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Thursday 28 June 2012

Latest top 10 New Species Found in 2012

On May 23rd, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) published its 5th annual list of new species discovered during the previous year. Based out of Arizona State University, IISEs scientists collaborate with a committee of taxonomists across the globe to describe and classify new plant and animal species.
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Snub-Nosed Monkey


Snub-nosed monkeys are a group of Old World monkeys and make up the entirety of the genus Rhinopithecus. The genus occurs rarely and needs much more research. About 20,000 of the golden variety remain on Earth. Some 4,000 inhabit the mountainous region where Chinese officials set up the Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve to protect the species. Living bothin and out of reserve boundaries, Rhinopithecus roxellana, whose Latin name was allegedly inspiredby the snub-nosed concubine of a1500s sultan, has made great adaptations to survive, subsisting on low-protein lichens and bark when trees are bare. Large social networks help fend off predators,like clouded leopards.
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Bonaire Banded Box Jelly


Bonaire Banded Box Jelly is found near the Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire. This -strikingly beautiful yet venomous jellyfish resembles a box kite, with its long, colorful tails, according to ASU. After a thorough scientific review in which the morphology of this jellyfish was carefully compared with the morphology of several close relatives, the Bonaire banded box jelly was officially given the species name Tamoya ohboya in a public naming contest organized by the Coalition of the Public Understanding of Science. Lisa Peck, a high school marine biology teacher, submitted the winning entry ohboya, as she explained in part,~I bet -Oh Boy is the first thing said when a biologist or layman encounters the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish.
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Wandering Leg Sausage


A giant millipede about the length of a sausage bears the common name -wandering leg sausage. The species (Crurifarcimen vagans) holds a new record as the largest millipede (about 6.3 inches) found in one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots, Tanzanias Eastern Arc Mountains. The new species is about 0.6 inch in diameter with 56 more or less podous rings, or body segments, bearing ambulatory limbs. Each ofthese segments has two pairs of legs.
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Sazimas Tarantula


Not only is this iridescent blue tarantula, Sazimas tarantula , breathtakingly beautiful, it is the first new animal species from Brazil to have made it to the Top 10. Brazil is one of the planet¡¯s most biologically diverse nations and is consistently a major source of species discoveries including much of Brazils Amazon basin, its Atlantic forest, the savanna ecoregion Cerrado, and the hotspots of Brazils tropical Andes.Survival of tarantula species can be at risk due to loss of habitat and over-collecting for the pet trade. Although Pterinopelma sazimai is not the first blue tarantula, it is one of the most striking and may be especially vulnerable because of its limited distribution in an -ecological island--a habitat high upon tabletop mountains which have a greater rainfall and different soilsthan the immediately surrounding area.
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Night-Blooming Orchid


A Night-Blooming orchid , the firstof its kind known to science, has been described by a team of botanists. Experts say the -remarkable- species is the only orchid known to consistently flower at night, but why it has adopted this behaviour remains amystery. The plant was discoveredby a Dutch researcher during an expedition to New Britain, an island near Papua New Guinea.
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Walking Cactus


Diania is an extinct genus of animal found in the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan shale of China, represented by a single species D. cactiformis. Known during its investigation by the nickname -walking cactus-, this organism belongs to a group known as the armoured lobopodians and has a simple worm-like body with robust, spiny, and apparently jointed legs. Its significance is that jointed legs are the defining character of the arthropods and Diania may thus be very close to the origins of the most diverse group of animals on the planet.
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Dive-Bombing Wasp


A tiny parasitic wasp from the region surrounding Madrid, Spainearned Top 10 recognition for herunusual means of laying an egg. Dive-bombing Wasps hunt for prey one centimeter above ground, scouting for unwary dessert ants. Dive-bombing Waspsstrike from behind, depositing a single egg in an unsuspecting host in less than 1/20 of a second, sealing the ant¡¯s fate as a moving feast for hungry wasp larvae.
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Nepalese Autumn Poppy


