Nobody Knows Why These Bees Built a Spiral Nest

By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | January 22, 2018 03:03pm ET

The Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria is not your average pollinator. For starters, out of about 20,000 known bee species in the world, T. carbonaria is one of only 500 without stingers.

That's not to say this bee is defenseless. Invasive beetles that have tried to infiltrate T. carbonaria nests have found themselves suddenly covered in a brew of wax, mud and plant resin — effectively mummified alive by bees. T. carbonaria colonies have also been observed waging days-long territory wars against their stingless neighbors, resulting in hundreds of bee-on-bee casualties and queens unceremoniously dethroned.

This is all to say, if you had a home like T. carbonaria's, you'd probably fight for it, too. As seen in a popular photo posted to Reddit last week, swarms of T. carbonaria rear their young in mesmerizing, spiral-shaped towers called brood combs, linking hundreds of individual egg chambers together into a continuous staircase of unborn baby bees. [Here's What Wasp Faces Look Like Up-Close]

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Canine distemper confirmed in Far Eastern leopard, world's most endangered big cat

Canine distemper virus discovered in two-year-old female Amur leopard found in Russia's Land of Leopard National Park

Date: January 17, 2018

Source:  Wildlife Conservation Society

Summary:

The Far Eastern or Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is already among the rarest of the world's big cats, but new research reveals that it faces yet another threat: infection with canine distemper virus (CDV).

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World’s largest sea turtle (Leatherbacks) backs) could come off endangered’ list. - via Herp Digest

A rescued leatherback sea turtle makes its way back into the surf after being released by the South Carolina Aquarium in 2015 on the Isle of Palms. The leatherback could come off the endangered species list. Grace Beahm Alford/Staff/File

An arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has received a petition from a fishing group asking that the Northwest Atlantic Ocean's leatherback sea turtles be listed as "threatened," but not endangered, under the Endangered Species Act. The giant reptiles, which can weigh 2,000 pounds, would remain protected under federal law, but their status would be moved down a notch.

NOAA officials have said the agency has reviewed the petition from New Jersey-based Blue Water Fishermen's Association and found "substantial scientific and commercial information" that the move might be warranted. The agency now has about eight months to make a decision about the status of the turtles.

Leatherbacks live all over the world's oceans and have been listed as endangered by the U.S. since 1970.

Deciding whether the listing should be changed will require determining the stability of the population, said Jennifer Schultz, a fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries.

“We’ll look at scientific papers, we look at the best available scientific and commercial data,” she said. “And then we’ll say, ‘What does the status look like? How are they doing?’”

Leatherbacks rarely are seen and lay only one or two nests per year in South Carolina. Except for nesting, they live their lives at sea.

In 2017, 14 were found dead along the coast in a period of four months, evidently after following cannonball jellyfish pushed in by the tide. The turtles feed on the jellies.

Most of the turtles were killed by boat strikes and line entanglements. “I would be very concerned if they were downlisted to threatened,” said Mary Pringle, of the Island Turtle Team that watches over sea turtle nests on Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island.

Five of the leatherbacks found dead washed up on those two Charleston area beaches.

"Because they’re so endangered we don’t see them very much in South Carolina,” she said. “They need all the protection they can get.”

The fishing group that requested the change wants the Northwestern Atlantic's leatherback population to be considered a distinct segment of the population. That segment would include all of the leatherbacks that nest on beaches in the eastern U.S. states. But NOAA Fisheries is going to look at the status of the turtles worldwide, said Angela Somma, chief of endangered species division with NOAA Fisheries.

Blue Water Fishermen's Association requested the change of listing in part to spur new research into the status of the leatherback population, said Ernie Panacek, a past president of the organization. Data about species such as sea turtles and marine mammals play a role in crafting fishing regulations, and fishermen fear the government is using outdated data about leatherbacks, he said.

"I get a little frustrated in the fact that they are making regulations without scientific data in front of them," he said. "The more turtles there are, the more interactions you are bound to have with them.”

