M3GA V 7.1
« There's a new polar bear in the world... II »

Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
May 22, 2013, 2:55pm

[Home] [New Topics] [Help] [Search] [Login] [Register]














M3GA V 7.1 :: CLIMATE changelog :: Gaiasphere :: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Page 10 of 17 » Jump to page   Go    [Search This Thread] [Share Topic] [Print]
AuthorTopic: There's a new polar bear in the world... II (Read 25,569 times)
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #135 on May 30, 2010, 11:15pm »
Two New Frog Species Discovered in Panama's Fungal War Zone

[image]
Top: Pristimantis educatoris, collected in El Cope, in Panama's Omar Torrijos National Park, is about 2-4 centimeters long and has expanded, round and even finger disks and toes that distinguish it from other, closely related species. Its eye color varies from blood red to yellow-orange above and dark purple to dark grey below. The pupil is horizontal. Bottom: Pristimantis adnus, collected on Cerro Piña in the Serrania de Sapo, Pacific coast of Darien Province, Panama. Males are about 2 centimeters long. Length of females: unknown. The skin of the back is shagreen in color with scattered, enlarged granules. It has a small, supratympanic ridge, areolate venter and unconcealed tympanic membrane. Iris may be a rosy-gold color. (Credit: Andrew Crawford / STRI)

ScienceDaily (May 26, 2010) — Trying to stay ahead of a deadly disease that has wiped out more than 100 species, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute continue to discover new frog species in Panama: Pristimantis educatoris, from Omar Torrijos National Park, and P. adnus from Darien Province near the Colombian border.

In 1989 researchers realized that frogs were dying around the world. Then they identified the cause: a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis. In 2004 Karen Lips, associate professor at the University of Maryland, sounded the alarm that the disease was devastating highland frogs in Central Panama and spreading across the country to the east.

"We are working as hard as we can to find and identify frogs before the disease reaches them, and to learn about a disease that has the power to ravage an entire group of organisms," said Roberto Ibanez, research scientist at STRI and local director of the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project.

Since 2005 research institutions and zoos from Panama and the United States have scrambled to collect healthy frogs east of the infected area -- to save them from extinction. The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project unites eight institutions including STRI and the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park, along with Panama's environmental authority, ANAM, in a new effort to raise captive frogs in Panama at Summit Nature Park with support from the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center.

While collecting at Omar Torrijos National Park, Lips' team noticed a common frog much bigger than specimens collected elsewhere. Mason Ryan and Tom Giermakowski, from the Museum of Southwestern Biology and the University of New Mexico, compared the frogs' feet and toes with frogs in museum collections, concluding that the bigger frogs were actually a new species.

They named this new species P. educatoris. The species name, educatoris, honors Jay M. Savage, emeritus professor of biology at the University of Miami, who taught several generations of students about tropical frogs. Educatoris actually has a double meaning, because females of this species also nurture and care for their developing eggs.

In 2008, researchers first detected the fungus to the east of the Panama Canal. During a collecting trip in November 2009 to Chagres National Park, even further to the east, researchers were dismayed to find that most of the frogs there were already infected and dying.

On May 20, researchers from the PARC project returned to what they hope are still fungus-free, healthy frog habitats in Darien Province. On an earlier trip organized by members of Eldredge Bermingham's lab at the Smithsonian, another new frog species was collected by researchers from STRI, the University of Panama and the Círculo Herpetológico de Panamá.

Its name is based on ADN, the acronym for the Spanish acido deoxiribonucleico, meaning deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, in English. "We chose this name to underscore the usefulness of genetic techniques as we identify these new frog species and determine the relationships between tropical frogs that may look very similar," said Andrew Crawford, professor at University of the Andes and research associate at STRI.

These two reports bring the total number of frog species described in Panama and Costa Rica to 197. Nearly 15 percent of these new frogs have been described in the past seven years.

The species collection and identification work was supported by Sigma Xi, the American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology Gaige Fund, Idea Wild, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Bay and Paul Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. Both publications credit Panama's ANAM for research and collecting permits.

Journal References:

1. Mason J. Ryan, Karen R. Lips, J. Tomasz Giermakowski. New Species of Pristimantis (Anura: Terrarana: Strabomantinae) from Lower Central America. Journal of Herpetology, 2010; 44 (2): 193 DOI: 10.1670/08-280.1
2. A.J. Crawford, M.J. Ryan, C.J. Jaramillo. A New Species of Pristimantis (Anura: Strabomantidae) from the Pacific Coast of the Darien Province, Panama, with a Molecular Analysis of its Phylogenetic Position. Herpetologica, 2010; 66 (2): 192 DOI: 10.1655/09-018R1.1

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527013331.htm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #136 on Jun 3, 2010, 9:50am »
New, Pink, and Rare

[image]
Photograph courtesy Karen Gowlett-Holmes

Using its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.

Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart (map), on the Australian island of Tasmania.

Though no one has spotted a living pink handfish since 1999, it's taken till now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species.

The new-species determinations were made based on a number of factors, including number of vertebrae and fin rays, coloration, the presence of scales and spines, and proportional body measurements, according to review author Daniel Gledhill of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO.

All of the world's 14 known species of handfish are found only in shallow, coastal waters off southeastern Australia, the review notes.

Even among the previously known species, the fish are poorly studied, the review authors add, and little is known about their biology or behavior.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/....881_600x450.jpg
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #137 on Jun 3, 2010, 10:01am »
Also Available in Purple

[image]
Photograph courtesy Andrew Maver

Newly described as its own species, the Ziebell's handfish typically has yellow fins, as seen above in a file photo, but the species can also appear with a mottled purplish coloration. Ziebell's handfish is found only in small, isolated populations off Tasmania and is listed as vulnerable in Australia.