Many newly discovered species of Nepalese Autumn Poppies are small in size or secretive in habits,but not all. This beautiful and vibrantly colored poppy has remained unknown to science until now. This is no doubt due in part to the extreme environment where the flower lives at an elevation of 10,827 to 13,780 feet in central Nepal. It is also evidence of the paucity of botanists studying the Asian flora as specimens of Meconopsis autumnalis had been collected twice before, although not recognized as new---first in 1962by the storied Himalayan plant hunter Adam Stainton and again in 1994 by staff of the University of Tokyos Department of Plant Resources. The recent rediscovery of the poppy in the field was made by intrepid botanists collecting plants miles from human habitation in heavy monsoon rains.
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Devil Worm


Scientists digging 2.2 miles under South Africa didnot crack through the roof of Hell, but they did find the -devil worm - the deepest-living animal known. Halicephalobus mephisto, a newlydiscovered species named for Fausts Mephistopheles, is the firstnematode found beyond the 100-meter mark. Depths beyond that were thought to harbor only microbes. The nematodes live in abrownish fluid of bacterial biofilm, and have adapted comfortably to severe conditions marked by massive atmospheric pressure, and an ambient temperature that averages 98.6 Fahrenheit.
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Spongebob Squarepants Mushroom

Named after the cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants , this new species looks more like a sponge than a stereotypical mushroom and its fruiting body can actually be squeezed like a sponge and bounce back to its normal size and shape. This unusual mushroom is only the second species of the bolete fungus genus Spongiforma and according to the authors, -its unusual shape is unlike anything else known. Beyond having a shape that brings Spongebob Squarepants to mind, the authors note other similarities between the fungus and the cartoon personality. The mushrooms smells fruity and Spongebob lives in a pineapple; magnified, the texture of the fungus resembles the tube sponges covering the seafloor where Spongebob lives; and even the microscopic spores of the fungus appear spongelike. Although the species name was initially rejected by journal editors as -frivolous- the authors persisted and as a result, brought attention to a bizarre new speciesand to the biodiversity of the worlds forests

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Wednesday 27 June 2012

Animals and Their Extra Ordinary Senses




Animals have developed amazing adaptations to their environments.
Many different types of energy and senses exist in the environment, some of which humans cannot detect.
Here are some examples of how some animals sense the outside world.


Ants





1. Can detect small movement through 5 cm of earth.

2. Can see polarized light.




Bats




1. Can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away using its nose-leaf.

2. Bats can also find food up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using
their sense of echolocation.




Bees




1. Can see light between wavelengths 300 nm and 650 nm.

2. Have taste receptors on their jaws, forelimbs and antennae.

3. Worker honey bees have a ring of iron oxide in their abdomens that may be used to detect magnetic fields.
They may use this ability to detect changes in the earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation.

4. Can see polarized light.





Butterfly




1. Has taste receptors on its feet.

2. The butterfly has hairs on its wings to detect changes in air pressure.

3. Using vision, the butterfly Colias can distinguish two points separated by as little as 30 microns.





Cat




1. Has hearing range between 100 and 60,000 Hz.

2. Olfactory membrane about 14 sq. cm. For comparison, humans have an olfactory membrane
of about 4 sq. cm.





Chameleon




1. The eyes of the chameleon can move independently and can see in two different directions at the same time.





Cockroach




1. Can detect movement as small as 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.





Crab




1. Has hairs on claws and other parts of the body to detect water current and vibration.

2. Many crabs have their eyes on the end of stalks.





Cricket




1. Can hear using their legs , sound waves vibrate a thin membrane on the cricket's front legs.





Dogs




1. Has olfactory membrane up to 150 sq. cm.

2. Can hear sound as high as 40,000 Hz.





Dolphins




1. Like bats, dolphins use echolocation for movement and locating objects.

2. Can hear frequencies up to at least 100,000 Hz.






Dragonfly





1. Eye contains 30,000 lenses.






Earthworm




1. Entire body covered with chemoreceptors ( taste receptors ).





Elephants




1. Has hearing range between 1 and 20,000 Hz. The very low frequency sounds are in the infrasound range.
Humans cannot hear sounds in the infrasound range.