The leatherback sea turtle has been the subject of intense interest from conservation groups over the years. It's listing as endangered by the U.S. predates the modern Endangered Species Act that was enacted in 1973. The Costa Rica-based Leatherback Trust, an international nonprofit group, describes them as "ancient creatures celebrated in creation myths belonging to diverse cultures around the world."

International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the leatherback sea turtle as "vulnerable," which is one notch above "endangered" on the IUCN's scale. It's one of the largest reptiles on Earth, feeding mostly on jellyfish, which has left them at risk to plastic in the ocean, which can kill them if they ingest it. They are also notable for being the deepest diving and most migratory of all sea turtles, and for their lack of a bony shell.

NOAA is collecting information and comments on the subject until Feb. 5.

He Traded a Tortoise for a Turtle. He Got 6 Months in Jail. – via Herp Digest

By MATTHEW HAAG JAN. 19, 2018, NYTime

“Mr. Waters, 37, got in when he came in contact with a large tortoise. That episode led to the six-month jail term to which Mr. Waters was sentenced on Thursday.

The reptile in question was a 95-pound African spurred tortoise named Millenium, the star attraction at Alley Pond Environmental Center, a Queens nature center popular with children. On July 17, someone cut a hole in the fence around his enclosure and snatched him.

According to his mother, Mr. Waters did not steal Millenium, but was approached on the street after the theft by men carrying the mammoth reptile. A deal was made, and Mr. Waters led the tortoise away in a shopping cart, she said. Mr. Waters did not take Millenium home, perhaps because he was too big for the apartment or because he knew his mother would have been angry.

Either way, he found a way to offload Millenium, a two-and-a-half-foot long, two-foot wide behemoth who loves watermelon. A man in Stamford, Conn., had placed an advertisement on Craigslist offering to sell a musk turtle. Mr. Waters called and offered to swap reptiles, according to the Queens County District Attorney’s Office.

Without a car, Mr. Waters hopped on a Metro-North train to Connecticut with Millenium, who was still riding in the shopping cart, Ms. Waters said. Mr. Waters got off at the Fairfield train station, where the man had been waiting. Mr. Waters gave him Millenium, who the nature center said was worth $2,500, and the man handed over $300 and the musk turtle, according to the district attorney’s office.

At this point in Millenium’s disappearance, the staff at the Alley Pond Environmental Center had discovered he was gone, noticed the hole in the rear fence of his enclosure and called the police. 

The news media picked up on the story.

“Who would steal a 90-pound tortoise?” an anchor on WABC-TV in New York said on its newscast one day after the theft. “That is the question the police in Queens are trying to get to the bottom of today.”

Back in Connecticut, Millenium’s new owner started to see all the news coverage about a missing 17-year-old tortoise in Queens. Believing he might have stolen goods, the man called the police.

It did not take long for a detective to get to the bottom of the case. The detective called the number of the man who responded to the Craigslist advertisement, and Mr. Waters answered, the authorities said. Mr. Waters told the officer he had traveled to Connecticut with the tortoise to trade him for a musk turtle.

Millenium was returned to his home unharmed.

Mr. Waters was charged with fifth-degree criminal possession, a misdemeanor, and he pleaded guilty last month. In the days leading up to his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, his mother said, her son tried to make the most of his free time. He recently spent a day exploring sites in Manhattan with his 16-year-old daughter and has been telling his mother not to worry about him when he is in jail.

On Thursday morning, Ms. Waters drove her son to court in Queens, but she said she was too upset about the whole ordeal to be in the courtroom for the sentencing. “I know that Shawn is going to be the laughingstock,” Ms. Waters said.

A judge sentenced him to six months in jail at Rikers Island. Mr. Waters, who lost his job and license as a security guard after his arrest, hopes to get his license back when he is released, his mother said.

About 12 hours after her son started the sentence, Ms. Waters said in the phone interview that she was struggling to accept that her son was now sitting in a jail near people accused of violent crimes.

“He’s not a murderer or a drug dealer,” Ms. Waters said in an interview. “He’s an animal lover. That’s really his downfall.”

The shoulders of Interstate-75 near Snake Road are lined with dead turtles. (Florida) -  via Herp Digest

helloswift.com

You might have noticed an unfortunate scene driving through Interstate-75, otherwise known as Alligator Alley:Turtles dead on the side of the road.

