often go hand in hand.

Although Peru is known for its Andes mountain range, the Amazon actually covers 60 percent of the country's territory. It is a hotbed of bio-activity and is home to 25,000 species of plants -- 10 percent of the world's stock.

Thanks to the Amazon, Peru has the world's second-largest bird population (1,800 species) and is among the top five countries for mammals (515 species) and reptiles (418 species).

This year alone, scientists stumbled upon a previously unknown leech and a new type of mosquito.

The animal population has grown in recent years, namely adding a mini poison dart frog with a fire-red head and blue legs (Ranitomeya amazonica), a purple-throated Sunangel hummingbird (Heliangelus viola) and a "tyrannosaurus leech" with eight teeth (Tyrannobdella reina).

More than 1,200 new species of plants or animals have been discovered in 10 years in the Amazon, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature. But paradoxically, the novel species are often discovered during the very activities that threaten the Amazon the most.

"Most of these discoveries don't happen during scientific expeditions, which are often costly. They most often come when workers are digging exploration sites for oil, mining or lumber companies," said WWF Peru's Amazon program director Michael Valqui.

"This type of discovery is also simultaneously endangering the species that is being discovered in its one and only habitat."

Peru, home to one of the biggest forest lands -- 700,000 square kilometers (270,270 square miles) -- is also a magnet for resource extraction.

The number of concessions granted has doubled since 2006 to cover 16 percent of the territory, according to the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America.

At the same time, Peru boasts of being on the cutting edge of conservation, with 15 percent of its territory under protected status.

"And we're aiming for 30 percent," said Environment Minister Antonio Brack.

Environmentalists, though, worry about the future of biodiversity and the species living outside these protected zones.

"There are no clear signals as to what the country intends to do to protect biodiversity," said Ivan Lanegra, representative of the influential government-funded Peruvian ombudsman office.

Gerard Herail of France's IRD research and development institute in Lima noted that "a mining or hydrocarbons firm is not innately destructive. The key is whether or not it is 'clean'," or uses cleaner methods and technologies.

More species are disappearing than are being discovered around the world, noted Ernesto Raez, who heads the Sustainable Development Center at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima.

"In other words, species are disappearing before we discover them," he added.

But the IRD says the very context of their disappearance allows the group to "develop biodiversity conservation strategies," such as those deployed successfully for the huge arapaima or paiche fish (Arapaima gigas), one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Twenty-one species remain in "critical danger" of extinction in Peru, according to 2004 numbers, including the short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata) and the sharp-eared bat (Tompoeas ravus). The leaf-eared mouse (phyllotis andinum) is believed to have already disappeared.

The Lima gecko (Phyllodactylus sentosus), a minuscule nocturnal lizard also in critical danger, illustrates the sometimes complex relationship between threat and conservation.

The gecko finds its habitat in the darkest corners of the huacas, pre-Hispanic burial grounds or ritual sites that dot Lima and the coast.

"But archeologists' maintenance work, crucial for conservation, is exactly what's destroying the gecko's habitat" and triggering its downfall, said Valqui.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g_3zOtgQRjjeXOrm-Ds2PlylB39Q?docId=CNG.081ed8ef951580bf2ea69716935b211d.441

Leapin’ lizards! KU graduate student discovers a new species

The Associated Press

A University of Kansas graduate student was on the hunt for a new lizard species and found it in Vietnam — on a restaurant menu.

A colleague in Vietnam told Jesse Grismer last year about the possibility of a new species in Vietnam and sent him photos and tissue samples. Grismer tested the samples for mitochondrial DNA and realized they were probably dealing with something new.

Grismer went to Vietnam in search of the lizard with his father, Lee Grismer, a biology professor at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. They headed to a restaurant in the Ca Mau region on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where they had heard the lizard was on the menu.

The restaurant was all out of the lizard meat, but Grismer said he did eventually taste the new species of lizard, which they named after the scientist and family friend in Vietnam, Ngo Van Tri, who told them about it. It’s called Leilolepis ngovantrii.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/26/2543671/leapin-lizards-a-new-species.html

Leapin’ lizards! KU graduate student discovers a new species

The Associated Press

A University of Kansas graduate student was on the hunt for a new lizard species and found it in Vietnam — on a restaurant menu.