Today all handfish are found only around southeastern Australia. But about 50 million years ago the animals likely inhabited regions around the world, the CSIRO scientists note. Fossils of the curious creatures have been discovered in the Mediterranean, for example.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/....880_600x450.jpg
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #138 on Jun 13, 2010, 11:48pm »
New Species of Large Blue Butterfly Discovered

[image]
Coloration of Phengaris xiushani. ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co....px-R0010379.JPG )

[image]
Phengaris xiushani "Xiushan's Large Blue", the newly discovered species (3: male upper side, 4: under side; 5: female upper side, 6: under side) (Credit: Prof. Min Wang/South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou)

ScienceDaily (June 13, 2010) — Chinese and German scientists have found a new butterfly species in the south of China. It is the first known species of the family of large blue butterflies found to live in mountain forests. The new species from northwestern Yunnan was discovered by Prof. Min Wang of the South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China and Dr. Josef Settele of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research -- UFZ, Halle, Germany.

The species was described in the open access journal ZooKeys and was named Phengaris xiushani.

The large blues belong to the most intensively studied group of butterflies in Eurasia, which is probably due to their "obscure" biology and ecology: They depend on specific plants for food, which in itself is not that surprising. But many of the known species also require a particular ant species to feed on during most of their lives as caterpillars. These specialized food requirements demand specific habitat requirements which have made them vulnerable to climate change and habitat alteration.

The discovery of the new species at this time is quite surprising. Unlike the European species (which are well-known under their scientific name Maculinea) the Chinese species, which include both the Maculinea and the Phengaris blues, are not so well studied and monitored due to lack of financial and personnel resources. Consequently, nothing is known on the ecology of this new species, with the exception that it lives in undisturbed forested mountains, where it was discovered -- which makes it different from the other large blues which over the entire range of distribution live in grasslands.

The discovery was made in the course of a Chinese-German workshop on butterfly conservation held in Guangzhou in December 2009, funded within the German-Chinese year of Science by BMBF (German Ministry for Science and Education; through the project LepiPub . This study was partly supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (30570211, 40971037) and the FP 6 BiodivERsA project CLIMIT (Climate change impacts on insects and their mitigation; . Reference specimens (the so-called types) are kept in the Insect Collection of the South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China, and the "Senckenberg Museum für Tierkunde" in Dresden, Germany.

The name given to the new species refers: (a) to the beautiful mountain on the slopes of which it was found (Xiu-Shan in Chinese means "beautiful mountain"), and (b) the species name was dedicated to Dr. Xiushan Li who worked at UFZ for some years.

Journal References:

1. Li et al. On the conservation biology of a Chinese population of the birdwing Troides aeacus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Journal of Insect Conservation, 2010; 14 (3): 257 DOI: 10.1007/s10841-009-9254-x
2. Settele et al. Notes on and key to the genus Phengaris (s. str.) (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from mainland China with description of a new species. ZooKeys, 2010; 48 (0): DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.48.415

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609102022.htm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #139 on Jun 15, 2010, 11:15pm »

New to Nature No 10: Hemidactylus gujaratensis

Found on a temple wall in Gujarat, this new species of gecko is likely to be one of many the environmentally diverse region yields over time, writes Quentin Wheeler

* Quentin Wheeler
* The Observer, Sunday 13 June 2010

[image]
The temple-dwelling Hemidactylus gujaratensis. Photograph: Aaron Bauer

A 24-year-old reptile enthusiast leading a nature tour near Junagadh, India, noticed a gecko on the loose boulders of the walls of the Vagheshwari Mata temple that he recognised as unusual. It proved to be a species new to science, Hemidactylus gujaratensis.

Although primarily nocturnal, the species was common at the site which is a popular tourist destination located in disturbed forest (a forest habitat which has been affected by human activity) near the city. The genus is the second largest of the gecko family with 85 species, 24 of which occur in India where the group remains incompletely explored. It's named after the state of Gujarat where diverse habitats are likely to yield additional new reptiles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/13/new-to-nature-gecko
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #140 on Jul 7, 2010, 12:24pm »
[image]

Scientists, including researchers from the University of Aberdeen, have returned from a survey of deep-sea life in the Atlantic Ocean with more than 10 species that are possibly new to science, such as this enteropneust.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/po....8606/html/1.stm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #141 on Jul 8, 2010, 12:26am »
Rare Creatures from the Deep: Findings May Revolutionize Thinking About Deep-Sea Life in Atlantic Ocean

[image] [image]

[image]

Three putative new species of Enteropneust from the North Atlantic Ocean. (Credit: David Shale)

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Scientists have just returned from a voyage with samples of rare animals and more than 10 possible new species in a trip which they say has revolutionised their thinking about deep-sea life in the Atlantic Ocean.

One group of creatures they observed -- and captured -- during their six weeks in the Atlantic aboard the RRS James Cook is believed to be close to the missing evolutionary link between backboned and invertebrate animals.

Using the latest technology they also saw species in abundance that until now had been considered rare.

Researchers were also surprised to discover such diversity in habitat and marine life in locations just a few miles apart.

Scientists were completing the last leg of MAR-ECO -- an international research programme, part of the Census of Marine Life, which is enhancing our understanding of the occurrence, distribution and ecology of animals along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and the Azores.

The University of Aberdeen is leading the UK contribution to the project which involves scientists from 16 nations. Key collaborators in the UK include Newcastle University and the National Oceanography Centre.

During more than 300 hours of diving -- using Isis the UK's deepest diving remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to depths of between 700m right down to 3,600m -- researchers surveyed flat plains, cliff faces and slopes of the giant mountain range that divides the Atlantic Ocean into two halves, east and west.

The research was focused in two areas -- beneath the cold waters north of the Gulf Stream and the warmer waters to the south.

Professor Monty Priede, Director of the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, said: "We were surprised at how different the animals were on either side of the ridge which is just tens of miles apart.

"In the west the cliffs faced east and in the east the cliffs faced west. The terrain looked the same, mirror images of each other, but that is where the similarity ended. It seemed like we were in a scene from Alice Through the Looking Glass.

"In the north-east, sea urchins were dominant on the flat plains and the cliffs were colourful and rich with sponges, corals and other life.

"In the north-west, the cliffs were dull grey bare rock with much less life. The north-west plains were the home of deep-sea enteropneust acorn worms. Only a few specimens, from the Pacific Ocean, were previously known to science.

"These worms are members of a little-known group of animals close to the missing link in evolution between backboned and invertebrate animals.

