Incredible 'sea monster' skull revealed in 3D

By Helen Briggs BBC News

7 January 2019

Some 200 million years ago in what is now Warwickshire, a dolphin-like reptile died and sank to the bottom of the sea.

The creature's burial preserved its skull in stunning detail - enabling scientists to digitally reconstruct it.

The fossil, unveiled in the journal PeerJ, gives a unique insight into the life of an ichthyosaur.

The ferocious creature would have fed upon fish, squid and likely others of its kind.

Its bones were found in a farmer's field more than 60 years ago, but their significance has only just come to light.

Remarkably, the skull is three-dimensionally preserved and contains bones that are rarely exposed.

"It's taken more than half a century for this ichthyosaur to be studied and described, but it has been worth the wait," said palaeontologist Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester.

Continued  

Butterfly survival blueprint unveiled

December 2012. Restoring and joining up habitat will prevent the UK's threatened butterflies and moths from becoming extinct in the future, a ground-breaking report has revealed.

For the first time, the report by Butterfly Conservation provides concrete evidence that projects aimed at conserving butterflies and moths at a landscape-scale have enabled threatened species to flourish after decades of decline.

Whole landscape conservation
A landscape-scale approach works by improving and connecting land for wildlife by the coordinated conservation management of numerous sites for a range of species across a large natural area. The report, Landscape-scale conservation for butterflies and moths: lessons from the UK, also shows that measures to conserve rare butterflies and moths have helped other threatened species as well as the habitats in which they live.

Butterflies in decline
Butterflies are the most threatened wildlife group; more than three-quarters of Britain's 57 resident species are declining and over 40% are listed as Priorities for Conservation. More than 80 moth species are also at risk. Most threatened species are now confined to small patches of habitat that have been left isolated within the modern intensively managed countryside.

12 landscape scale projects
For over a decade, Butterfly Conservation has adopted a landscape-scale approach to conserving these areas in order to manage existing habitats more effectively and link them with newly restored habitats. This combination of targeted management and restoration has allowed many species to flourish in each of the 12 landscapes covered in the report.

Small blue
Examples include the Small Blue in Warwickshire which has increased from a low of three to eight colonies in just three years.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/butterfly-landcsape.html

Family rides a camel when they need to nip out for the groceries

Mothers at the school gate are so used to spotting their neighbour turning up on one of the desert beasts they barely bat an eyelid. 

Mrs Fossett, her circus-raised husband Joseph and their children Daisy, 13, and Leo, ten, are Britain’s only owners of a herd of camels. 

‘We go out in public on them once or twice a week and people love seeing them,’ said Mrs Fossett, 42. 

‘People think camels are grumpy and spit all the time but that couldn’t be  further from the truth. They are great company and very affectionate. 

‘They’re also incredibly nosy and rush to the garden gates to have a look whenever anyone goes past, so they enjoy  being out and interacting with people.’ 

At £10,000 each, the six dromedary and Bactrian camels – named Ruby,  Sahara, Sophia, Kokoso, Kazak and Veneta – certainly don’t come cheap. 

But the Fossetts have turned them into a thriving business. taking customers on countryside treks from their tree-lined village of Idlicote, in Warwickshire. 

Given the camels’ background, there’s one place they seem to particularly enjoy visiting. 

‘They love the beach,’ said Mr Fossett, 52. ‘As soon as they get the sand  between their toes you can see they  instantly feel at home.’

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/902875-family-rides-a-camel-when-they-need-to-nip-out-for-the-groceries#ixzz1yoFeNv8j

Why fox hunting is more popular than ever

Warwickshire fox hunters say the law banning the sport is "a shambles" as they gather on the first day of the new season.

The riders breathed the aroma of hot wine, the hounds were hungry for a scent, but what you could really smell in the air at yesterday’s opening meeting of the Warwickshire Hunt was the exalted whiff of English contrariness.

By rights, this kind of scene should now be consigned to antique dinner plates and episodes of Downton Abbey. The nation’s huntsmen and women should have hung up their red jackets, retired their steeds and submitted meekly to the dictates of the urban tyranny. Strangely, it hasn’t happened like that. Seven years after the Labour government passed a contentious law intended to abolish hunting with hounds, the country’s hunts – which no longer chase a live animal, but merely a trail of artificial scent instead – are in the best shape anyone can remember.