A colleague in Vietnam told Jesse Grismer last year about the possibility of a new species in Vietnam and sent him photos and tissue samples. Grismer tested the samples for mitochondrial DNA and realized they were probably dealing with something new.

Grismer went to Vietnam in search of the lizard with his father, Lee Grismer, a biology professor at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. They headed to a restaurant in the Ca Mau region on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where they had heard the lizard was on the menu.

The restaurant was all out of the lizard meat, but Grismer said he did eventually taste the new species of lizard, which they named after the scientist and family friend in Vietnam, Ngo Van Tri, who told them about it. It’s called Leilolepis ngovantrii.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/26/2543671/leapin-lizards-a-new-species.html

Scientists investigate potential new lemur species (via Chad Arment)

Shanta Barley

The Guardian,
Scientists believe they have discovered a new species of lemur in the forests of Madagascar.

The animal's unique, feathery structure under its tongue – that may be used to gather nectar – distinguishes it as a new species, researchers say. They are waiting for the results of a genetic analysis to confirm the claim.

Primatologist Russ Mittermeier, who is now the president of Conservation International, first glimpsed the lemur in 1995 in Daraina, a forest in north-east Madagascar. It had a black stripe on its back that forked on its face, suggesting to Mittermeier that it was a fork-marked lemur belonging to the genus phaner.

"I was surprised to see a fork-marked lemur there, since this animal had not yet been recorded from the region," he said. "I immediately knew that it was likely a new species to science."

It was not until October this year, however, that Mittermeier returned to Daraina, along with a film crew from the BBC's Natural History Unit, to investigate. After hearing the distinctive calls of a fork-marked lemur, the team tracked it through the forest and shot it with a tranquilliser gun. They took blood samples from the lemur for genetic analysis and returned it to the wild when it regained consciousness.

Footage of the lemur will air tomorrow on the BBC programme, Decades of Discovery, in which filmmaker Chris Packham goes in search of his top 10 favourite new species of the last decade.

Although the results from the genetic analysis have not yet been revealed, Mittermeier is convinced that the creature is a new species of fork-marked lemur that is uniquely adapted to the forests of Dairana. Sandwiched between its toothcomb and tongue is a "strange structure" that has never been seen before in species belonging to the phaner genus, according to Mittermeier. White and feathery, the structure flicks upwards when the lemur's tongue is extended. He believes that it helps the lemur to capture nectar.

Apart from the strange structure in its mouth, the lemur is otherwise very similar in appearance to other species of fork-crowned lemur. It has a "toothcomb" – a mesh of incisors that it uses to scrape tree sap off bark – and a long, spindly tongue that it uses to eat nectar and tree sap. It also sounds a loud, high-pitched call just after sunset and leaps between branches without pausing.

There are four known species of phaner – or fork-marked – lemur: the Amber mountain fork-marked dwarf lemur, the eastern fork-marked dwarf lemur, the western fork-crowned dwarf lemur and the Sambirano fork-crowned dwarf lemur. Although 42 species of lemur have been discovered in Madagascar since 2000, not a single new species belonging to the phaner genus has been found. "This would be the first, and that's very exciting," Mittermeier said.

"This is yet another remarkable discovery from the island of Madagascar, the world's highest priority biodiversity hotspot and one of the most extraordinary places in our planet," Mittermeier said. "It is particularly remarkable that we continue to find new species of lemurs and many other plants and animals in this heavily impacted country, which has already lost 90% or more of its original vegetation."

Linn Groeneveld, a primatologist based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is sceptical of Mittermeier's claims, however. "A great number of new lemur species have been described in the last decades and I think people have rightly so expressed concern about the validity of some of these species. I believe that we should use an integrative approach to species delimitation, which relies on multiple lines of evidence."

According to Groeneveld, conservationists are sometimes too hasty to declare the discovery of new species, because it helps them to protect threatened ecosystems. "Every new - especially primate - species can serve as an extra argument for the much needed protection of remaining forest," she said. But not everyone agrees. According to Christopher Golden, who researches Madagascan conservation at the University of California in Berkeley, even the discovery of a new species of lemur will not be enough to protect Madagascar's forests.

"Discoveries of new species have historically altered the fate of threatened ecosystems during the era of the Durban Vision, but since the change in political regime, the hope for illuminating hidden biodiversity to enhance incentives for conservation has been lost amid political strife," said Golden. The Durban Vision was a promise made by former president Marc Ravalomanana to triple the area of the country's national parks. It was sidetracked in March 2009, when a violent coup overturned the government, according to Golden.