"The creatures were observed feeding and leaving characteristic spiral traces on the sea floor.

"They have no eyes, no obvious sense organs or brain but there is a head end, tail end and the primitive body plan of back-boned animals is established. One was observed showing rudimentary swimming behaviour.

"By the end of the expedition three different species were discovered each with a different colour, pink, purple and white with distinctly different shapes."

Using the remotely operated vehicle, high quality complete specimens of all three different-coloured species were captured and will be sent to specialists for further investigations.

Sea cucumbers, or holothurians, normally seen crawling incredibly slowly over the flat abyssal plains of the ocean floor, were found on steep slopes, small ledges and rock faces of the underwater mountain range.

[image]
Comb jellyfish

[image]
Holothurian

[image]
Trachymedusa

Researchers were also surprised to see that they were very able and fast moving swimmers and unique video sequences were recorded of swimming holothurians.

Professor Priede said: "This expedition has revolutionised our thinking about deep-sea life in the Atlantic Ocean. It shows that we cannot just study what lives around the edges of the ocean and ignore the vast array of animals living on the slopes and valleys in the middle of the Ocean.

"Using new technology and precise navigation we can access these regions and discover things we never suspected existed."

Dr Andrey Gebruk, Shirshov Institute, Moscow, said: "We were surprised how species, elsewhere considered rare, were found in abundance on the Mid Atlantic Ridge and we were finding new species up to the last minute of the last dive in the voyage."

Dr Dan Jones, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, surveyed over 50,000 square metres of sea floor in high definition detail and said: "We successfully completed one of the most detailed video surveys of the deep sea ever attempted. The Isis ROV with its cutting-edge technology gives us the potential to understand more and more of the mysterious deep sea environment."

Newcastle University's Dr Ben Wigham has been working on the project for the past four years studying the biology of animals living on the ridge. "We are interested in how these animals are feeding in areas of the deep-sea where food is often scarce" he said. "The differences we see in the diversity of species and numbers of individuals may well be related to how they are able to process and share out a rather common but meagre food supply, we certainly see indications that there are differences between the north and south regions of the ridge."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706112559.htm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #142 on Jul 19, 2010, 12:20pm »
Found: Sri Lankan primate thought to be extinct for 60 years

Researchers photograph and measure the Horton Plains slender loris, but fear there could be fewer than 100 left alive

* Lewis Smith
* The Guardian, Monday 19 July 2010

[image]
The Horton Plains slender loris was pictured in central Sri Lanka by the Zoological Society of London and Sri Lankan researchers. Photograph: London Zoo

A mysterious primate driven to the brink of extinction by Britain's taste for tea has been photographed for the first time. The Horton Plains slender loris, found only in Sri Lanka, was for more than 60 years believed to be extinct.

Then one was spotted fleetingly in 2002 when a light shone in its eyes and was reflected. Researchers have now managed to get the world's first pictures of the animal.

More than 1,000 night surveys were carried out in 120 forested regions by Sri Lankan researchers working in partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The loris was found in half a dozen regions and researchers managed to capture three live specimens long enough to measure them.

The prime reason for the animal's rarity is the loss of its natural forest habitat, which has been largely destroyed by the drive to create tea plantations. The loss of land to other crops also contributed.

Estimates suggest there are just 100 left, putting it among the world's top five most threatened primates. But so little is known about the animal that numbers could be below 60 – which would make it the rarest species.

Dr Craig Turner of ZSL said: "There's been a lot of loss of habitat historically. Forest covered much of the south-west area of Sri Lanka, but it's been cleared for agriculture and tea estates.

"More recently they've been cleared for firewood collection. We are now left with a very few islands of forest that aren't connected.

"Because they [lorises] are so rare and because for many years they were thought to be extinct, virtually nothing is known about them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/19/horton-plains-slender-loris-found
« Last Edit: Jul 19, 2010, 7:19pm by Big Bunny »Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #143 on Jul 31, 2010, 10:25am »

World's most ancient creatures found in Scottish field

Two colonies of age-old and endangered tadpole shrimps discovered alive and well near Solway coast

* Ian Sample, science correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 19.55 BST

[image]
The tadpole shrimp, Triops cancriformis, which was part of two colonies found at Caerlaverock on the Solway Coast of Dumfriesshire. Photograph: Edmund Fellowes/PA

A field near Gretna in Dumfriesshire might not be an obvious place to find the world's oldest living creatures, but a team of scientists has done just that.

Two colonies of a prehistoric shrimp that evolved when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth have been found alive and well in the Caerlaverock nature reserve on the Solway coast.

The discovery has led experts to think there could be more of the little crustaceans, which are listed as endangered species, elsewhere in the area.

The ancient creatures, known as Triops cancriformis or tadpole shrimps, are thought to have the oldest pedigree of any living animal. Fossil evidence suggests they have hardly changed in the more than 200m years that they have been around.

Wild tadpole shrimps can grow to more than 10cm long and are remarkable in surviving three major extinctions in the Earth's history. The shrimps have an extraordinary lifecycle. They live in temporary pools of water in which they lay eggs. When the pools dry out, the adults die off, but their eggs remain dormant until the pools fill up again.

Researchers at Glasgow University discovered the rare shrimps after collecting samples of mud, which were dried out and then made wet again before being placed in glass tanks. A fortnight later Elaine Benzies, a research student, noticed a tadpole shrimp swimming around in one of the aquariums. "I hadn't expected to find it and was just going in to check on the heat and lights. It was great to see everyone in the lab gathering round and peering into the tank to look at this ancient survivor from the past," she said.

Until recently, researchers believed the ancient shrimps lived only in a single pond in the New Forest in Hampshire. Six years ago, Larry Griffin, a scientist at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, discovered what appeared to be an isolated colony of the creatures in a pool at Caerlaverock.

"At the time it seemed that the Caerlaverock colony was a vulnerable historic outlier," he said. "But now that we know how this curious creature survives, we have realised that there's a good chance there are more populations out there.

