New Jelly Bean-Size 'Masked' Frog Discovered in the Andes

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | August 06, 2015 10:53am ET

A tiny new frog species discovered in the Peruvian Andes has a white-mottled belly and a dark face mask that makes it look like a bandit.

Noblella madreselva lives in the humid cloud forest near Cusco, Peru, probably only in the valleys right around where it was discovered, researchers report today (Aug. 6) in the journal ZooKeys. The frogs, which are not much bigger than jelly beans, can fit on the tip of a human finger. They're active during the day, and live in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Vanessa Uscapi, a biologist at the National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cusco, Peru, discovered the new tiny frog in January 2011, but only now has it been officially described. She and her colleagues picked the name madreselva to honor conservation initiatives in the region: The word means "mother jungle" and is also the name of a nearby ecotourism lodge and a small valley where a group called Sircadia is trying to launch a sustainable eco-community. 

Read more

Eek! Eyeless Spiders Come to Light in Dominican Cave

BY ALAN BOYLE

Eyeless spiders don't sound like the sorts of things you'd want to seek out, but when you find them in the Dominican Republic — well, that's something to celebrate.

Two previously unknown species of blind cave spiders were discovered two years ago in Cueva Seibo, a cave in the Dominican Republic's Parque Nacional Del Este, or East National Park. They're described in a paper published online July 30 by the Journal of Arachnology, with Lewis and Clark College research assistant Trevor Bloom as the lead author.

The researchers say the two species, known as Ciba seibo (shown at top) and Trichopelma maddeni, are the first eyeless cave spiders to be discovered on the island of Hispaniola. This is also the first documented instance of two different species of blind spiders being discovered in a single cave, according to the American Arachnological Society.

Continued

New Species of Dolphin Found in Australian Waters

Oct. 29, 2013 — A species of humpback dolphin previously unknown to science is swimming in the waters off northern Australia, according to a team of researchers working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and numerous other groups that contributed to the study.

To determine the number of distinct species in the family of humpback dolphins (animals named for a peculiar hump just below the dorsal fin), the research team examined the evolutionary history of this family of marine mammals using both physical features and genetic data. While the Atlantic humpback dolphin is a recognized species, this work provides the best evidence to date to split the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin into three species, one of which is completely new to science.

"Based on the findings of our combined morphological and genetic analyses, we can suggest that the humpback dolphin genus includes at least four member species," said Dr. Martin Mendez, Assistant Director of WCS's Latin America and the Caribbean Program and lead author of the study. "This discovery helps our understanding of the evolutionary history of this group and informs conservation policies to help safeguard each of the species."

Continued

New Anagnorisma Moth Species from Beautiful Binaloud Mountain Iran

July 17, 2013 — Researchers described a new species of Noctuidae moth from Iran which is the fifth described species of the genus Anagnorisma.

The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

During an expedition at high altitude of above 2500 m of north-eastern Iran on a cold night in late summer 2012, a couple of undescribed specimens of Anagnorisma moths were collected. The specimens had been attracted to an ultraviolet light trap on the Binaloud Mountain near Mashhad city, the capital of the Khorasan-e-Razavi province of Iran. They have a wingspan of 34-35 mm. The new species was collected in a narrow river valley dominated by mountain sainfoin (Onobrychis cornuta), wild almond (Prunus (Amygdalus) scoparia), and downy brome (Bromus tectorum).

Continued

Tiny New Catfish Species Found in Rio Paraíba Do Sul Basin, Brazil

July 9, 2013 — Scientists discovered a tiny new species of catfish in the waters of Rio Rio Paraíba do Sul basin, Brazil. The new species Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis belongs to a genus of armored catfishes native to South America where and found only in Brazil. These peculiar fish get their name from their strange elongated mouth barbels that remind of cat's whiskers. The new species is distinguished from others species of the genus by the presence of a conspicuous ridge on the trunk posterior to the dorsal fin (postdorsal ridge).

This image shows the newly discovered catfish
 Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis.
(Credit: Gabriel de Souza da Costa e Silva; CC-BY 3.0)

The description of the diminutive new species was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

Pareiorhina hyptiorhachis is only about 3-3.5 cm in length, making one of the smallest representatives of the catfish order. Although the new species is only the size of a decorative fish, there are even smaller representatives in the group. Some of the smallest species of Aspredinidae and Trichomycteridae for example reach sexual maturity at only 1 cm in total.