“The turtles are moving as the water levels go down,” explained Dr. Bill Hammond at the Calusa Nature Center, “They’re drawn to the canals and the system there.”

“This is the time of year a lot of animals are on the move,” he explained, “And the highway is, of course, a barrier to their success.”

Dr. Hammond said the turtles are often looking for nesting.

“What we ask most highway people to do is at least put a low fence in,” said Dr. Hammond.

A university in Canada studied this issue. It found that effective fences helped guide turtles toward safe passages and away from highways.

The executive director at the Calusa Nature Center, Larry Aguilar, recommends doing one thing to avoid hurting any turtles.

“You just gotta slow down a bit,” he advised.

Dr. Hammond added that if you find a turtle struggling, you can bring it to a rehab center. He said CROW Clinic had helped rescue turtles like this before. However, he does not recommend you stop when driving on a fast moving highway like Alligator Alley.

Alligator fighting Giant Python on Golf Course in Florida. - via Herp Digest

Go to see more photos and other examples of gators encountering pythons. http://cbsn.ws/2Dna6Uk (pythons seem to be loosing)

NAPLES, Fla. CBS.Com 1/18/17-- A group of Florida golfers found a new kind of adversary on the green in Naples over the weekend, CBS Miami reports: A large alligator and a large Burmese python entangled on the course. Richard Nadler posted the pictures on his Facebook account while trying to play through the 10th hole at the Golf Club at Fiddler's Creek.

“Wild” day on the 10th hole today! That’s a an alligator and a Burmese python entwined. The alligator seems to have the upper hand.

Coping with climate stress in Antarctica

Some polar fish can cope with warming or ocean acidification, but not both together

Date:  January 17, 2018

Source:  University of California - Davis

Summary:

Some Antarctic fish living in the planet's coldest waters are able to cope with the stress of rising carbon dioxide levels the ocean. They can even tolerate slightly warmer waters. But they can't deal with both climate change stressors at the same time, according to a new study.

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Tasmania: new find of extremely rare red handfish doubles population to 80

Team of divers spent two days searching a reef, and hope more red handfish will be found

Calla Wahlquist

Wed 24 Jan 2018 06.27 GMTLast modified on Wed 24 Jan 2018 06.29 GMT

Divers in Tasmania have discovered a new population of red handfish, doubling the known population of the elusive and extremely rare fish and raising hopes that more may be found.

Until last week the remaining population of red handfish, Thymichthys politus, was believed to be confined to one 50m long reef in Frederick Henry Bay near Hobart in south-east Tasmania.

A recent survey at that site found eight individual fish at that site, prompting scientists to estimate the reef housed 20 to 40 handfish.

The second site, discovered on a similarly-sized bit of reef a short distance away, is estimated to house the same number of fish.

It was discovered after a member of the public reported seeing a red handfish in the area and a team of seven divers spent two days searching the reef.

“We were diving for approximately three and a half hours and at about the two-hour mark we were all looking at each other thinking this is not looking promising,” diver Antonia Cooper said.

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National Trust to create UK sanctuary for endangered butterfly

Heddon Valley in Devon to be haven for high brown fritillary, supported by lottery funding

Steven Morris

Wed 24 Jan 2018 00.01 GMT

A beautiful wooded valley on the Devon coast is to be the focus of a project to save the UK’s most endangered butterfly – the high brown fritillary.

Conservationists believe changes to woodland management, such as the abandonment of coppicing, and climate change have contributed to the steep decline of the large, powerful, fast-flying butterfly over the last 50 years.

The National Trust has been given £100,000 by the People’s Postcode Lottery to improve 150 acres of lowland heath and wood pasture at Heddon Valley on the north Devon coast as a habitat for the butterfly.

Other butterflies including the heath fritillary, and birds such as the nightjar and the Dartford warbler will also benefit.

Matthew Oates, a National Trust nature expert and butterfly enthusiast, said: “We’ve witnessed a catastrophic decline of many native butterfly populations in recent decades but initiatives like this can really help to turn the tide.”