"Triops matures rapidly and produces hundreds of eggs in just a couple of weeks. The pond they live in may dry out, but the eggs can survive in the mud for many years. Although in the UK they are all females, they have both male and female reproductive parts, so just one egg needs to survive to regenerate a whole population."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20....-found-scotland
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #144 on Aug 1, 2010, 9:29am »
Biologists Help Save Endangered Pallid Sturgeon

[image]
TTU graduate student Michelle Casto-Yerty releasing a likely pallid sturgeon after taking some measurements and a fin clip for genetic analysis. (Credit: Image courtesy of Tennessee Technological University)

[image]
http://www.fisheries.org/units/AFSmontana/SSCpages/SSC.htm

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2010) — Fisheries researchers at Tennessee Tech University found one piece of a scientific puzzle that just may help save an endangered species from extinction.

The pallid sturgeon is known as the "dinosaur" of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and has been on the endangered species list since 1990. This primitive species has been around since the late Cretaceous period 70 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Today, there are believed to be fewer than 10,000 left in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a determination in September whether to invoke the "Similarity of Appearance" provision under the Endangered Species Act to protect the pallid sturgeon from incidental catch by commercial fishermen. Doing so will end commercial fishing for the more abundant shovelnose sturgeon in the Tennessee waters of the Mississippi River.

The shovelnose sturgeon fishery is a valuable one in Tennessee. Female shovelnose sturgeon are harvested for their eggs, which are processed for caviar. A pound of the pre-processed eggs wholesales for about $100, and an average mature female shovelnose sturgeon can produce about half a pound of eggs.

Scientists believe the endangered pallid sturgeon is no longer reproducing in its natural habitat in sustainable numbers because the rivers have been so altered by dams and channelization. TTU scientists have now proven that commercial fishing is having a direct and detrimental impact on the species as well.

"Biologists elsewhere were concerned because endangered pallid sturgeon was showing up in fish markets occasionally. Those same biologists began noticing that wherever you allow fishing for the common shovelnose sturgeon, you don't see large, old pallid sturgeon," said Phil Bettoli, a TTU biology professor and assistant unit leader for the U.S. Geological Survey's Cooperative Fishery Research Unit based at Tech.

State wildlife officials asked Bettoli's team to research the problem of incidental catch of pallid sturgeon. To do so, he and his graduate student accompanied commercial fishermen in Tennessee during the 2007 fishing season and documented several occasions where the endangered fish was being harvested in gill nets alongside the more plentiful shovelnose sturgeon. The incidental catch rate in the Mississippi River was about 2 percent, Bettoli said. The endangered species also was being captured and killed in "ghost nets" lost or left behind in the river.

"It turns out that unless it's a big pallid sturgeon with its distinctive pale coloration, they're really hard to tell apart from the shovelnose sturgeon," he said. "We often had to take a tissue sample and send it to a genetics lab in order to positively identify them after the fact."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its initial proposed rule announcement in the Federal Register Sept. 22, 2009, and the public comment period closed in February 2010. A determination whether to close the fishery is expected in late August or early September and should be published in the register by Sept. 22, 2010.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722144423.htm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #145 on Aug 3, 2010, 9:30pm »
Australian waters ranked most biologically diverse

By Dani Cooper for ABC Science Online

Updated Tue Aug 3, 2010 2:51pm AEST

[image]
Researchers estimate about 250,000 species of marine life in Australian waters remain unknown. (Reuters: Ho New)

Australia's waters have been ranked as being the most biologically diverse in the world, yet up to 80 per cent of the species in it have yet to be discovered, a new study has shown.

In one of the final studies of the International Census of Marine Life, a survey of Australian waters has revealed it contains 32,889 known species, just pipping Japan with 32,777 known species.

The authors also estimate another 17,000-odd named species are also believed to occur in Australian waters, but have yet to be included in databases.

The findings appear in a series of papers published today in PLoS One, in the lead-up to the close of the 10-year census due on October 4.

Involving more than 2,000 scientists from more than 80 nations, the census is one of the largest global scientific collaborations yet undertaken, according to organisers.

Australian study lead author Dr Alan Butler, of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, says the survey of Australia's marine jurisdictional area, included offshore and sub-Antarctic islands and stretched to the tropical waters of the north.

The 9 million square kilometre zone includes 36,000 kilometres of coastline, 12,000 islands and spans 5000 kilometres from temperate to tropical latitudes.

"This constitutes a vast array of highly diverse habitats and ocean features; many have received limited, if any, exploration," Dr Butler and colleagues write.

'Needle in a haystack'

Dr Butler says trying to determine exactly what lies beneath Australia's territorial waters is akin to "finding a needle in a haystack".

He says although technology is improving researchers will probably never document every piece of ocean life.

"Imagine trying to study the flora and fauna of the Blue Mountains by flying over it in a helicopter in the dark with a hook on a line hanging down; it's a needle in a haystack."

Dr Butler and colleagues "crudely estimate" about 250,000 species of marine life in Australian waters currently remain unknown.

He says this figure is based on the findings of fieldwork that shows "whenever we do sampling about 80 per cent of what we find is new".

The paper draws upon field work and databases of the Australian Faunal Directory, Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota, Online Zoological Collections of Australian Museums, and the Australian node of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System to come to its conclusions.

Dr Butler says most of the known species live above two kilometres down in the ocean, with the vast majority of explored areas along the shallower waters of the continental shelf.

He says the deepest ocean that has been surveyed is four kilometres deep, using equipment borrowed from the United States. The greatest depth in Australian waters lies between five kilometres and six kilometres.

Marine diversity

In the Australian study, the largest group of known species is the mollusc family, with 8,525 species. But Dr Butler says this might not reflect the relative percentage of molluscs in Australia's oceans.

"We may have a lot of molluscs known because we had a good expertise in the field," he said.

The study identified 5,184 species of fish, and although the Great Barrier Reef has been widely studied, Dr Butler says new species of fish are still being found.

The survey shows most of Australia's endemic sea life lives in the south and has evolved since the split with Gondawana about 80 million years ago, says Dr Butler.

The north is a major "biodiversity hotspot" with a vast number of species that are common to south-east Asian waters.

