Crayola Katydid & Cowboy Frog Among 46 Newfound Jungle Species

A spiny armored catfish and a cowboy frog are among 46 species that may be new to science discovered in the South American country of Suriname, researchers now reveal.

The species were discovered in a scientific expedition into southwest Suriname, which holds one of the world's last pristine tropical forests.

"Our team was privileged to explore one of the last remaining areas of vast, unroaded wilderness in the world," said Trond Larsen, director of Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program. "As a scientist, it is thrilling to study these remote forests where countless new discoveries await, especially since we believe that protecting these landscapes while they remain pristine provides perhaps the greatest opportunity for maintaining globally important biodiversity and the ecosystems people depend upon for generations to come."

The three-week survey, an initiative of the nonprofit Conservation International, explored three remote sites along the Kutari and Sipaliwini Rivers near the village of Kwamalasumutu from August to September 2010 to catalog the regions' wildlife and help develop sustainable ecotourism opportunities for the local indigenous people. The expedition included 53 scientists, indigenous Trio people, and students.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/18105-46-species-hiding-suriname-jungles.html

Sth America's oldest predator fossil found

Palaeontologists say they have found the fossil of a carnivorous predator that lived more than 260 million years ago and is the oldest unearthed in South America.

"This predator lived nearly 40 million years before the dinosaur and is a precursor to mammifers," said Juan Carlos Cisneros, of the Federal University of Piaui.

The fossil, a complete 35-centimetre skull found in 2008 in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, was restored and analysed by South African and Turkish experts who validated the discovery and published it inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We are talking about the oldest fossil ever found in South America of a species of the last period of the Palaeozoic era - before the separation of the continents, with characteristics of species only known in South Africa and Russia," says Cisneros.

The remains found are those of a species of dinocephalus, a remote relative of mammifers.

The discovery made it possible to reconstruct the body of the predator believed to have been three meters long and to have weighed 300 kilograms.

It had four big hook-shaped canine teeth (two upper and two lowers) to catch its prey as well as other saw-shaped teeth, says Cisneros.

The species may have walked from South Africa to South America but the long distance to Russia, where similar species have also been found, raises questions as to the shape of the single continent which then made up the world to allow the movement these animals, he added.

The dinocephalus became extinct 250 million years ago along with 90 per cent of species on the planet as a result of volcanic explosions.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/01/19/3411499.htm?site=science&topic=latest

Dolphin hunts with electric sense (via Dawn Holloway)

A South American dolphin is the first "true mammal" to sense prey by their electric fields, scientists suggest.


The researchers first showed that structures on the animal's head were probably sensory organs, then found it could detect electric fields in water.

Electroreception is well known in fish and amphibians, but until now the only mammal example was the platypus.

Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, the scientists say other cetaceans may show the same ability.

The Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) lives around the east coast of South America, and resembles the much more common bottlenose variety.

Like all of the toothed cetaceans, it hunts and locates using sound.

But the researchers have now shown that at close range, it can also sense electrical signals.

They are not as sensitive as sharks and rays, but can detect signals of the same size as those produced in water when fish move their muscles.

"It feeds in the bottom [of the sea] a lot, and it lives in water where there can be a lot of silt and mud suspended," said project leader Wolf Hanke from the University of Rostock, Germany.

"And echolocation doesn't work at very close range, so this is where electrolocation would come in."

Sensible science
Captive Guiana dolphins are rare; but they have been kept at the zoo in Muenster, also in Germany.

The zoo is among those that have been criticised by animal rights campaigners in recent years, who argue against keeping dolphins in captivity.


The researchers became curious about the function of small depressions in the dolphin's rostrum - the forward-projecting part of the head containing the jaws.

When one of the animals died, the rostrum was examined, with tissues being stained to show the structures inside these depressions.

The depressions - known as crypts - carry whiskers when the dolphins are growing in the womb, but the whiskers later drop off.

But the crypts looked as though they were still involved in sensing something.


To see whether they were in fact electroreceptors, the researchers turned to the zoo's single remaining Sotalia.

They trained it to put its head on a "rest station", where electrodes delivered a tiny electrical signal into the water.

When a signal was present, the dolphin received a reward if it swam away; if not, it received a reward for staying put.

Later, a plastic shield was placed above the lines of crypts, blocking any electrical sensing. It remained still every time.

The experiments proved that the Guiana dolphin could sense the electrical signals, and that the crypts were indeed the organs responsible.

The researchers plan next to investigate whether other cetaceans possess the same capacity.

"We believe that they might, as it seems very useful for the dolphins," said Dr Hanke.

"We might in the future make plans to travel to South America to study the dolphins in the wild."

The acid test would be to fit the animals with tags that carry a variety of instruments, and see how they use their novel electric sense to hunt.