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Hope for threatened 'little tiger cat'

By Helen BriggsBBC News

19 January 2018

It's the smallest cat in the Americas, occupying the smallest area of land.

Listed as vulnerable to extinction, the güiña wildcat of Chile has lost much of its natural home as forests are chopped down or converted to farmland.

And, like many carnivores, it's at risk from human persecution over fears it might kill livestock.

However, new research shows the animal is able to survive near human settlements on agricultural land.

Its biggest threat is being squeezed out when land is broken up into smaller areas, say conservationists.

The guiña is known variously as the little tiger cat, little spotted cat or Chilean cat. About half the size of the domestic cat, it is one of the most threatened cat species in South America.

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Why 200,000 Antelope Dropped Dead in 3 Weeks

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | January 23, 2018 11:01am ET

Credit: Courtesy of the Joint saiga health monitoring team in Kazakhstan (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity, Kazakhstan, Biosafety Institute, Gvardeskiy RK, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK)

One day in May of 2015, a handful of critically endangered saiga antelope dropped over, dead. This wasn't necessarily alarming to the scientists in the area who were busy monitoring the herd; the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica tatarica) of the Central Asian steppe are stressed in springtime, which is calving season, and deaths happen every day. But the next day, more antelope died. On day three, they were dropping by the hundreds.

Within three weeks, 200,000 saiga antelope — 62 percent of the world's population — were dead. And now, scientists have learned that the killer was lurking inside the animals all along.

A new study reveals that the ruminants were killed by a bacterium that normally lives in the antelopes' tonsils without causing any problems. But unusually warm, moist weather apparently triggered the overgrowth of the bacteria, Pasteurella multocida, which subsequently found its way into the antelopes' bloodstream and killed them. [Photos: Mass Death of the Saiga Antelope]

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Great scat! Bears -- not birds -- are the chief seed dispersers in Alaska

Date:  January 16, 2018

Source:  Oregon State University

Summary:

In southeastern Alaska, brown and black bears are plentiful because of salmon. Their abundance also means they are the primary seed dispersers of berry-producing shrubs, according to a new study.

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How to Stop Sex Changes in Turtles on the Great Barrier Reef-Climate change led to more female eggs, so scientists are trying to ensure males are made in the shade - via Herp Digest

by Anita Rita Patricia, The Conversation US, 1/17/18

                       

Credit: Alaina McDavid Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.

In the northern part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the future for green sea turtles appears to be turning female.

A recent study has revealed that climate change is rapidly leading to the feminisation of green turtles in one of the world’s largest populations. Only about 1% of these juvenile turtles are hatching male.

Among sea turtles, incubation temperatures above 29ºC produce more female offspring. When incubation temperatures approach 33ºC, 100% of the offspring are female. Cooler temperatures yield more males, up to 100% near a lower thermal limit of 23ºC. And if eggs incubate at temperatures outside the range of 23-33ºC the risk of embryo malformation and mortality becomes very high.

As current climate change models foresee increases in average global temperature of 2 to 3ºC by 2100, the future for these turtles is in danger. Worryingly, warmer temperatures will also lead to ocean expansion and sea-level rise, increasing the risk of flooding of nesting habitats.

HOW SCIENTISTS ARE TACKLING THE PROBLEM

Green sea turtles’ sensitivity to incubation temperatures is such that even a few degrees can dramatically change the sex ratio of hatchlings.

Sea turtles are particularly vulnerable because they have temperature-dependent sex determination, or TSD, meaning that the sex of the offspring depends on the incubation temperature of the eggs. This is the same mechanism that determines the sex of several other reptile species, such as the crocodilians, many lizards and freshwater turtles.

Scientists and conservationists are well aware of how future temperatures may threaten these species. For the past two decades they have been investigating the incubation conditions and resulting sex ratios at several sea turtle nesting beaches worldwide.

This is mostly done using temperature recording devices (roughly the size of an egg). These are placed inside nest chambers among the clutch of eggs, or buried in the sand at the same depth as the eggs. When a clutch hatches (after 50 to 60 days) the device is recovered and the temperatures recorded are analysed.