In addition to footage of the potentially new species of lemur, the BBC programme will include exclusive footage of a host of other unusual, recently discovered species. On the list is the pygmy three-toed sloth, the sengi; Chan's megastick – the world's longest insect, and the bamboo shark, which walks along the sea bed on fins.

Also featured in the documentary is the barreleye, a deep sea fish with a transparent head that protects its tubular, green eyes from the stinging tentacles of the jellyfish that it eats. In 2009, footage of the fish captured by remotely operated vehicles at a depth of 700m revealed that the eyes point upwards when the fish is looking for food, and swivel forwards when it is feeding.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/13/lemur-species-madagascar?CMP=twt_fd



----

Adios

Scientists investigate potential new lemur species (via Chad Arment)

Shanta Barley

The Guardian,
Scientists believe they have discovered a new species of lemur in the forests of Madagascar.

The animal's unique, feathery structure under its tongue – that may be used to gather nectar – distinguishes it as a new species, researchers say. They are waiting for the results of a genetic analysis to confirm the claim.

Primatologist Russ Mittermeier, who is now the president of Conservation International, first glimpsed the lemur in 1995 in Daraina, a forest in north-east Madagascar. It had a black stripe on its back that forked on its face, suggesting to Mittermeier that it was a fork-marked lemur belonging to the genus phaner.

"I was surprised to see a fork-marked lemur there, since this animal had not yet been recorded from the region," he said. "I immediately knew that it was likely a new species to science."

It was not until October this year, however, that Mittermeier returned to Daraina, along with a film crew from the BBC's Natural History Unit, to investigate. After hearing the distinctive calls of a fork-marked lemur, the team tracked it through the forest and shot it with a tranquilliser gun. They took blood samples from the lemur for genetic analysis and returned it to the wild when it regained consciousness.

Footage of the lemur will air tomorrow on the BBC programme, Decades of Discovery, in which filmmaker Chris Packham goes in search of his top 10 favourite new species of the last decade.

Although the results from the genetic analysis have not yet been revealed, Mittermeier is convinced that the creature is a new species of fork-marked lemur that is uniquely adapted to the forests of Dairana. Sandwiched between its toothcomb and tongue is a "strange structure" that has never been seen before in species belonging to the phaner genus, according to Mittermeier. White and feathery, the structure flicks upwards when the lemur's tongue is extended. He believes that it helps the lemur to capture nectar.

Apart from the strange structure in its mouth, the lemur is otherwise very similar in appearance to other species of fork-crowned lemur. It has a "toothcomb" – a mesh of incisors that it uses to scrape tree sap off bark – and a long, spindly tongue that it uses to eat nectar and tree sap. It also sounds a loud, high-pitched call just after sunset and leaps between branches without pausing.

There are four known species of phaner – or fork-marked – lemur: the Amber mountain fork-marked dwarf lemur, the eastern fork-marked dwarf lemur, the western fork-crowned dwarf lemur and the Sambirano fork-crowned dwarf lemur. Although 42 species of lemur have been discovered in Madagascar since 2000, not a single new species belonging to the phaner genus has been found. "This would be the first, and that's very exciting," Mittermeier said.

"This is yet another remarkable discovery from the island of Madagascar, the world's highest priority biodiversity hotspot and one of the most extraordinary places in our planet," Mittermeier said. "It is particularly remarkable that we continue to find new species of lemurs and many other plants and animals in this heavily impacted country, which has already lost 90% or more of its original vegetation."

Linn Groeneveld, a primatologist based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is sceptical of Mittermeier's claims, however. "A great number of new lemur species have been described in the last decades and I think people have rightly so expressed concern about the validity of some of these species. I believe that we should use an integrative approach to species delimitation, which relies on multiple lines of evidence."

According to Groeneveld, conservationists are sometimes too hasty to declare the discovery of new species, because it helps them to protect threatened ecosystems. "Every new - especially primate - species can serve as an extra argument for the much needed protection of remaining forest," she said. But not everyone agrees. According to Christopher Golden, who researches Madagascan conservation at the University of California in Berkeley, even the discovery of a new species of lemur will not be enough to protect Madagascar's forests.

