new species
grrlscientist | December 28, 2007tags: marine fish, benthic fish, new species, streaming video
This is a wonderful streaming video that shows footage of a variety of new species of benthic sea life discovered by a new submersible with a camera -- prepare to be amazed. Includes a nice soundtrack, too [4:52]
zooillogix | December 17, 2007Much like Pier 1 Imports is the place to make great unexpected holiday gift discoveries this season, Indonesia is the #1 source for mildly inventive new mammal species. In the Foja Mountains rainforest of eastern Papua province, a joint Indonesian and American research team recently stumbled across some new critters. More correctly, in the case of at least one, it stumbled across them. "The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the…
awild | December 12, 2007
Technomyrmex fisheri Bolton 2007
Madagascar, line drawing by Barry Bolton
Last month, British myrmecologist Barry Bolton published the first ever global synthesis of the ant genus Technomyrmex. The tome describes 37 new species, including Technomyrmex fisheri from Madagascar, named after Brian Fisher of Antweb. I'm always keen to try out new taxonomic keys, so I tested Bolton's out on several unidentified African and Australian species in my collection. As is nearly always the case with Bolton's meticulous work, the key worked flawlessly. I only wish I had more Technomyrmex to key.…
bleimanb | December 11, 2007Update: This snake was actually discovered by Roygan Taylor working for Bio-Ken in Kenya. He has his own fantastic blog, which in addition to providing a lot of fascinating information about the enormous snake in question, covers all sorts of other interesting snake related issues in Africa. Check it out here http://www.wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/savingsnakes
Researchers have identified a new species of spitting cobra in Kenya, one that is over nine feet long and has enough venom to "kill twenty people" according to an "expert" on the subject in this article on nationalgeographic.com.
I'm…
awild | December 4, 2007
Idioneurula donegani Huertas & Arias 2007
Huertas, B. and J. J. Arias. 2007. A new butterfly species from the Colombian Andes and a review of the taxonomy of the genera Idioneurula Strand, 1932 and Tamania Pyrcz, 1995 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Zootaxa 1652: 27-40.
The online journal Zootaxa has hosted the publication of 6723 new animal species since its inception in 2001, averaging over 2.8 new species per day. And that's just a single journal- there are scores of taxonomy journals out there. Taxonomy is an old science, but it remains on the frontiers of biological…
awild | December 2, 2007
Mystrium maren Bihn & Verhaagh 2007
Discoveries of new species on our little-known planet continue apace. The two known specimens of the impressively toothy Mystrium maren were collected in 2001 in Indonesia, and Jochen Bihn and Manfred Verhaagh just published a paper in Zootaxa describing this ant and another new species, M.leonie.
Source: J. H. Bihn & M. Verhaagh, 2007. A review of the genus Mystrium (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Indo-Australian region. Zootaxa 1642: 1-12.
*update* Lead author Jochen Bihn writes about the…
zooillogix | November 15, 2007We are not sure what the bigger story here is: the discovery of a new species of tiny adorable river manatee or the fact that this happened in July and we just learned about it last week! Anyway, these critters were discovered by a pioneering Amazonian biologist by the name of Marc van Roosmalen and covered by Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology a few months back. Tetrapod is kind of the better researched, actually informative, articulate and all around nerdier version of Zooillogix.
As the story goes, Marc came across the skull of a dwarf manatee and, suspecting it was a new species, searched…
zooillogix | October 16, 2007The AP just reported that project leader Dr. Larry Madin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Phillipine scientists returned from two weeks in the Celebes Sea, located off the Phillippines southernmost archipelago, this Tuesday with some potential new deep sea discoveries. Among the more interesting finds were a strange black jellyfish, a transparent sea cucumber and a spiny orange worm that had 10 squid-like tentacles. "I'll have to try a bite of each one with Old Bay before we determine whether they are truly new species or not" Dr. Madin joked. Adding, "you think I'm kidding,…
zooillogix | October 10, 2007The Qatar National History Group, a Qatari (Qatarian, Qatarese?), nature outing group, recently discovered what is believed to be a new species of sea slug. The pictures of the colorful critter were reviewed by Dr. Bill Rudman, head of the Sea Slug Forum, and he believes it bears resemblance to a sea slug last seen in Pakistan a century ago. Perhaps more even more interesting, was Zooillogix's discovery of the existence of the Sea Slug Forum, which has an exhaustive collection sea slug pictures and aqua-slug related links. Spend a few minutes perusing this awesome collection and make your…
bleimanb | September 12, 2007Deep in a cave off the coast of South Kona, Hawaii, marine biologist Marc Hughes discovered what he'd been seeking for years, a totally unspectacular new species of fish. Hughes was diving in the cave when he noticed a brown fish about 6 inches long swimming nearby. According to Hughes he immediately grabbed it with his hand and put it in his pocket...Wait...Huh?
