Zoologger: Strange reptiles saw heads off seabirds
Species: Sphenodon punctatus and Sphenodon guntheri
Habitat: persecuting seabirds in New Zealand
Headsmen must have suffered from terrible stage fright. Even with a decent axe, it takes both power and precision to take someone’s head off with one blow, and they often failed. Apparently it took two blows to kill Mary Queen of Scots, and even then the executioner had to do some impromptu sawing to finally separate her head from her body.
Tuataras, New Zealand’s iconic reptiles, have no such problem. They are known for sawing the heads off seabirds, leaving the decapitated bodies lying around to baffle passersby.
That’s thanks to the unique way they chew their food, which allows them to rip through substances that many other animals would struggle with. Their masticatory skills may even help to explain why they have survived for so long, while countless other species have died out.
--- 2 days ago --- ---
Mystery of Monarch Butterfly Migration Takes New Turn
ScienceDaily (May 31, 2012) — During the fall, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies living in eastern North America fly up to 1,500 miles to the volcanic forests of Mexico to spend the winter, while monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains fly to the California coast. The phenomenon is both spectacular and mysterious: How do the insects learn these particular routes and why do they stick to them?
--- 2 days ago --- 2 notes ---
A Whale of a Discovery: New Sensory Organ Found in Rorqual Whales
ScienceDaily (May 23, 2012) — Scientists at the University of British Columbia and the Smithsonian Institution have discovered a sensory organ in rorqual whales that coordinates its signature lunge-feeding behaviour — and may help explain their enormous size.
Rorquals are a subgroup of baleen whales — including blue, fin, minke and humpback whales. They are characterized by a special, accordion-like blubber layer that goes from the snout to the navel. The blubber expands up to several times its resting length to allow the whales to engulf large quantities of prey-laden water, which is then expelled through the baleen to filter krill and fish.
--- 1 week ago --- 2 notes ---
First Satellite Tag Study for Manta Rays Reveals Habits and Hidden Journeys of Ocean Giants
ScienceDaily (May 11, 2012) — Using the latest satellite tracking technology, conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter (UK), and the Government of Mexico have completed a ground-breaking study on a mysterious ocean giant: the manta ray.
--- 2 weeks ago --- 8 notes ---
Mini mammoth once roamed Crete
Evolution crafted pint-sized pachyderm on Mediterranean island.
Scientists can now add a ‘dwarf mammoth’ to the list of biological oxymorons that includes the jumbo shrimp and pygmy whale. Studies of fossils discovered last year on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that an extinct species once thought to be a diminutive elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed — which, as an adult, stood no taller than a modern newborn elephant.
Previously, the ancient pint-sized pachyderm was known only from fossilized teeth unearthed in Crete in the early twentieth century. Even though those molars had some features that were characteristic of mammoths, the scientist who described the species at the time placed it on the elephant branch of the tree of life, mistakenly thinking that a mammoth couldn’t have co-existed on the tiny island with another known species of elephant. But reanalysing those teeth and another fossil molar found at the same site last summer revealed a distinctive pattern of ridges and loops in tooth enamel that is seen only in mammoths, says Victoria Herridge, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
--- 3 weeks ago --- 1 note ---Rare Gorillas Caught on Camera
A group of elusive Cross River gorillas-including a chest-beating silverback—were recently captured by a camera trap in Cameroon.
(Source: National Geographic)
--- 3 weeks ago --- ---
A ‘Cousin’ of the Giant Panda Lived in What Is Now Zaragoza, Spain
ScienceDaily (May 9, 2012) — A team of Spanish scientists have found a new ursid fossil species in the area of Nombrevilla in Zaragoza, Spain. Agriarctos beatrix was a small plantigrade omnivore and was genetically related to giant pandas, according to the authors of the study.
--- 3 weeks ago --- 4 notes ---“Rebel” Coelacanth
Illustration courtesy Michael Skrepnick
Rebellatrix, a newfound species of coelacanth, chases down Triassic prey in an illustration.
The coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) is a primitive, slow-moving fish that’s sometimes called a living fossil, because it apparently existed largely unchanged for 320 million years.
There are 40 known coelacanth species, 2 of which are alive today. All other known coelacanths have broad, rounded tails designed for slow bursts of motion.
But Rebellatrix had a huge, forked tail and streamlined body that likely allowed the ancient fish to cruise long distances and hunt prey at high speeds, said study leader Andrew Wendruff, a biologist at the University of Alberta in Canada.
According to Wendruff, the team named the discovery Rebellatrix because, like a true rebel, “it does everything a coelacanth should not do.”
—Christine Dell’Amore
--- 4 weeks ago --- 16 notes ---Anguilla Bank Skink
Photograph courtesy Karl Questal
The Anguilla bank skink (pictured) is among 24 new species of skink found in the Caribbean—and one of only two known species in the region with a blue tail, according to a new study.
The Caribbean had been thought to house just six species of these smooth-scaled lizards. But when study leader Blair Hedges and colleagues reexamined skink specimens in museums around the world, they found that the animals were much more diverse.
In addition to the 6 known species, the team found 24 brand new species and 9 species that had been previously described—and sometimes photographed—but considered invalid.
In total, the team says, the Caribbean now has 39 known skink species.
“I was completely taken by surprise, because I’ve been working in this area for more than 25 years, and I’ve been to a lot of these islands,” said Hedges, a biologist at Penn State University.
(Also see photos: “‘Glam Rock’ Lizard Among New Madagascar Species.”)
Half of the newfound reptiles may be extinct or nearly extinct, mostly due to introduced predators—such as the small Indian mongoose—and deforestation, noted Hedges, whose study was published April 30 in the journal Zootaxa.
The Anguilla bank skink, which lives on the mongoose-free islands of Anguilla and St. Barthélemy (regional map), is a bit better off. But due to threats from habitat destruction and other invasive predators, such as the black rat, the study team proposes that the species be listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
—Christine Dell’Amore
--- 4 weeks ago --- 4 notes ---