Dr Butler says although the paper shows a challenge remains, he hopes it "heightens the feeling that we should look after what we have".

"We are custodians of a huge zone with a huge number of species," he said, adding that it is important to protect "whole systems" rather than single species.

"More and more the evidence shows [that] if you replace a jungle with a wheat field you make it impoverished and more vulnerable to collapse."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/03/2972318.htm

First posted Tue Aug 3, 2010 4:31pm AEST
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #146 on Aug 5, 2010, 12:42pm »
What Lives in the Sea? Census of Marine Life Publishes Historic Roll Call of Species in 25 Key World Areas

[image]
Imagine living in the sea where it is permanently dark, cold, and food is hard to find. For many animals at depth it may be weeks to months between meals. If you find something to eat, you have to hang on to it. This is why so many deep-sea fishes have lots of big teeth. This dragonfish even has teeth on its tongue! They would be terrifying animals if they weren't the size of a banana. (Credit: Dr. Julian Finn, Museum Victoria)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2010) — Representing the most comprehensive and authoritative answer yet to one of humanity's most ancient questions -- "what lives in the sea?" -- Census of Marine Life scientists today released an inventory of species distribution and diversity in key global ocean areas.

Scientists combined information collected over centuries with data obtained during the decade-long Census to create a roll call of species in 25 biologically representative regions -- from the Antarctic through temperate and tropical seas to the Arctic.

Their papers help set a baseline for measuring changes that humanity and nature will cause.

Published by the open access journal PLoS ONE, the landmark collection of papers and overview synthesis will help guide future decisions on exploration of still poorly-explored waters, especially the abyssal depths, and provides a baseline for still thinly-studied forms, especially small animals.

Australian and Japanese waters, which each feature almost 33,000 forms of life that have earned the status of "species" (and thus a scientific name such as Carcharodon carcharias, a.k.a. the great white shark), are by far the most biodiverse. The oceans off China, the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico round out the top five areas most diverse in known species.

In a prelude to the ultimate summary of the landmark, decade-long marine census, to be released Oct. 4 in London, national and regional committees of the Census compiled the inventory of known and new species in the 25 key marine regions.

The 13 committees include over 360 scientists whose collective knowledge, including published and unpublished data, was assembled to create the initial profile of known marine biodiversity in Antarctica, Atlantic Europe, Australia, Baltic Sea, Brazil, Canada (East, West and Arctic), Caribbean Sea, China, Indian Ocean, Japan, Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, South Africa, South America (Tropical East Pacific and Tropical West Atlantic), South Korea, the Humboldt Current, the Patagonian Shelf, and the USA (Northeast, Southeast, Hawaii, Gulf of Mexico, and California).

Major inventories continue in highly diverse areas such as Indonesia, Madagascar and the Arabian Sea, which have yet to report.

Scientists find that the number of known, named species contained in the 25 areas ranged from 2,600 to 33,000 and averaged about 10,750, which fall into a dozen groups. On average, about one-fifth of all species were crustaceans which, with mollusks and fish, make up half of all known species on average across the regions. The full breakdown follows:

* 19% Crustaceans (including crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles),
* 17% Mollusca (including squid, octopus, clams, snails and slugs)
* 12% Pisces (fish, including sharks)
* 10% Protozoa (unicellular micro-organisms)
* 10% algae and other plant-like organisms
* 7% Annelida (segmented worms)
* 5% Cnidaria (including sea anemones, corals and jellyfish)
* 3% Platyhelminthes (including flatworms)
* 3% Echinodermata (including starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers)
* 3% Porifera (including sponges)
* 2% Bryozoa (mat or 'moss animals')
* 1% Tunicata (including sea squirts)

The rest are other invertebrates (5%) and other vertebrates (2%). The scarce 2% of species in the "other vertebrates" category includes whales, sea lions, seals, sea birds, turtles and walruses. Thus some of the best-known marine animals comprise a tiny part of marine biodiversity.

The authors note that their work constitutes a roll call of marine plant and animal species -- either present or unknown in 25 regions. It does not represent their abundance or biomass.

The most cosmopolitan species

Many species appear in more than one region. Current holders of the title "most cosmopolitan" marine species are two opposite kinds: microscopic plants (algae) and single-celled animals called protozoa and copepod in the plankton, and the seabirds and marine mammals that traverse the oceans throughout their lives.

Among fish, the manylight viperfish (Chauliodus sloani) can be considered the Everyman of the deep ocean. Census data shows the fish has been recorded in more than one-quarter of the world's marine waters.

How the microscopic species can be cosmopolitan is still a subject of research, and may be due to their ability to survive unsuitable environmental conditions and then reach enormous abundance in a suitable environment.

Says Patricia Miloslavich of Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela, co-senior scientist of the Census and leader of the regional studies: "To create this baseline, the Census of Marine Life explored new areas and new ecosystems, discovering new species and records of species in new places.

"We reviewed what had been documented through the huge efforts of scientists in years past. However, most of this information was scattered or unavailable except at a very local level. The Census has made a tremendous contribution by bringing order to chaos. This previously scattered information is now all reviewed, analyzed and presented in a collection of papers at an open access journal."

Says lead author of the summary, Mark Costello of the Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, New Zealand: "Sparse, uneven marine sampling in much of the world underlies this initial inventory, and future research will undoubtedly alter the profile presented today."

He adds that finding such great difference in the proportions of species across regions challenges assumptions that scientists can extrapolate knowledge of biodiversity from one location to another.

"This inventory was urgently needed for two reasons," says Dr. Costello. "First, dwindling expertise in taxonomy impairs society's ability to discover and describe new species. And secondly, marine species have suffered major declines -- in some cases 90% losses -- due to human activities and may be heading for extinction, as happened to many species on land."