Research has revealed that most nesting beaches studied to date have sand temperatures that favour female hatchling production. But this female bias is not immediately a bad thing, because male sea turtles can mate with several females (polygyny). So having more females actually enhances the reproductive potential of a population (i.e. more females equals more eggs).

But given that climate change will likely soon increase this female bias, important questions arise. How much of a female bias is OK? Will there be enough males? What is the minimum proportion of males to keep a sustainable population?

These questions are being investigated. But, in the meantime, alarming reports of populations with more than 99% of hatchlings being female stress the urgency of science-based management strategies. These strategies must be designed to promote (or maintain) cooler incubation temperatures at key nesting beaches to prevent population decline or even extinction.

THE CHALLENGE OF REVERSING FEMINISATION

There are two general approaches to the problem:

            1          mitigate impacts at the most endangered nesting beaches

            2          identify and protect sites that naturally produce higher proportions of males.

Several studies emphasise that the natural shading native vegetation provides is essential to maintain cooler incubation temperatures. Thus, a key conservation action is to protect beach vegetation, or reforest nesting beaches.

Coastal vegetation also protects the nesting beach against wave erosion during storms, which will worsen under climate change. This strategy further requires coastal development to allow for buffer zones. Construction setback regulations should be enforced or implemented.

When natural shading is not an option, clutches of eggs can be moved either to more suitable beaches, or to hatcheries with artificial shading. Researchers have tested the use of synthetic shade cloth and found it is effective in reducing sand and nest temperatures.

Other potential strategies involve adding light-coloured sand on top of nests. This can help by absorbing less solar radiation (heat) compared to darker sand. Beach sprinklers have also been tested to simulate the cooling effect of rainfall.

The effectiveness of these actions has yet to be fully tested, but there is concern about some potential negative side effects. For example, excess water from sprinklers may cause fungal infections on eggs.

Finally, as much as mitigation measures are important, these are always short-term solutions. In the long run, prevention is always the best strategy, i.e. protecting the nesting beaches that currently produce more males from deforestation, development and habitat degradation.

Our recent research on the largest green turtle population in Africa reports unusually high male hatchling production. We found almost balanced hatchling sex ratios (1 female to 1.2 males). We attributed this mostly to the cooling effect of the native forest.

This, and similar nesting beaches, should be designated as priority conservation sites, as they will be key to ensuring the future of sea turtles under projected global warming scenarios.

Sea turtles are resilient creatures. They have been around for over 200 million years, surviving the mass extinction that included the dinosaurs, and enduring dramatic climatic changes in the past.

There is potential for these creatures to adapt, as they did before. This could be through, for example, shifting the timing of nesting to cooler periods, changing their distribution to more suitable habitats, or evolution of critical incubation temperatures that produce males.

But the climate today is changing at an unprecedented rate. Along with the feminisation of these turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef, sea turtles globally face many threats from humans. These include problems associated with by-catch, poaching, habitat degradation and coastal development, plus a history of intense human exploitation.

In 2018, the prevalence of these species depends now more than ever on the effectiveness of conservation measures.

A race against pine: Wood-boring wasp in North America threatened by a Eurasian invader

Date:  January 22, 2018

Source:  Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

Invasive species have diverse impacts in different locations, including biodiversity loss, as a result of native species being outcompeted for similar resources. A US research team studied the case of an aggressive Eurasian woodwasp that has recently established in North America and poses a threat to a native competitor species.

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12 Sexy Camels Kicked Out of Beauty Contest for Using Botox

By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer | January 23, 2018 06:07pm ET

What do Megyn Kelly and Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz Camel Festival have in common? It turns out, both the morning-show host and the organizers of this hoofed-animal parade have a habit of worrying about other beings' plastic-surgery habits.

Officials with the King Abdulaziz festival kicked out a dozen camels from a camel beauty contest for receiving Botox injections, according to a report published today (Jan. 23) in The National, an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-based newspaper.