Falcon




1. Can see a 10 cm. object from a distance of 1.5 km.






Fish




1. Have a lateral line system consisting of sense organs (neuromasts) in canals
along the head and trunk. These receptors are used to detect changes in water pressure
and may be used to locate prey and aid movement.

2. Some fish can see into the infrared wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum.





Fish (Deep sea)




1. Only have rods in the retina: 25 million rods/sq. mm. Perhaps they need this high
density of photoreceptors to detect the dim biolumninescence that exists in the ocean
depths.






Fish (Four-eyed Fish - Anableps microlepis)




1. Can see in air and water simultaneously. Each eye is divided by flaps,
so there is one opening in the air and one in the water.






Fly




1. Eye has a flicker fusion rate of 300/sec. Humans have a flicker fusion rate of only
60/sec in bright light and 24/sec in dim light. The flicker fusion rate is the frequency
with which the flicker of an image cannot be distinguished as an individual event.
Like the frame of a movie...if you slowed it down, you would see individual frames.
Speed it up and you see a constantly moving image.

2. Blowflies taste with 3,000 sensory hairs on their feet.






Frog




1. Has an eardrum (tympanic membrane) on the outside of the body behind the eye.






Hawk




1. Normal vision for people is 20/20. A hawk's vision is equivalent to 20/5. This means that the hawk can see from
20 feet what most people can see from 5 feet. (Scientific American, April 2001, page 24)






Mice




1. Can hear frequencies between 1,000 and 100,000 Hz. By comparison, we humans can hear frequencies between 20 and
20,000 Hz.






Mosquito




1. Attracted to host by human body odor ( especially the foot odor), carbon dioxide, body heat and body humidity.






Octopus




1. Retina contains 20 million photoreceptors.

2. The eye has a flicker fusion frequency of 70/sec in bright light.

3. The pupil of the eye is rectangular.





Penguin




1. Has a flat cornea that allows for clear vision underwater. Penguins can also see into
the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum.





Pig




1. Tongue contains 15,000 taste buds. For comparison, the human tongue has 9,000 taste buds.





Pigeon




1. With eyes mounted laterally on their heads, pigeons can view 340 degrees...everywhere
except in back of their heads.

2. Can detect sounds as low as 0.1 Hz.





Rabbit




1. Tongue contains 17,000 taste buds.





Rat




1. Has hearing range between 1,000 and 90,000 Hz.





Sea horse




1. Each eye can move independently.





Scorpion




1. Can detect air moving at only 0.072 km/hr with special hairs on its pincers.

2. Can have as many as 12 eyes.





Shark




1. Has specialized electrosensing receptors with thresholds as low as 0.005 uV/cm.
These receptors may be used to locate prey. The dogfish can detect a flounder that
is buried under the sand and emitting 4 uAmp of current.

2. Some sharks can detect fish extracts as concentrations lower than one part in 10 billion.

3. Some sharks sense light directly through the skull by the pineal body.





Snakes




1. The tongue of snakes has no taste buds. Instead, the tongue is used to bring smells and tastes
into the mouth. Smells and tastes are then detected in two pits, called Jacobson's organs
, on the roof of their mouths. Receptors in the pits then transmit smell and taste information to the brain.

2. Snakes have no external ears. Therefore, they do not hear the music of a snake charmer.
Instead, they are probably responding to the movements of the snake charmer and the flute.
However, sound waves may travel through bones in their heads to the middle ear.

3. Snakes have no moveable eyelids. Instead, they have a clear, scale-like membrane covering the eye.




Spider




1. Many spiders have eight eyes. 
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