Regional results (please see full details in the table appended below):

* Even less diverse regions such as the Baltic or Northeast USA still have about 4,000 known species.
* Relative to its volume of water, the Baltic, followed by China, has some of the highest known diversity.
* Relative to their seabed area, South Korea, China, South Africa and the Baltic, had most species.
* The relative contribution of different kinds of life to the species in each region varied greatly and enigmatically. While variation in research effort may be part of the explanation, it also seems that species have not flourished equally around the world.
* Crustaceans (including crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles) contributed 22% to 35% of species for Alaska, Antarctica, Arctic, Brazil, California, Caribbean, and Humboldt regions, but only 10% for the Baltic.
* Mollusks (clams, snails, squid and slugs) contributed 26% of the species in Australia and Japan, but only 5% to 7% of the species in the Baltic, California, Arctic, and eastern and western Canada.
* Fish comprised 28% of species in the Tropical West Atlantic and Southeast USA, but only 3% to 6% for the Arctic, Antarctica, Baltic, and Mediterranean;
* Of the less species-rich groups, Annelida (worms) contributed 28% of the species for the Tropical Eastern Pacific, but only 3% for Japan.
* Plants and algae (mostly algae) contributed about one third of species in the Baltic, Arctic, Atlantic Europe, and Western Canada, but few in Antarctica, Caribbean, China, Humboldt, Tropical Eastern Pacific, and Tropical Western Atlantic.

Where to find unique, "endemic" or alien invasive species

* The number of unique "endemic" species seen nowhere else on Earth provides another measure of biodiversity. The relatively isolated regions Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and South Africa have the most endemic species. They may have suffered fewer extinctions from climate cooling thousands of years ago during glaciation. Or, species from regions that escaped glaciers may have reached them more easily when the glaciers melted.
* Endemics comprise about half of New Zealand and Antarctic marine species and a quarter of those in Australian and South Africa. The waters of the Caribbean, China, Japan, and Mediterranean each have less than 2,000 endemic species, and the Baltic only 1 -- a seaweed (Fucus radicans).
* To encounter invasive species, visit the Mediterranean. It had the most alien species among the 25 regions with over 600 (4% of the all species inventoried), most of which arrived from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal.
* Many aliens have also invaded the European Atlantic, New Zealand, Australian Pacific, and Baltic waters. Mollusks, crustaceans, and fish were the most common invading aliens.

Says Dr. Ian Poiner, CEO of the Australian Institute for Marine Science and Chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee: "Consider that a well-informed person walking along a familiar seashore might identify 20 species or so; a fish monger perhaps 100. Even in the world's least diverse marine regions, there are 50 to 100 times as many named species than an expert would know without resorting to field guides."

Many of the species records used for the report are part of the 10-year-old Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), a massive global database of what/where records and a major Census legacy. An interested person can find precise places on a world map where a marine organism has been reliably observed.

OBIS has consolidated almost 30 million records from the Census projects and more than 800 databases contributed by institutions around the world."

Says Edward Vanden Berghe, who leads development and management of the database: "A map of records in OBIS today underlines the uneven sampling of oceanic regions," he adds. "So even as records accumulate, the importance of orderly sampling grows."

Almost all the species in the key regional areas are included in the unprecedented list of 185,000 marine species created by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), an affiliate of the Census of Marine Life.

How much is unknown?

In October, the Census will release its latest estimate of all marine species known to science, including those still to be added to WoRMS and OBIS. This is likely to exceed 230,000.

According to a recent open access Census of Marine Life paper in Zootaxa by US expert Bill Eschmeyer and colleagues, the number of marine fish species in mid-February stood at 16,764, and was growing at a rate of 100 to 150 per year. They estimate about 5,000 marine fish species have yet to be discovered and described -- twice the number described in the last 19 years -- for a projected total of approximately 21,800 marine fish species around the world.

And for every marine species of all kinds known to science, Census scientists estimate that at least four have yet to be discovered. In a few taxonomic groups, like fish, scientists believe more than 70% of species have been discovered, but for most other groups likely less than one-third are known. Scientists believe that the tropics, deep-seas and southern hemisphere hold the most undiscovered marine species.

The proportion of species not yet described is estimated at 39 to 58% in Antarctica, 38% for South Africa, 70% for Japan, 75% for the Mediterranean deep-sea, and more than 80% for Australia.

New Zealand has more than 4,100 undescribed species in its specimen collections, which would comprise 25% of the country's known marine species, but clearly is a minimum estimate because many species have not been collected and distinguished in collections.

Citizens of the Sea

"At the end of the Census of Marine Life, most ocean organisms still remain nameless and their numbers unknown," says renowned biologist Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonian Institution, leader of the Census' coral reef project and author of a new book published by the National Geographic Society for release September 14. "Citizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures from the Census of Marine Life" is one of three books marking the Census' conclusion.

"This is not an admission of failure. The ocean is simply so vast that, after 10 years of hard work, we still have only snapshots, though sometimes detailed, of what the sea contains. But it is an important and impressive start."

Dr. Knowlton's book, written in everyday language and populated with scores of images, draws on discoveries of Census scientists and their colleagues, past and present. It chronicles "the variety, beauty, weirdness and wonder that characterizes life in the sea."

"The sea today is in trouble," says Dr. Knowlton. "Its citizens have no vote in any national or international body, but they are suffering and need to be heard. Much has changed just in the few decades that I have spent on and under the sea, but it remains a wondrous and enriching place, and with care it can become even more so."

Greatest threats

According to the Census studies published in PLoS ONE, the main threats to marine life to date have been overfishing, lost habitat, invasive species and pollution, although the relative importance of the threats varied among regions. Emerging threats include rising water temperature and acidification, and the enlargement of areas characterized by low oxygen content (called hypoxia) of seawater. These too will vary regionally (surface temperature, for example) whereas others are more global (such as acidification).

Overfishing not only depletes the exploited fish themselves but also depletes other species like turtles, albatrosses, sharks and mammals, caught unintentionally. It alters food webs within ecosystems.

Coastal urbanization, sediment runoff and nutrients in sewage and fertilizer washed from the land and causing eutrophication and hypoxia are destroying marine habitats.

The more enclosed seas -- Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, China's shelves, Baltic, and Caribbean -- were reported to have the most threatened biodiversity.

State-of-knowledge index

Census scientists created a relative "state-of-knowledge index," grading each region according to how well it was known, including the availability of guides to the identification of species and their number of taxonomic experts.