More than 30,000 camels and 300,000 human visitors showed up for the second annual King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which runs from Jan. 1to Feb. 1 this year, The National reported. And the top spot of that horde of humped herbivores is worth a pretty penny: This year's prize money totals $57 million, with $31.8 million set aside for awards for "pageantry." [Why Do Camels Have Humps?]

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Alligators 'Snorkel' to Survive Ice-Covered Swamp

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | January 10, 2018 07:24am ET

A video showing alligator snouts poking out though an ice-covered swamp in North Carolina during last week's cold snap may look like the preview of an avant-garde art installation, but it actually depicts an adaptive trick that helps these reptiles survive in winter weather, a wildlife ecologist said.

Unlike mammals, alligators rely on ambient temperature to keep their bodies warm, which is why they can often be found basking in the sun or hanging out in air-pocketed burrows they've dug into the banks of rivers and lakes.

But when it gets so cold that their ponds freeze over, some alligators are known to swim to the surface and poke their snouts above the icy water so they can breathe properly, James Perran Ross, a retired associate scientist of wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida, told Live Science. [Alligator Alley: Pictures of Monster Reptiles]

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Are amoebae safe harbors for plague?

New research shows that plague bacteria not only survive, but thrive and replicate once ingested by an amoeba

Date:  January 16, 2018

Source:  Colorado State University

Summary:

Amoebae, single-celled organisms common in soil, water and grade-school science classrooms, may play a key role in the survival and spread of deadly plague bacteria. New research shows that plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, not only survive, but thrive and replicate once ingested by an amoeba. The discovery could help scientists understand why plague outbreaks can smolder, stay dormant for years, and re-emerge with a vengeance.

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Animal carnivores could be our powerful allies

Date:  January 19, 2018

Source:  University of Queensland

Summary:

Animal carnivores living in and around human habitation are declining at an unprecedented rate -- but they may provide crucial benefits to human societies. Researchers have revealed that predators and scavengers ranging from bats to leopards and vultures are valuable to human health and well-being.

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Named after Stanley Kubrick, a new species of frog is a 'clockwork orange' of nature – via Herp Digest

Date: January 16, 2018

Source: Pensoft Publishers

Summary: Two new frog species were discovered in the Amazon Basin. Both had been previously misidentified as another superficially identical species. One of them received a name translating to 'demon' or 'devil' in allusion to the horn-like projections visible on its eyelids. The second one was named in honor of famous American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, because of his masterpiece A Clockwork Orange.

Curiously, one of them received a name translating to 'demon' or 'devil'. The second one was named in honor of famous American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, because of his masterpiece A Clockwork Orange.

Having conducted analyses of genetic, morphologic, and bioacoustic data, scientists C. Daniel Rivadeneira, Dr. Pablo J. Venegas, and Dr. Santiago R. Ron concluded that the amphibians represented two previously unknown species that used to go by the name of the Sarayacu treefrog (Dendropsophus parviceps).

As a result of this research collaboration between Ecuador's Catholic University (PUCE) and Peru's Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI), the treefrogs were recently described as new to science in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The scientists remind that, back in 1972, when Anthony Burgess explained the title of his famous novel A Clockwork Orange, he said: "I've implied the junction of the organic, the lively, the sweet -- in other words, life, the orange -- and the mechanical, the cold, the disciplined (…)"

"Without knowing, he was also giving a good metaphor to describe ecosystems," comment the researchers. "Nature works as the interplay between life and its cold, mechanical, and disciplined physical matrix."

Furthermore, both new frogs, scientifically listed as D. kubricki and D. kamagarini, are characterized by having a bright orange blotch on the shanks, reminiscent of the 'orange pieces of nature’.

On the other hand, the species name kamagarini refers to 'demon' or 'devil', as per its translation from the Matsigenka language spoken in southeastern Peru. One of the characteristic features of the new species D. kamagarini are namely its horn-like protuberances on the upper eyelids.

Amphibians are important pieces in ecosystems as secondary consumers in food chains. They also play a significant role in decomposition and nutrient cycling.