The platypus, which also uses electroreception, is a monotreme, a sub-group of mammals that lay eggs.

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14292330

Indigenous Colombians shun turtle meat to save species

Indigenous Wayuu people living on South America's northernmost tip are dropping their age-old tradition of eating turtle meat as a main protein source because the reptile is dying out. Skip related content


"This really is rejecting the culture of my ancestors," 72-year-old Olegario Choles told AFP. "I grew up eating turtle, and raised my kids on the money I make hunting them.


"But now the turtles are scarcer and scarcer. The nets come back empty," he said.

"The time has come to save them, in order to save ourselves," conceded Choles, the leader of the Wayuu on Colombia's impoverished La Guajira peninsula, one of the poorest regions in South America according to the website of The Wayuu Taya Foundation, an NGO helping the Amerindian group.

Choles, standing next to his canoe, watched as a group of local children released 200 Caguama turtles, also known as Caretta or Loggerhead sea turtles, though all six kinds of sea turtles native to the region are endangered.

This mass release took place at a beach on Bahia Hondita, one of the outcomes of months of negotiations by hunters, restaurant owners and cooks who all agreed it was time to take turtle meat and eggs off restaurant and home menus.

Some efforts are being handled by volunteers. Selected by the community for their understanding of the task, one group will make rounds at local beaches three times a day to monitor nests and protect baby turtles from natural predators.

Other volunteers will visit local restaurants that serve turtle soup -- often for about 12 dollars a bowl -- and try to persuade them not to serve the dish, to help save the species.

But it is not all easy, in a region the website of the Wayuu Taya Foundatiion, a non-governmental organisation helping the Amerindian group, says is one of the poorest in Latin America.

Lina Baez, an environment analyst at the multinational coal concern Cerrejon -- which sponsors the campaign -- said "the Wayuu eat the meat of almost all the animals in the area, yet changing their customs is a major effort and requires reaching deals with them."

The ethnic group numbers about 430,000, according to The Wayuu Taya Foundation website which said about one-third live in Columbia and the rest in Venezuela, though migration between the two countriesis common.

Baez said turtle catchers, who agree to stop catching the sea turtles, are offered compensation of about half what they would get for selling turtles to local restaurants. In addition, funds are channelled to programs that benefit their communities, such as helping schools or libraries.

"Only one out of 100 hatchling turtles makes it to reproductive age due to their animal predators, including humans," Baez explained.

"This is a really dramatic situation that led us to warn the indigenous people that they need to either change their traditions, or the species will die out."

Gabriel Bustos, an environmental management expert with the mining concern, says local children have embraced the educational campaign aimed at them with gusto.

"Wayuu children are starting to use their influence to have turtle meat taken out of their diets. They refuse to eat it and back it up with a conviction that is really surprising," said Bustos.

Environmental groups have been supportive. "It is really moving to see former turtle hunters and their children working to safeguard a nesting place for an adult so that she can lay her eggs and the hatchlings can make it out to sea," said Maria Claudia Diazgranados.

A biologist with the oceans program at Conservation International, Diazgranados said the drive to get Caguama turtles off local menus has made some progress. Yet local artisans remain keen to use the turtle shells for crafts, and need an alternative.

Indeed all along the Caribbean coast, locals and tourism businesses have long used the turtle shells to make jewelry and other crafts to sell to visitors, which can also lead to indiscriminate hunting.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101103/tsc-indigenous-colombians-shun-turtle-me-b1f5339.html

Indigenous Colombians shun turtle meat to save species

Indigenous Wayuu people living on South America's northernmost tip are dropping their age-old tradition of eating turtle meat as a main protein source because the reptile is dying out. Skip related content


"This really is rejecting the culture of my ancestors," 72-year-old Olegario Choles told AFP. "I grew up eating turtle, and raised my kids on the money I make hunting them.


"But now the turtles are scarcer and scarcer. The nets come back empty," he said.

"The time has come to save them, in order to save ourselves," conceded Choles, the leader of the Wayuu on Colombia's impoverished La Guajira peninsula, one of the poorest regions in South America according to the website of The Wayuu Taya Foundation, an NGO helping the Amerindian group.

Choles, standing next to his canoe, watched as a group of local children released 200 Caguama turtles, also known as Caretta or Loggerhead sea turtles, though all six kinds of sea turtles native to the region are endangered.

This mass release took place at a beach on Bahia Hondita, one of the outcomes of months of negotiations by hunters, restaurant owners and cooks who all agreed it was time to take turtle meat and eggs off restaurant and home menus.

Some efforts are being handled by volunteers. Selected by the community for their understanding of the task, one group will make rounds at local beaches three times a day to monitor nests and protect baby turtles from natural predators.

Other volunteers will visit local restaurants that serve turtle soup -- often for about 12 dollars a bowl -- and try to persuade them not to serve the dish, to help save the species.