In a nutshell, the studies found that while the depth of knowledge varies across regions, knowledge in all regions is inadequate.

Australia, China and all three European regions scored the highest index results while the Tropical West Atlantic, Tropical East Pacific and Canadian Arctic were well below average. But, even in regions with the highest index scores, knowledge of marine biodiversity is poor. In Australia it is estimated that only about 10% of marine life in its Exclusive Economic Zone is known.

Scientists say the availability of comprehensive species identification guides strongly boost the discovery and management of marine biodiversity resources.

"We must increase our knowledge of unknown biodiversity more quickly, lest much of it is lost without even being discovered," says Dr. Miloslavich. "International sharing of data, expertise and resources, as has been accomplished through the Census of Marine Life, is the most cost-effective way of achieving this."

The Census papers collection, freely available Aug. 2 at PLoS ONE (www.coml.org/plos-one-collections), includes links to maps, databases and a suite of the first nine regional papers on which the summary drew, with several more to be added in weeks to come.

And there are Census reports on several more regions anticipated in years to come.

An exploration currently underway in the species-rich Timor and Arafura Seas, facilitated by Dr. Antonio (Tonny) Wagey, leader of the Census' National Committee in Indonesia, will enrich the Indonesian report.

Another this past spring, led by Philippe Bouchet of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, discovered a vast array of marine life in the Deep South of Madagascar.

Journal References:

1. Ron O'Dor, Patricia Miloslavich, Kristen Yarincik. Marine Biodiversity and Biogeography - Regional Comparisons of Global Issues, an Introduction. PLoS ONE: Overview, published 02 Aug 2010, 2010; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011871
2. Mark John Costello, Marta Coll, Roberto Danovaro, Pat Halpin, Henn Ojaveer, Patricia Miloslavich Patricia Miloslavich. A Census of Marine Biodiversity Knowledge, Resources, and Future Challenges. PLoS ONE, 2010; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012110

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802173704.htm
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #147 on Aug 5, 2010, 10:58pm »
Dragonfish, Fireworm, More Found by Sea Surveys

[image]

Fang-Tongued Fish

Photograph courtesy Julian Finn, Museum Victoria

Australia's "terrifying" dragonfish (pictured) uses its many fangs—which even stud its tongue—to hook hard-to-find prey in the cold, dark depths, scientists say.

The banana-size fish is one of tens of thousands of both known and new species included in a new inventory released today by the Census of Marine Life, a decade-long ocean-exploration project.

The first-of-its-kind "roll call" of marine species from 25 diverse ocean regions is a prelude to the census's final summary of up to 230,000 species to be released October 4, census scientists say.

To create the inventory—published Monday in the journal PloS One—scientists combined years of census data with previous research on the richness of ocean species. Species counts in each of the 25 areas ranged from 2,600 to 33,000, with an average of about 10,750 per region. Altogether census scientists found more than a hundred thousand species in the 25 regions.

"This inventory was urgently needed for two reasons," report lead author Mark Costello, of the Leigh Marine Laboratory at New Zealand's University of Auckland, said in a statement.

First, not knowing what species ply the oceans "impairs society's ability to discover and describe new species," Costello said.

The research may also serve as a base line, helping scientists to track future extinctions: "Marine species have suffered major declines—in some cases 90 percent losses—due to human activities and may be heading for extinction—as happened to many species on land."

August 2, 2010

[image]

Spider Conch

Photograph courtesy Shaoqing Wang

Found in China, the spider conch (pictured) is a mollusk, one of the most common groups of species in the new Census of Marine Life inventory.

Mollusks such as squid, octopus, snails, and slugs make up 17 percent of the named species found. Only crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, were more plentiful, at 19 percent, the report says.

Well-known marine vertebrates such as whales and sea lions make up less than 2 percent of the survey, scientists noted.

[image]

Corpse Nursery

Photograph courtesy H. Bahena, Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

Phronima sedentaria sets up house by attacking and then hollowing out a transparent jellyfish-like animal called a salpa (as pictured).

The tiny crustacean then lays its eggs inside the "barrel," according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. When the babies hatch inside, the female, now outside the barrel, "watches over" her babies by pulling the makeshift nursery around via hooked claws.

Phronima's native Gulf of Mexico is among the five most diverse areas surveyed in the new inventory, along with China, the Mediterranean Sea, Australia, and Japan, according to the new Census of Marine Life report.

For instance, Australia and Japan are each home to about 33,000 species. By contrast less diverse regions such as the Baltic or the northeastern U.S. each have about 4,000 known species.

[image]

Venus Flytrap of the Sea

Photograph by I. MacDonald, Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

"Stunningly beautiful but deadly," the Gulf of Mexico's Venus flytrap anemone (pictured) acts much like its terrestrial namesake, stinging its prey with an array of tentacles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The species' native Gulf—along with the Mediterranean, China, the Baltic, and the Caribbean—are most under threat from human activities, the Census of Marine Life report noted.

For instance, nutrients in sewage and fertilizer washed from the land are degrading these marine habitats by creating oxygen-free "dead zones," the report says. What's more, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may worsen these dead zones, as well as wield untold damage to the animals at the bottom of the food chain.

[image]

Bearded Fireworm

Photo courtesy Eduardo Klein

The bearded fireworm's rows of white bristles (pictured) are filled with venom that easily penetrates flesh and creates an "intense burning irritation"—hence the species' name—according to the Census of Marine Life report.

The worm lives in the Caribbean Sea, one of the ocean regions with the fewest native species, according to the new report. Native species make up about half of New Zealand and Antarctica's marine species and a quarter of those in Australia and South Africa.

[image]

Flashing Jellyfish

Photo courtesy JAMSTEC

Japan's deep-dwelling jellyfish Atolla wyvillei (pictured) has developed a clever "burglar alarm": When attacked by a predator, the creature lights up in hopes of attracting a bigger predator that will eat the jellyfish's attacker, according to the Census of Marine Life report and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Eighty percent of all creatures known to produce light-emitting chemicals live in the oceans. The phenomenon of bioluminescence is still poorly understood.