"Discoveries of new species have historically altered the fate of threatened ecosystems during the era of the Durban Vision, but since the change in political regime, the hope for illuminating hidden biodiversity to enhance incentives for conservation has been lost amid political strife," said Golden. The Durban Vision was a promise made by former president Marc Ravalomanana to triple the area of the country's national parks. It was sidetracked in March 2009, when a violent coup overturned the government, according to Golden.

In addition to footage of the potentially new species of lemur, the BBC programme will include exclusive footage of a host of other unusual, recently discovered species. On the list is the pygmy three-toed sloth, the sengi; Chan's megastick – the world's longest insect, and the bamboo shark, which walks along the sea bed on fins.

Also featured in the documentary is the barreleye, a deep sea fish with a transparent head that protects its tubular, green eyes from the stinging tentacles of the jellyfish that it eats. In 2009, footage of the fish captured by remotely operated vehicles at a depth of 700m revealed that the eyes point upwards when the fish is looking for food, and swivel forwards when it is feeding.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/13/lemur-species-madagascar?CMP=twt_fd



----

Adios

New bird species recognised in Australia – Critically endangered

DNA uncovers one of the world's rarest birds

November 2010. A team of Australian researchers involving DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has identified a new, critically endangered species of ground parrot in Western Australia.

The team, led by Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Dr Stephen Murphy, used DNA from museum specimens up to 160 years old to reveal that populations of ground parrots in eastern and western Australia are highly distinct from each other and that the western populations should be recognized as a new species, Pezoporus flaviventris.

Only 110 Western Ground parrots left alive
"The discovery has major conservation implications," said Dr Murphy. "The Western Ground parrot has declined rapidly in the last 20 years, there are now only about 110 birds surviving in the wild and most of these are confined to a single national park. It is now one of the world's rarest birds."

Highly vulnerable
WA Department of Environment and Conservation's Dr Allan Burbidge said: "A single wildfire through the national park or an influx of introduced predators, such as cats, could rapidly push the species to extinction. There is now an urgent need to prevent further population declines and to establish insurance populations into parts of the former range."

Old museum collections are still relevant
"Our findings demonstrate that museum collections, some going back more than 150 years, continue to be relevant and can provide critical information for understanding and conserving the world's biodiversity into the future," said team member Dr Jeremy Austin, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, Dr Leo Joseph, said: "Even after 200 years of study, we are still recognizing new species of birds in Australia. This finding highlights the need for further research on Australia's unique, and sometimes cryptic, biodiversity."

The team's findings have been published this month in the international conservation research journal Conservation Genetics.

New bird species recognised in Australia – Critically endangered

DNA uncovers one of the world's rarest birds

November 2010. A team of Australian researchers involving DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has identified a new, critically endangered species of ground parrot in Western Australia.

The team, led by Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Dr Stephen Murphy, used DNA from museum specimens up to 160 years old to reveal that populations of ground parrots in eastern and western Australia are highly distinct from each other and that the western populations should be recognized as a new species, Pezoporus flaviventris.

Only 110 Western Ground parrots left alive
"The discovery has major conservation implications," said Dr Murphy. "The Western Ground parrot has declined rapidly in the last 20 years, there are now only about 110 birds surviving in the wild and most of these are confined to a single national park. It is now one of the world's rarest birds."

Highly vulnerable
WA Department of Environment and Conservation's Dr Allan Burbidge said: "A single wildfire through the national park or an influx of introduced predators, such as cats, could rapidly push the species to extinction. There is now an urgent need to prevent further population declines and to establish insurance populations into parts of the former range."

Old museum collections are still relevant
"Our findings demonstrate that museum collections, some going back more than 150 years, continue to be relevant and can provide critical information for understanding and conserving the world's biodiversity into the future," said team member Dr Jeremy Austin, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.

Director of CSIRO's Australian National Wildlife Collection, Dr Leo Joseph, said: "Even after 200 years of study, we are still recognizing new species of birds in Australia. This finding highlights the need for further research on Australia's unique, and sometimes cryptic, biodiversity."

The team's findings have been published this month in the international conservation research journal Conservation Genetics.

New species of large squid found

Has light-producing organs to lure prey

November 2010: A new species of squid has been discovered in the southern Indian ocean.

The new species, 70cm long, is a large member of the chiroteuthid family - squids from this group are long and slender with light-producing organs, which act as lures to attract prey. So far, more than 70 species of squid have been identified from the IUCN-led Seamounts cruise, representing more than 20 per cent of the global squid biodiversity.