But it is not all easy, in a region the website of the Wayuu Taya Foundatiion, a non-governmental organisation helping the Amerindian group, says is one of the poorest in Latin America.

Lina Baez, an environment analyst at the multinational coal concern Cerrejon -- which sponsors the campaign -- said "the Wayuu eat the meat of almost all the animals in the area, yet changing their customs is a major effort and requires reaching deals with them."

The ethnic group numbers about 430,000, according to The Wayuu Taya Foundation website which said about one-third live in Columbia and the rest in Venezuela, though migration between the two countriesis common.

Baez said turtle catchers, who agree to stop catching the sea turtles, are offered compensation of about half what they would get for selling turtles to local restaurants. In addition, funds are channelled to programs that benefit their communities, such as helping schools or libraries.

"Only one out of 100 hatchling turtles makes it to reproductive age due to their animal predators, including humans," Baez explained.

"This is a really dramatic situation that led us to warn the indigenous people that they need to either change their traditions, or the species will die out."

Gabriel Bustos, an environmental management expert with the mining concern, says local children have embraced the educational campaign aimed at them with gusto.

"Wayuu children are starting to use their influence to have turtle meat taken out of their diets. They refuse to eat it and back it up with a conviction that is really surprising," said Bustos.

Environmental groups have been supportive. "It is really moving to see former turtle hunters and their children working to safeguard a nesting place for an adult so that she can lay her eggs and the hatchlings can make it out to sea," said Maria Claudia Diazgranados.

A biologist with the oceans program at Conservation International, Diazgranados said the drive to get Caguama turtles off local menus has made some progress. Yet local artisans remain keen to use the turtle shells for crafts, and need an alternative.

Indeed all along the Caribbean coast, locals and tourism businesses have long used the turtle shells to make jewelry and other crafts to sell to visitors, which can also lead to indiscriminate hunting.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101103/tsc-indigenous-colombians-shun-turtle-me-b1f5339.html

Homo sapiens lived in South America at least 100,000 years ago

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/20/letter-from-brazil-travel-23jul


It's a long way back by bus in Brazil from the mythic land of the capivara Brazil's Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara has prehistoric rock paintings that show Homo sapiens lived in South America at least 100,000 years ago

A reasonable maxim to apply to bus travel in Brazil is that the older and more decrepit the bus, the worse the roads on its route. As less than 20% of the country's roads are asphalted, there's a good chance of driving over mud and gravel almost everywhere.

So when the bus was ready to leave Sento-Sé in Bahia, its battered state was no surprise. Our inquiry about departures had been met with a shrug and a list of possible times. We accepted the advice to come back the following day when more might be known.

The forecast journey time was five hours. For the first four we jolted across mud ruts. The principal entertainment was watching the driver weave between herds of goats and cattle that believed they had exclusive ownership of the road. We were spared air conditioning, which is no bad thing as it is usually set so low that passengers require winter woollies and a blanket even when the temperature outside is in the high 20s or 30s.

We were coming back from the Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara in the north-eastern state of Piauí. There aren't any capivaras in the 1,300 sq km of Serra da Capivara. If the world's biggest rodents - weighing up to 80kg - ever lived there, they left a long time ago. The park does, however, have more than 100 sites containing prehistoric rock paintings. Their discovery in the 1970s revealed that Homo sapiens lived in South America at least 100,000 years ago, much earlier than was previously believed. That is its prime interest.

Little information is available through websites on travel in the interior. It's a matter of asking around, which is how we came to cross Velho Chico (the São Francisco), one of Brazil's most famous rivers. The ferry, we discovered, might sail the following Friday. But, as it was Sunday, it was possible that a boat owner who took passengers would be returning after visiting his family for the weekend. Fortunately he did, though the boat berthed on the edge of a marsh almost a kilometre from the town. Three buses and 29 hours later we arrived home.

All this explains why, in spite of its attractions, Brazil's Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara gets only 1,000 or so visitors a year while its more accessible neighbours receive more than 50 times that number

Yard-long "Megapiranha" Fossil Found

June 26, 2009--Eight to ten million years ago, South America's waters harbored a toothier, three-foot (one-meter) version of today's famed, flesh-eating piranhas.

Alberto Cione, a paleontologist at Argentina's La Plata Museum, first noticed the evidence of Megapiranha pananensis (pictured in an artist's rendering)--an upper jaw with three unusually large and pointed teeth--in his collection in the 1980s. The remains had been discovered half a century earlier in a riverside cliff in northeastern Argentina. Cione and his colleagues now report that Megapiranha bridges the evolutionary gap between modern-day piranhas and plant-eating pacu fish.

The new study appears in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. --

Anne Minard

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/giant-piranha-pictures-evolution/index.html