[image]

Unknown Octopus

Photograph by I. MacDonald. Felder, D. L. and Camp, D. K. (eds.) 2009. Gulf of Mexico­Origins, Waters, and Biota. Vol. 1. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.

An as yet unnamed deepwater octopus species (pictured) of the Benthoctopus genus moves across an 8,600-foot-deep (2,700-meter-deep) Gulf of Mexico seafloor in an undated picture.

In addition to the 25 ocean areas surveyed by Census of Marine Life scientists, major species inventories continue in highly diverse areas such as Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Arabian Sea, according to the new report.

[image]

Red-Lined Paper Bubble

Photograph courtesy Yoshihiro FUJIWARA/JAMSTEC

A relative of the snail, the red-lined paper bubble (pictured) was found feeding on a sperm whale carcass off Japan's Kyushu Islands.

The deep seas, the tropics, and the Southern Hemisphere hold the most undiscovered species, according to census scientists.

"At the end of the Census of Marine Life, most ocean organisms still remain nameless and their numbers unknown," marine biologist Nancy Knowlton, leader of the the census's coral reef project, said in a statement.

"This is not an admission of failure," added Knowlton, also of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

"The ocean is simply so vast that, after ten years of hard work, we still have only snapshots, though sometimes detailed, of what the sea contains. But it is an important and impressive start."

http://img405.imageshack.us/content_roun....lifedragonf.jpg
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #148 on Aug 6, 2010, 5:46am »
"Spectacular" Deep-Sea Species Found off Canada

[image]

New Purple Octopus?

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

An unidentified purple octopus (pictured) is one of 11 potentially new species found this month during a deep-sea expedition off Canada's Atlantic coast, scientists say.

Still at sea, a team of Canadian and Spanish researchers is using a remotely operated vehicle called ROPOS for dives off Newfoundland with a maximum depth of about 9,800 feet (3,000 meters).

The 20-day expedition aims to uncover relationships between cold-water coral and other bottom-dwelling creatures in a pristine yet "alien" environment, according to the researchers' blog.

"It's been really spectacular," Ellen Kenchington, research scientist with the Fisheries Department of Canada—one of the organizations involved in the project—told Canada's CTV News website.

"It's really changing our perception of the diversity that's out there. ... We're seeing new species in deeper waters."

[image]

Unidentified Sea Pen

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

An unidentified sea pen (pictured) belonging to the order Pennatulacea has been discovered during the July 2010 expedition on the Atlantic coast off Newfoundland.

Actually soft corals, sea pens are so named because their rows of polyps resemble old-fashioned quill pens, according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

[image]

Remotely Operated Vehicle

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

The expedition's remotely operated vehicle (vehicle arm pictured next to an unidentified object) observed and cataloged a deep seafloor region off the Flemish Cap (see map) that's never been subject to trawling or other human activities, according to the project blog.

Punctuated by large rock outcrops, the seafloor is covered in coral and sponge species never, or only rarely, seen by scientists.

[image]

Solitary Cup Coral

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

ROPOS, the expedition's remotely operated vehicle, had a high-definition digital camera, which captured several images of rare species, such as this flower-like solitary cup coral. These cup corals are also common off North America's Pacific Coast, according to Louisiana State University.

[image]

Vase Sponge

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

A possibly new species of vase sponge was one of the bottom dwellers discovered during the expedition. The simplest multicellular animals, sponges have no organs but possess many "pores," which lead to canals and chambers, according to Bellarmine University.

[image]

Coral With Sea Anemones

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

Bright pink anemones "decorate" polyps of coral in the Paramuricea species in a picture taken during the July 2010 expedition off Newfoundland.

Sea anemones are coral relatives that usually attach to rock or coral. The animals have stinging tentacles that can paralyze and entangle small prey, according to the U.S. National Museum of Natural History.

[image]

Unidentified Sponge

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

This unrecognizable sponge species (pictured) is among the "major biological highlights" found on volcanic mounds off Newfoundland on July 20, according to the project blog.

"What an unexpected dive!" project scientists wrote after seeing this sponge, black corals, and other oddities.

[image]

New Species of Bivalve

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

This recently identified species of bivalve mollusk was also discovered in the July survey of the Newfoundland depths. Bivalves—known for their "hinged," two-sided shells—can burrow into sediment or live on the ocean floor, according to the University of California Museum of Paleontology. Some species even snap their shells open and shut to swim.

[image]

"Spectacular" Sponges

Photograph courtesy Bedford Institute of Oceanography

This "spectacularly dense" bed of large white sponges of the family Geodiidae was captured during the Newfoundland project's last dive, according to the expedition blog.

The final dive, which covered a 4,000-foot-deep (1,200-meter-deep) span of water, revealed a vast array of habitats, from cliffside terraces full of sponges and corals to sandy bottoms nearly devoid of life.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/....992_600x450.jpg
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
Big Bunny
Admin
member is offline

[avatar]



Joined: Apr 2003
Gender: Male
Posts: 50,822
Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: There's a new polar bear in the world... II
« Reply #149 on Aug 8, 2010, 12:22pm »

New to Nature No 17: Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus

This flame-throated African forest robin comes from the dense forests of Gabon

* Quentin Wheeler
* The Observer, Sunday 8 August 2010

[image]

The flame-throated African forest robin of Gabon. Photograph: Brian K Schmidt/Smithsonian Institution

A new African forest robin, Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus, has been discovered in the remote forests of Gabon. Although locally abundant, these unobtrusive birds are known primarily from their calls. They differ from related forest robins in their song, coloration and mitochondrial DNA and were discovered during a biodiversity inventory of the Gamba complex of protected areas. The striking orange plumage of the bird's throat is the most brilliant in the genus. The 9,990 described species of birds represent one of the best-known groups of animals, yet new species continue to be discovered.

Quentin Wheeler is director of the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/a....an-forest-robin
Link to Post - Back to Top  IP: Logged
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860

"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."

John F. Kennedy
« Page 10 of 17 » Jump to page   Go    [Search This Thread] [Share Topic] [Print]




















Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free


This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards
Get Your Own Free Message Boards & Free Forums!
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Notice | FTC Disclosure | Report Abuse | Mobile