World's biggest amphibian 'discovered' in museum

By Helen Briggs BBC News

17 September 2019

A newly-identified amphibian is possibly the largest on the planet, according to DNA from museum specimens.

Reaching nearly two metres in length, the South China giant salamander is critically endangered in the wild.

Scientists say renewed conservation efforts are needed if the animal is to be saved from extinction.

Harvesting for the luxury food trade has led to a collapse in numbers across China.

Previously considered a single species, analysis of specimens, living and dead, suggests there are in fact three species found in different parts of China.

The South China salamander is the largest of the three, which researchers suspect it is the largest amphibian alive today.

"We hope that this new understanding of their species diversity has arrived in time to support their successful conservation, but urgent measures are required to protect any viable giant salamander populations that might remain," he said.

Co-researcher, Melissa Marr, of the Natural History Museum London, said measures must be put in place that preserve the genetic integrity of each distinct species.

"These findings come at a time where urgent interventions are required to save Chinese giant salamanders in the wild," she said.

Continued

New Mexico museum unveils first-of-its-kind dinosaur fossil

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN | Associated Press – Fri, Nov 6, 2015

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Paleontologists in New Mexico unveiled the first baby Pentaceratops skull ever discovered as hundreds of people lined up to get a look.

Scientists cut open the giant plaster jacket that protected the skull of the rhinoceros-like, plant-eating dinosaur as it was airlifted out of the desert badlands of northwestern New Mexico and trucked to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

They revealed the shield-like part of the dinosaur's skull, some teeth, an arm bone, a rib and what looked like a vertebrae, but museum curator Spencer Lucas said there's still much work to be done.

Now, technicians will begin the painstaking work of digging out the fossils from the rock in which they have been encased for some 70 million years.

The process will take many months, but the public will be able to watch from windows that offer a view into the museum's preparation room.

Hundreds of people, including parents with their children, lined up along the windows during a free public viewing Thursday evening. Some children got an up-close look as museum staff showed off the find, while other visitors held up their smartphones on the other side of the glass.

Lucas said the fossils are significant and sure to provide new insight into the dinosaurs that roamed North America tens of millions of years ago. Less than 10 adult Pentaceratops skulls have been unearthed over the past century, and this marks the first baby skull to ever be recovered, Lucas said.

"So here now we have the first glimpse at growth and the early stages of life of this dinosaur," he said.

Continued …

New horned dinosaur species identified from museum's fossils

A new species of horned dinosaur has been identified from fossils held in a Canadian museum for 75 years.

The fossils had previously been classified as belonging to a different dinosaur group.

But Nick Longrich, from the University of Bath, found they closely resembled a dinosaur from the south-west US.

He says the remains represent a new species of the dinosaur Pentaceratops - a smaller cousin of the familiar horned plant-eater Triceratops.

Details of the research have been published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

'Undiscovered dinosaurs'

The paper contains a formal description of the animal including its new name - Pentaceratops aquilonius.

It was a buffalo-sized plant eater that lived from about 75 million years ago.

Dr Longrich also studied another horned dinosaur held within the museum's collection.

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'Priceless' butterflies found at Oxford museum

An A-level student on work experience at an Oxford museum has found rare examples of butterflies lost since the 19th Century.

Athena Martin, aged 17, has found butterfly specimens described as "priceless" by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

They had been brought back from South America by a Victorian naturalist.

Many of the butterflies were thought lost at sea in the 1850s.

Ms Martin's discoveries came during the summer when she was taking part in a science-related work experience project.

Lost at sea

The school girl, who wants to study zoology at university, found and identified butterflies collected by the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

They had been buried away in more than 3,000 separate drawers of butterflies at the museum.

Painstakingly going through the collection turned up more than 300 of Wallace's butterflies.

The biggest find made by the work experience student was a butterfly called Dismorphia, brought from the Amazon and which had remained undiscovered and unacknowledged within the museum since the end of the 19th Century.

Continued

North Museum offers chance to see bees at work, up-close and risk-free

By JEFF HAWKES 

Staff Writer 

jhawkes@lnpnews.com

Eight-year-old Morgan Kreider remembers a bee stinging her foot. "It hurt," she said.

But pressing her nose recently against the window of North Museum's hive of more than 40,000 honey bees, Morgan reacted with fascination, not fear.

"Whoa!" she said. "That's more bees than I've seen in my whole life!"

Known for its planetarium, stuffed birds and mummy heads, North Museum is Lancaster's natural history gem. And now its wonders include an observation hive that even the bee-phobic can love.

A project of the Lancaster County Beekeepers Society, the outdoor hive is a stack of four boxes, one side of which is the museum's tall plate glass window in the Discovery Room.

It gives museum visitors an up-close and risk-free peek into the mysteries of bees.

In its first summer last year, the hive produced enough honey to fill 76 eight-ounce jars -- $4 a jar -- that sold out in a week, a sweet windfall for the nonprofit museum.

Read more: 

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/868926_North-Museum-offers-chance-to-see-bees-at-work--up-close-and-risk-free.html#ixzz2YAXdmst6

Four rhino heads stolen from museum in Dublin

Rhino horns stolen from museum storage

April 2013. Four rhinoceros heads were stolen from premises of the National Museum of Ireland late in the evening of Wednesday 17 April 2013. A security guard was overpowered by a number of raiders and tied up but has not been injured. He managed to free himself and notify Gardaí who are investigating the robbery.

The stolen rhinoceros heads have a total of eight horns that have probably been taken to supply the illegal trade in powdered horn that is used in traditional medicines in the Far East. Their price is based on weight and the total amount stolen could have a street value in the region of €500,000. 