Read on

New Deep-Sea Fish Species Found in Antarctica

To catch Antarctic toothfish, you must bait your hook with Peruvian squid and cast it into the depths of the Ross Sea. This is what a team of Ukrainians did on a fishing trip near Antarctica. But sometimes, Mother Nature trips you up. Sometimes, you catch a hopbeard plunderfish. 

In 2009-2010, Ukrainian mariners happened to pull up three fish that looked unfamiliar. Further analysis found that they were a previously undiscovered species, dubbed the hopbeard plunderfish and described in a study published online April 29 in the journal ZooKeys. The fish bear the scientific name Pogonophryne neyelovi. 

The strange-looking denizens of the deep have brownish-splotched bodies and are shaped somewhat like tadpoles, especially when young, according to the study. They have sharp dorsal fins that extend along the top of their bodies and strange "barbels," which resemble dirty Q-tips, that extend from their chins. 

The longest of the three specimens measured 14 inches (35.5 centimeters). And they really like to live in the deep — they were pulled from depths of up to 4,560 feet (1,390 meters). 

This newfound species is the hopbeard plunderfish

 (Pogonophryne neyelovi). It can live nearly a mile 

under the surface of Antarctica's Ross Sea. 

CREDIT: Gennadiy Shandikov and Richard Eakin / ZooKeys 

The fish have large livers, which fill up to 35 percent of their abdomen. Whether or not that means these sea creatures could drink like, well, fish, is unknown. 

If you're fond of the hopbeard, just wait until you meet its cousins. The genusPogonophryne, also known as the short-barbeled plunderfish, has a total of 22 species. These fish also live in the frigid waters surrounding Antarctica. Some of them live in the Ross Sea, like the hopbeard, which is found offshore of Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. 

Currently, next to nothing is known about their behavior, diet or what they do down there in the depths. 

Continued: http://www.livescience.com/29456-strange-new-fish-antarctica.html

Dinosaur 'fills fossil record gap'

By Helen Briggs, BBC News

Dinosaur fossils unearthed in Madagascar are of a new species that roamed the Earth about 90 million years ago, say US researchers.

The remains date back to a time when India and Madagascar were one landmass cut off from the rest of the world.

Revealing the discovery in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists say the dinosaur was a bi-pedal meat-eater about the size of a large cow.

It has been named Dahalokely tokana, which means "lonely small bandit".

Madagascar is a treasure trove for palaeontologists, yielding thousands of well-preserved fossils.

“This just reinforces the importance of exploring new areas around the world where undiscovered dinosaur species are still waiting,” Joe SertichDenver Museum of Nature and Science

But the latest discovery is the first new dinosaur species unearthed on the island in almost a decade.

Its Malagasy name refers to its carnivorous diet and isolation on a landmass in the middle of the ocean.

The discovery fills a gap in the fossil record and raises intriguing questions about the evolution of animals on both Madagascar and India, which separated at about the time this newly identified creature walked the Earth.

Andrew Farke of the Raymond M Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, California, says it belongs to a group called the Abelisauridae, which were common to the southern continents.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22210435

Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino rediscovered in Indonesian Borneo

WWF team find footprints of rhinos on Borneo

March 2013. A WWF team on the island of Borneo to monitor and Orang-utan population have discovered what they believe to be the footprints of a critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, where it was believed that the rhino had been extinct for some time.

The WWF staff were monitoring a population of orang-utans in West Kutai district of East Kalimantan. Having discovered the footprints, they conducted a further survey of the area along with government forestry officials and scientists from a local university. The survey discovered further footprints, and some horn scratches at mud holes, as well as trees used as rubbing posts and bite marks on plants, raising the possibility that there may be more than one lone animal, though numbers remain unclear.

The Sumatran rhino was believed to have been extinct in Indonesian Borneo since the 1990s. and fewer than 200 animals exist anywhere in the world in the wild, still live in the wild in Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to the WWF: Current population & distribution
The Borneo Sumatran rhino is now possibly extinct in Sarawak (Malaysia) and Kalimantan (Indonesia), with perhaps fewer than 25 surviving in Sabah (Malaysia). A 2005 survey in the interior of Sabah found evidence of at least 13 rhinos, and scattered individuals are found in other parts of the state.

Read more about the Sumatran rhino on the WWF website

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/borneo-rhino.html

Lemur Lookalikes Are Two New Species, DNA Says

Mar. 26, 2013 — Scientists have identified two new species of mouse lemur, the saucer-eyed, teacup-sized primates native to the African island of Madagascar.