The new species of Grammonus fish subsists mainly on a diet of mayonnaise on white bread.
Upon returning to the mainland, Hughes or as we will call him, Mr. Miyagi, gave his specimen (then dead) to a tropical fish dealer to…
zooillogix | August 6, 2007
A voyage sponsored by the Census of Marine Life (CoML) has netted some newly discovered species in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The trawling net was pulled at the level between 1000 meters and 5000 meters deep. About 500 species were cataloged out of thousands caught. Most of the creatures were of the gelatinous sort, specially adapted to live in frigid waters deep in the depths. The scientists, trying to be nice, immediately plunged the creatures into icy water upon hoisting them into the boat, but of course, many of them did not survive the trip to the surface.
A tiny winged snail,…
zooillogix | July 20, 2007Scientists at Holar University College and the University of Iceland have identified two species of amphipods which have likely survived since well before the last ice age. Quoted in an article in Nature-Science, Bjarni K. Kristjansson, the scientist who made the discovery, says, "These finding can only be explained by these animals surviving glaciations in some kind of refugium under the glaciers." The finding is significant because scientists had believed that ice ages wipe out all animals on land and freshwater in large portions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Why wasn't this adorable little…
zooillogix | July 6, 2007Buddenbrockia plumatellae
Discovered in 1851, the Buddenbrockia worm has long confounded scientists--it seems like a worm, but has some very unworm-like characteristics. Unlike similar looking creatures, such as nematodes, the Buddenbrockia's body does not have separate organs. Its insides are totally symmetric. According to Professor Peter Holland of Oxford University,Aeos Department of Zoology as quoted in Physorg.com, "It doesn,Aeot have a left or right side or a top or bottom ,Aei we can,Aeot even tell which end is the front!...Seen in cross section it is completely symmetrical so no way…
zooillogix | June 4, 2007Daceton armigerum, a highly visual, predatory ant.
Two dozen new species were identified on the plateaus of Eastern Suriname, according to scientists today. The creatures, which include 12 new kinds of dung beetle, were originally discovered during a 2005 expedition sponsored by Suriname Aluminum Company LLC and BHP Billiton Maatschappij Suriname.Purple-festooned, Atepolus toad
Amazonian snail-eating snake
A dwarf catfish in the Guyanancistrus genus, nicknamed "Big Mouth" by its discoverers
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grrlscientist | May 17, 2007tags: Antarctica, Weddell Sea, new species, ANDEEP, zoology
The scientists said an "astonishingly diverse" collection of isopods had been discovered. This young male isopod represents one of 674 isopod species found.
Image: W. Brokeland. [larger image]
According to a paper that was recently published, scientists have found more than 700 new species of marine creatures in seas surrounding Antarctica -- seas once thought too hostile to sustain such rich biodiversity. Fabulous creatures, such as carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans and molluscs, were collected.
The…
grrlscientist | April 25, 2007tags: Solomon Islands Frogmouth, Rigidipenna inexpectatus, Podargus ocellatus inexpectatus, birds, birding, ornithology
Gone are the days when animals were classified to taxon based solely on bone structure (osteology), body structure (morphometrics) or behavior (ethology), or some combination of these characters. Currently, scientists have a suite of powerful tools for classifying creatures to taxon, and analyses using a combination of these methods is allowing us to come to a deeper understanding of all animal life. As a result of using these techniques, a new species of bird has been…
zooillogix | March 15, 2007A new species of clouded leopard was identified today in the jungles of Borneo. In fact, over 400 new species of animals have been discovered in the rain forests of Borneo since 1994.
Most of the species shown below were found through the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) spectacular Heart of Borneo Initiative.Bornean Clouded Leopard, neofelis diardi
Catfish with suction cups on its belly and protruding teeth
Lizard - new species of skink
(By far our favorite), Unidentified "Mystery Mammel"
zooillogix | March 8, 2007We had a bat house hanging from the second story of my home growing up. My brother loved bats and I fully endorsed sharing our home with them. These critters might be a different story.
Bat species, like many creatures, can be difficult to tell apart based purely on physiology. These new bats were recently identified as unique species by using DNA barcoding and immediately prepped for inclusion in female nightmares.
trachops cirrhosus
myotis riparious
platyrrhinus helleri
Our friends here are native to camping areas in the Midwest and various alleys on the Lower East Side of Manhattan...