Part of the reason is that the law has proved almost comically difficult to enforce. Beneath its stated object of outlawing the hunting of wild mammals with dogs, near-total confusion reigns. In theory, you can hunt mice, but not rats, rabbits but not hares, domestic cats but not wild ones. Birds of prey, but not foxhounds, can be set upon foxes. Yet a bigger factor appears to be that exquisitely delinquent streak in the British character that reacts against the hectoring and bossiness of officialdom. As a result, thousands of people who previously had little obvious interest in hunting have taken it up.

“Our membership has doubled to around 1,000 since the law was passed,” says Sam Butler, the Warwickshire’s ebullient Master. “The support we are getting from the communities is incredible. Our range of activities is expanding all the time. Even with the economy the way it is, when everyone’s watching where their money goes, we are hunting at least as much as ever.”

Certainly, yesterday’s season’s opener, at the hamlet of Oxhill, south of Stratford-upon-Avon, offered an image of reassuring well-being. On a damp, chilly morning, a hearty contingent of villagers turned out to cheer the hunt off. The local pub laid on breakfast and drinks. There were no protesters, no police, nothing that in any way detracted from a scene that has been a part of the English countryside for centuries.

Read on ...

HS2 plan 'will destroy Warwickshire wildlife'

THOUSANDS of nature lovers across Coventry and Warwickshire are being rallied to fight the latest plans for a high-speed rail line.

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust is calling on its 23,500 members to stand together in opposing plans for non-stop bullet trains that would cut the journey time from London to Birmingham to 49 minutes.

They say the proposed route for HS2 will create a “massive iron and concrete curtain” that will have a “devastating” impact on wild animals and plants.

Chief executive Steven Trotter, who this year took over the running of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, based at Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, has spoken out since the government announced their intended route.

He said: “The new route for HS2 will be devastating for Warwickshire’s wildlife – and especially protected species such as bats, nationally-rare butterflies, bluebells and otters in some of our most sensitive and beautiful habitats.

“We’re here to stand up for wildlife. I know that thousands of Wildlife Trust members and members of the public will be writing to their MPs, lobbying government, and collaborating with the many community Stop HS2 action groups.”

On Monday, transport secretary Philip Hammond announced the government’s “preferred route” for the £17 billion scheme, which would see 250mph trains run through local communities including Burton Green, Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, Southam and across the western edge of Coventry.

A six-month public consultation will now follow.

Warwickshire is one of seven Wildlife Trusts that will feel the impacts of the high- speed rail route and Mr Trotter’s fears have been echoed at a national level.

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “Whilst consideration may have been given to noise and visual impacts on those people who live along the proposed route, Philip Hammond made no reference at all to the impact on the natural environment.”

Analysis by the Wildlife Trusts finds the route will directly affect two of its nature reserves, four sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), 10 ancient woodland sites and 53 local wildlife sites.

The Wildlife Trust is made up of 47 groups nationwide with more than 800,000 members.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/12/24/hs2-plan-will-destroy-warwickshire-wildlife-92746-27881636/#ixzz19Pj3bOh5

Race to save rare butterfly

CONSERVATIONISTS say a small Warwickshire nature project could have a huge impact on some of Britain’s most threatened wildlife.


Teams have created new habitats for an endangered species of butterfly in south Warwickshire, as reported in yesterday’s Telegraph.

But they say the work for the Grizzled Skipper could have a knock-on effect on a series of species that have been gradually disappearing across the UK.

CONSERVATIONISTS say a small Warwickshire nature project could have a huge impact on some of Britain’s most threatened wildlife.


Teams have created new habitats for an endangered species of butterfly in south Warwickshire, as reported in yesterday’s Telegraph.

But they say the work for the Grizzled Skipper could have a knock-on effect on a series of species that have been gradually disappearing across the UK.


http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/04/15/race-on-to-save-rare-butterfly-92746-26249592/