Not on display

Rhinoceros horns have been taken from rhinos poached in the wild for many years and several species of rhino have been brought to the edge of extinction because of this. In recent years, thieves have turned to museums and private collections that include rhino taxidermy and artworks that include rhino horn. Many museums have taken rhinoceros horn off display as a result. The National Museum of Ireland took the decision to remove all rhinoceros horn from display and the stolen specimens were placed in storage over a year ago. Currently there are no rhinoceros horns on display in the National Museum of Ireland - Natural History. 

Irish gang

The theft of rhino horn shows how organised criminals are always on the lookout for new and creative crime opportunities. Significant players within this area of crime have been identified as an Irish and ethnically-Irish organised criminal group, who are known to use intimidation and violence to achieve their ends. To source and acquire rhino horns, the group has targeted antique dealers, auction houses, art galleries, museums, private collections and zoos, resorting to theft and aggravated burglary where necessary. To sell specimens, they have exploited international auction houses in the UK, France, USA and China.

Elements of this group are also involved in a variety of other serious crimes across the European Union such as drugs trafficking, organised robbery, distribution of counterfeit products, tarmac fraud and money laundering. Outside the EU, they have been active in North and South America, South Africa, China and Australia. 

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

Unique sea snake found in museum

25 October 2012 Kristianstad University

The pristine jungle and the deep seas are full of undiscovered biological species - but they can be found in museums as well. In a formalin-filled jar in Copenhagen Natural History Museum a new snake species has recently been discovered.

"Museums are probably full of undiscovered species, and are an invaluable archive worthy of protection, just like the jungle itself", says Johan Elmberg, Professor of Animal Ecology at Kristianstad University in Sweden.

The newly discovered mosaic sea snake, named after its unusually patterned skin, which looks just like a Roman floor mosaic, lives in one of the world's most endangered environments – the tropical coral reefs around Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea.

"Sea snakes are a good indicator of how the coral reefs and other precious ecosystems are doing. If there are snakes left in the environment it shows that the reefs are healthy and intact", says Johan Elmberg.

The new sea snake was found by chance by two research colleagues, John Elmberg and Arne Rasmussen, associate professor at the School of Conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. One day at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen they examined formalin-filled jars of snakes and found two sea snakes with the same name on the label, which had been there since being sent home by the great collectors of the eighteen
hundreds.

"But they looked different and didn’t seem to belong to the same group of snakes. That was where the detective work began. After comparing the sea snakes with other similar species in other museums in Europe it was even more obvious that we had found a new distinct sea snake", says Johan Elmberg.

The Mosaic sea snake belongs to a good handful of species ranging in southeast Asia and Australia. The snake never goes ashore and now that it its identity is known it is apparent that it is relatively common in the sea in northern Australia and southern New Guinea.

"There are millions of sea snakes, but how they live, where and at what depth is difficult to know exactly because these snakes are so difficult to study", says Johan Elmberg.

Some species of sea snake are considered as having the strongest venom of all snakes, but because the species that Johan and Arne discovered is one of the few that feed on fish eggs, it has only very small fangs and is therefore virtually harmless. Of all the 3000 snake species in the world, only 80 or so live in the oceans. To analyse the tissue samples Johan Elmberg and Arne Rasmussen were helped by Kate Sanders, a molecular ecologist in Australia, who also collected tissues from living individuals of the new species and examined them in a DNA lab. The analysis showed a very clear difference in the genetic composition of the newly discovered species compared to other similar sea snakes.

"When Kate told us that we actually had found a new snake species, I got chills. To find a new species is a biologist's ultimate dream", says Johan Elmberg.

Johan believes that it is very important to document the biodiversity of the marine environment to get a grip on the status of the coral reefs for example.

"This discovery also highlights very clearly the importance of the museum's treasure trove of biodiversity. There are lots of species still to be discovered in the world's museums, which unfortunately often struggle to finance their operations", says Johan Elmberg.

http://www.hkr.se/sv/om-hkr/media/pressmeddelande/ny-havsorm-hittad-pa-museum/

Wildlife lover loans collection of stuffed birds to Macclesfield museum

Bird lovers are enjoying a rare opportunity to study a range of species at close-quarters. John Wratchford has loaned a collection of stuffed birds to a Cheshire museum. They include a nightingale, a Dartford warbler, a black redstart, wagtails, a bar-tailed godwit, a great grey shrike, a honey buzzard and a snow bunting. Mr Wratchford inherited the Victorian specimens from his grandparents 70 years ago. And now he has decided they deserve to be seen, and has loaned them to West Park Museum in Macclesfield. Mr Wratchford, a member of the RSPB for more than 60 years, said: "As a wildlife enthusiast the only way I like to preserve the birds I enjoy is using photography, but we have to remember that in Victorian times there was no television and people found different ways to entertain themselves. "I visit the West Park Museum from time to time and I thought it would be nice to let more people enjoy them." The birds have proved a big hit with visitors to the museum on Prestbury Road which has a permanent exhibition of work by wildlife illustrator Charles Tunnicliffe. The stuffed birds have been used as models for the museum’s Art In The Park programme which allows school children to sketch them. Carol Sadelaar, from West Park Museum, said: "We are thrilled to be able to use these birds to give pupils first-hand experience of the subjects they are drawing and would like to thank Mr Wratchford most sincerely for making this temporary loan to the museum.

John Wratchford with his grandparents’ collection of stuffed rare bird species, 

which he has loaned to West Park Museum in Macclesfield

Read more at: http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1490691_wildlife-lover-loans-collection-of-stuffed-birds-to-macclesfield-museum