The new study brings the number of recognized mouse lemur species to 20, making them the most diverse group of lemurs known. But because these shy, nocturnal primates look so much alike, it's only possible to tell them apart with genetic sequencing.

The new mouse lemurs weigh 2.5 to 3 ounces (about 65 to 85 grams) and have grey-brown fur. "You can't really tell them apart just looking at them through binoculars in the rainforest," said senior author Peter Kappeler of the German Primate Center in Goettingen, who earned his PhD at Duke in 1992.

The researchers named one of the new species the Anosy mouse lemur, or Microcebus tanosi. Anosy mouse lemurs are close neighbors with grey mouse lemurs and grey-brown mouse lemurs, but the genetic data indicate they don't interbreed.

The researchers named the other new species the Marohita mouse lemur, or Microcebus marohita, after the forest where it was found. In Malagasy, the word "marohita" means "many views."

Read on:

2 New Lizard Species Discovered in Peru

Douglas Main, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer

Date: 21 March 2013 Time: 10:18 AM ET

Two new colorful species of lizards have been discovered in the Peruvian rain forest, in a little-explored section of the Andes Mountains in the northeast of the country.

Both species of lizards sport colorful splotches of green and brown that allow them to blend into the mountain rain forests they call home.

The lizards were found in Cordillera Azul National Park, the third-largest park in the country. One of the species, Enyalioides azulae, is named for the reserve, according to the study detailing the findings, which was published recently in the journal ZooKeys.

The second species is found in the same river valley and is named after the man who helped fund the survey, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates military. Al Nahyan created the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund to preserve various species around the world, according to a release from the journal's publisher. 

A male (top) and female of the 

newfound woodlizard species Enyalioides azulae.

CREDIT: A. Del Campo / ZooKeys

Both species are a type of woodlizard, a group of lizards that was thought to contain only a handful of species. Since 2008, however, three new species have been found in the group, in addition to the two newest finds, suggesting "that more species might be awaiting discovery in other unexplored areas close to the Andes," the authors wrote in the study.

"Thanks to these discoveries, Peru becomes the country holding the greatest diversity of woodlizards," said study author and Peruvian researcher Pablo Venegas, in the release. "Cordillera Azul National Park is a genuine treasure for Peru and it must be treated as a precious future source of biodiversity exploration and preservation."

http://www.livescience.com/28083-new-peru-lizard-species.html

Phallus-shaped fossils identified as new species

 By Michelle Warwicker, Reporter, BBC Nature

Scientists have revealed insights into a peculiar, phallus-shaped creature discovered at a fossil site in Canada.

The animal has been identified as Spartobranchus tenuis, a species from the Cambrian period that was previously unknown to science.

artist impression

The odd-looking creature was an ancient relative of acorn worms that exist today, according to researchers.

Their study, published in the journal Nature, is the first full description of the prehistoric animal.

Remains of soft-bodied worms were found in the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada throughout the last century.

But now researchers studying the 505 million years old fossils have for the first time given a detailed insight into the lives of the bizarre beasts.

The prehistoric marine creatures were around the size of an earthworm, "but unlike an earthworm that's segmented from its front end to its back end, these guys just had three distinct body segments," said research team member Dr Christopher Cameron from the University of Montreal, Canada.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21745029

Amphibians yield new parasite species – via Herp Digest

MEDIA CLUB SOUTH AFRICA. COM 11/5/12 BY Wilma den Hatigh.  Professor Louis du Preez from North-West University has discovered five new parasite species in the rain forests of French Guiana in South America. 

A renowned South African researcher has discovered five new parasite species – considered by many scientists to be nigh impossible to find – in the rain forests of French Guiana in South America.

Professor Louis du Preez from North-West University (NWU), who is an expert on flatworm parasites that live in amphibians and fresh water turtles, didn’t know that his research mission to the remote South American forests would yield such a remarkable find.

Du Preez says the parasite species were found in a caecilian, a legless earthworm-like amphibian, in turtles and in a frog.

"We knew beforehand that chances of finding this caecilian were slim, and those of finding the parasite in one even slimmer,” he says.

“Our best scenario was to get one, and we got five.”

Answering questions about amphibians

He says although the discovery is not of veterinary or economic importance, it will help researchers to answer important evolutionary questions about amphibians and their geographical location.