‘For ten days now 21 scientists armed with microscopes have been working through intimidating rows of jars containing fishes, squids, zooplankton and other interesting creatures,' says Alex Rogers, Principal Scientist and Marine Biologist at the Zoological Society of London. ‘Many specimens look similar to each other and we have to use elaborate morphological features such as muscle orientation and gut length to differentiate between them.'

The recent discoveries are part of an IUCN-led Seamounts Project, which started a year ago when a team of the world's leading marine experts ventured into a six-week research expedition above seamounts in the high seas of the Indian Ocean. The aim of the cruise was to unveil the mysteries of seamounts in the southern Indian Ocean and to help improve conservation and management of marine resources in the area.

‘The new discoveries will not only satiate the appetite of scientists working in the field, but will help improve conservation and management of Indian Ocean resources and future management of deep-sea ecosystems in the high seas globally,' says Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/new-species-squid.html

New species of large squid found

Has light-producing organs to lure prey

November 2010: A new species of squid has been discovered in the southern Indian ocean.

The new species, 70cm long, is a large member of the chiroteuthid family - squids from this group are long and slender with light-producing organs, which act as lures to attract prey. So far, more than 70 species of squid have been identified from the IUCN-led Seamounts cruise, representing more than 20 per cent of the global squid biodiversity.

‘For ten days now 21 scientists armed with microscopes have been working through intimidating rows of jars containing fishes, squids, zooplankton and other interesting creatures,' says Alex Rogers, Principal Scientist and Marine Biologist at the Zoological Society of London. ‘Many specimens look similar to each other and we have to use elaborate morphological features such as muscle orientation and gut length to differentiate between them.'

The recent discoveries are part of an IUCN-led Seamounts Project, which started a year ago when a team of the world's leading marine experts ventured into a six-week research expedition above seamounts in the high seas of the Indian Ocean. The aim of the cruise was to unveil the mysteries of seamounts in the southern Indian Ocean and to help improve conservation and management of marine resources in the area.

‘The new discoveries will not only satiate the appetite of scientists working in the field, but will help improve conservation and management of Indian Ocean resources and future management of deep-sea ecosystems in the high seas globally,' says Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the IUCN Global Marine Programme.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/new-species-squid.html

New species of carnivorous plant discovered in Cambodia

New species adapted to making the most from forest fires

November 2010. A new species of carnivorous pitcher plant has been found by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in Cambodia's remote Cardamom Mountains. The discovery of Nepenthes holdenii is an indicator of both the stunning diversity and lack of research in the forests of the Cardamom Mountains.

The large red and green pitchers that characterize Nepenthes holdenii are actually modified leaves designed to capture and digest insects. The pitchers can reach up to 30 cm long. The carnivorous strategy allows the plants to gain additional nutrients and flourish in otherwise impoverished soils.

A further unusual adaptation seen in this new species is its ability to cope with fire and extended periods of drought. Cambodia's dry season causes forests to desiccate and forest fires are common. Nepenthes holdenii exploits the clearings caused by these regular blazes by producing a large underground tuber which sends up a new pitcher-bearing vine after the fires have passed.

British photographer Jeremy Holden, who first found the plant on the FFI survey and after whom it is named, said: ‘The Cardamom Mountains are a treasure chest of new species, but it was a surprise to find something as exciting and charismatic as an unknown pitcher plant'.


Cardamom discoveries
This discovery is the latest in a series of new species described from the Cardamom Mountains, including a green-blooded frog and a number of new reptiles. Jenny Daltry, FFI Senior Conservation Biologist said: ‘The flora of Cambodia is still poorly known and potentially holds many new species for researchers to discover'.

François Mey, the French botanist and Nepenthes expert who described the plant said: ‘This amazing species may be the most drought-tolerant of the genus. Thanks to a large underground tuber, it has the ability to endure extended periods of drought and fires'. Francois Mey and Jeremy Holden are currently working on a book devoted to the carnivorous plants of Cambodia.

The species description published by Mey, F.S. et al (2010), "Nepenthes holdenii (Nepenthaceae), a new species of pyrophytic pitcher plant from the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia." Carnivorous Plants and their Habitats, by Stewart McPherson.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/carnivorous-cardamom.html