Stanley Kubrick -- arguably one of the most brilliant and influential film directors of all time -- left an immemorial legacy in cinema. His masterpiece, A Clockwork Orange (1971), was based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Pensoft Publishers. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

            1          Daniel Rivadeneira, Pablo Venegas, Santiago Ron. Species limits within the widespread Amazonian treefrog Dendropsophus parviceps with descriptions of two new species (Anura, Hylidae). ZooKeys, 2018; 726: 25 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.726.13864

Kicking an old can of worms -- the origin of the head in annelids

New 508-million-year-old bristle worm species from British Columbia's Burgess Shale wiggles into evolutionary history

Date:  January 22, 2018

Source:  Royal Ontario Museum

Summary:

Researchers have described an exceptionally well-preserved new fossil species of bristle worm called Kootenayscolex barbarensis. Discovered from the 508-million-year-old Marble Canyon fossil site in the Burgess Shale in Kootenay National Park, the new species helps rewrite our understanding of the origin of the head in annelids, a highly diverse group of animals which includes today's leeches and earthworms.

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Luminescent lizards – via Herp Digest

Date: January 16, 2018

Source: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Chameleons are known to communicate with conspecifics by altering their surface coloration. Munich researchers have now found that the bony tubercles on the heads of many species fluoresce under UV light and form impressive patterns.

Biogenic fluorescence is mainly known from marine organisms, but is rare in terrestrial vertebrates. "So we could hardly believe our eyes when we illuminated the chameleons in our collection with a UV lamp, and almost all species showed blue, previously invisible patterns on the head, some even over the whole body," says David Prötzel, lead author of the new study and PhD student at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (ZSM). 

To understand the phenomenon, the researchers used a variety of modern methods. Micro-CT scans showed that the pattern of fluorescence exactly matched the distribution of tubercles pattern on the skull. The tissue analyses yielded another surprise: "Our histological 3D reconstruction shows that the skin covering the tubercles on the skull is very thin and consists only of a transparent layer of epidermis,"explains Dr. Martin Heß from the BioCenter of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich. 

These patches effectively act as windows that enable UV light to reach the bone, where it is absorbed and then emitted again as blue fluorescent light.

"It has long been known that bones fluoresce under UV light, but that animals use this phenomenon to fluoresce themselves has surprised us and was previously unknown," says Dr. Frank Glaw, Curator of Herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.

The tubercles fluoresce under UV light to form distinct patterns that represent certain species or species groups. In addition, the males in most species of the genus Calumma have significantly more fluorescent tubercles than the females. Therefore, the researchers suspect that this fluorescence is not a mere coincidence, but helps the chameleons to recognize conspecifics, and presents a consistent pattern in addition to their skin-based colour language -- especially as blue is a rare colour and easily recognisable in the forest.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

            1          David Prötzel, Martin Heß, Mark D. Scherz, Martina Schwager, Anouk van’t Padje, Frank Glaw. Widespread bone-based fluorescence in chameleons. Scientific Reports, 2018; 8 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-19070-7

Wild Sri Lankan elephants retreat from sound of disturbed Asian honey bees

Date:  January 22, 2018

Source:  University of Oxford

Summary:

A new study using playbacks, has for the first time shown that Asian elephants in Sri Lanka are scared of honey bees, much like their African counterparts. The study showed that Asian elephants responded with alarm to the bee simulations. They also retreated significantly further away and vocalized more in response to the bee sounds compared to controls.

Read more  

The human-elephant conflict in India's tea state Assam

By Navin Singh KhadkaEnvironment correspondent, BBC World Service, Assam

23 January 2018

Growers of world-famous Assam tea are encroaching into forests, fuelling a conflict between elephants and humans, locals and authorities in the Indian state have said.

Officials blame small-scale plantations for most of the encroachment but local leaders told the BBC there was no up-to-date land survey of bigger tea "estates" either.

A major association of tea companies has rejected the accusation, arguing that forest coverage is in its members' interest.

However, a study by the Indian government has found that tea gardens are contributing to Assam's deforestation.

"The decrease in forest cover of the state is mainly due to encroachment in forest land, biotic pressure, rotational felling in tea gardens and shifting cultivation," the environment ministry's State of the Forest report said in 2015.

Continued