“Now that we have the DNA of the parasite we can find out how its hosts evolved,” he says. “Amphibians were around long before dinosaurs, yet they survived when dinosaurs became extinct.”

Du Preez, who is also an authority on frogs, says it is important to research these amphibians as their survival is critical for a healthy ecosystem.

Frogs are the most threatened vertebrate group in the world because of habitat destruction and the threat of disease and fungi.

“Frogs are important because they eat vast quantities of potentially harmful insects and serve as staple food for some birds and reptiles. Wherever frog numbers are in decline, there is a disruption in the ecosystem.”

An unusual research trip

Du Preez’s search for the parasites started when the National Museum of Scotland contacted him about a parasite they discovered in a caecilian which had been preserved in a bottle of formalin for 120 years.

Scientists were examining the specimen as part of a study on the reproductive organs of caecilians.

But the scientists couldn’t study the DNA as it had been destroyed by the formalin.

The only solution was to find a living sample – and the aim of the research mission was to find the parasites in a caecilian so that the DNA could be extracted.

“We needed to search for a live parasite,” Du Preez says. “It was a huge gamble because we were told that we didn’t stand a chance, but we decided to go and look anyway, and on day two we found it.”

Into the jungle in a banana boat

A team consisting of Du Preez, Oliver Verneau from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and an NWU postdoctoral student, Mathieu Badets, travelled to the virtually inaccessible area of the French Guiana forests in search of the elusive parasite.

Du Preez describes the research mission and discovery as one of his career highlights.

They first stayed at the CNRS base in Cayenne before embarking on a gruelling 120-kilometre trip upstream on the Approuague River in a dugout canoe, also known as a banana boat.

“It took seven hours to travel up the river to reach our destination,” he tells.

The team was based at a remote French scientific research base in the Nouraques Reserve next to the river.

“There are no roads to access it, and the only way is by helicopter, which is very costly, or a banana boat, which is much more cost effective,” Du Preez explains.

They had to take all their equipment and microscopes with them, but the base is well equipped with basic infrastructure and food kept in freezers.

The base lies only four degrees north of the equator and du Preez says the team had to work in hot and rainy tropical conditions, with a constant threat of venomous snakes and jaguars.

“We never slept on the floor. I spent two weeks sleeping in a hammock while at the research base,” he says.

Finding the parasites

Du Preez explains that they were only allowed to catch two kinds of aquatic turtles as part of their research.

The turtles were kept in containers filled with water, after which the water was examined for the parasites. Three aquatic caecilians were also caught in the reserve and in one of the caecilians they found the rare polystome, or flatworm.

"Now, at last, we could extract the DNA from the parasites to see where they fit into the evolutionary development process,” Du Preez says.

He says these discoveries can help to establish how the parasites developed and how they spread across the earth over geological time, as this group of parasites is species-specific.

He adds that amphibians are the first group of vertebrates that moved onto dry land, even before dinosaurs.

“The parasites found in the group of aquatic animals consequently give us a good indication of when this movement occurred in geological time.”

Answering more questions

Du Preez says the discovery of the unique parasites will be keeping scientists very busy in months to come. He is in the process of analysing the new species and describing them, but their research has created even more questions.

He expects to return to the rain forests to do more research next year.

“It was an incredible place to do research and we have been invited by the CNRS to visit the base again.”

Thirty-Three New Trapdoor Spider Species Discovered in the American Southwest

Dec. 20, 2012 — A researcher at the Auburn University Museum of Natural History and Department of Biological Sciences has reported the discovery 33 new trapdoor spider species from the American Southwest. These newly described species all belong to the genus Aptostichus that now contains 40 species, two of which are already famous -- Aptostichus stephencolberti and Aptostichus angelinajolieae.

The genus now includes other such notable species as Aptostichus barackobamai, named for Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, and reputed fan of Spiderman comics; Aptostichus edwardabbeyi, named for environmentalist and author Edward Abbey (1927-1989); Aptostichus bonoi from Joshua Tree National Park, named for the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2; Aptostichus pennjillettei named for illusionist and intellectual Penn Jillette; Aptostichus chavezi, named for Mexican American and civil rights and labor activist César Chávez (1927-1993).

Other notable new species names include Aptostichus anzaborrego, known only from the Anza Borrego Desert State Park in southern California; and Aptostichus sarlacc from the Mojave Desert, named for George Lucas' Star Wars creature, the Sarlacc from the fictional desert planet Tatooine.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121220154633.htm