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NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found The newfound blind cave fish Milyeringa veritas, seen above, inhabits the same Cape Range aquifers as a blind cave eel found during the same survey of Australia's underground habitats. The only blind cave fish known in Australia, the 2-inch-long (5.1-centimeter-long) species is "remarkably versatile," living in freshwater or seawater in underground coastal regions during various stages of its life, researchers say."

Ecology: The administration creates the mother of all protected habitats for a species whose numbers have increased since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." It's our hopes for energy independence that are drowning. When filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose documentary "Not Evil Just Wrong" takes apart the myths of global warming, got to ask Gore a question at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, McAleer brought up the nine critical errors in Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth." A British court two years ago listed them and said they must be righted before the film could be shown in schools...

BEIJING (AFP) – Paleontologists in east China may have discovered the remains of a new species of dinosaur at what is said to be the world's largest group of fossilised dinosaur bones, state media said Wednesday. Scientists in Zhucheng city, Shandong province, have for months been exploring a gully over 500 metres (1,650 feet) long and 26 metres deep that is strewn with thousands of dinosaur bones, the Jilu Evening News said. Paleontologists believe that a fossilised skeleton dug up in Zhucheng and shipped to the China Academy of Sciences in Beijing last week could be a new species of...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor." "No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested.

A bird-eating frog, a technicolour gecko with orange eyes and a bird that flies only when it is frightened are among dozens of new species discovered in an ecologically fragile part of Asia. Researchers in the Greater Mekong area of South-East Asia also found a tiger-striped pitviper, a new wild banana and, even rarer, two new types of mammal, a report for the wildlife charity WWF says. However, conservationists fear that the discoveries, many of which are unique to small areas of jungle, river or mountains, are under threat from destructive development and climate change. The most colourful of the...

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the...

Over 350 new species including the world’s smallest deer, a “flying frog” and a 100 million-year old gecko have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, a biological treasure trove now threatened by climate change. A decade of research carried out by scientists in remote mountain areas endangered by rising global temperatures brought exciting discoveries such as a bright green frog that uses its red and long webbed feet to glide in the air.

Conservation Groups Again Seek Endangered Species Protection For Giant, Spitting Worm In Wash. (AP) Fans of the giant Palouse earthworm are once again seeking federal protection for the rare, sweet-smelling species that spits at predators. They filed a petition Tuesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting the worm be protected as an endangered species.

The longfin smelt today was declared a threatened species in California, officially adding another imperiled fish to the long list of problems affecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The California Fish and Game Commission in March declared there was enough evidence to protect the longfin under the state Endangered Species Act. That kicked off a review period, which concluded today with a formal vote by the commission to list the fish as threatened. "It disappoints me for the conflict that it will create," Commissioner Daniel Richards said after the unanimous vote in Woodland. "It speaks to the failure of our state...

If one were to ask around to see what kind of definitions people have of the word species or genus, most would respond by saying they have something to do with classification. In today’s society, the words genus and species are synonymous with the Linnaean taxonomy system. In the early 1700s, if someone said something about a “species” or “genus,” it would have had nothing to do with classification systems. So, why is this important today and what can we learn from it? The word species and its changing definition were partly responsible for the compromise of the church in...

150 Years Later, Fossils Still Don't Help Darwin by Brian Thomas, M.S.* “Creationists claim there are no transitional fossils, aka missing links. Biologists and paleontologists, among others, know this claim is false,” according to a recent LiveScience article that then describes what it claims are 12 specific transitional form fossils.1 But do these examples really confirm Darwinism?Charles Darwin raised a lack of transitional fossils as a possible objection to his own theory: “Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms?”2 Later in this chapter of his landmark book, he...

Spinning a "mucus net" off its paddle-like foot-wings to trap algae and other foods, the swimming snail species Limacina helicinia is no bigger than a bean. But the discovery that it and at least 234 other species inhabit both Arctic and Antarctic waters is big news to biologists.

Campaigns to protect animal and plants species because they are native to Britain are "racist", a leading environmental historian has claimed. There is no justification for conservationists to defend particular species because of their "ethnicity", Professor Christopher Smout writes in a new book, Exploring Environmental History. Campaigns against "alien invaders" – such as the cull of American ruddy ducks to prevent them from breeding with European duck species – have no basis in science, he argues. "Conservationists are up in arms because they fear the ducks will all get turned into some kind of mishmash," he told The Independent. "The...

INDIANAPOLIS – Searching for a truly original holiday gift, one that could bestow a bit of immortality on a loved one or a friend? If so, Purdue University has the goods: The school is auctioning the naming rights to seven newly discovered bats and two turtles. Winning bidders will be able to link a relative, friend or themselves to an animal's scientific name for the ages. The first of the nine auctions began Monday, when the school put up for grabs the naming rights to a tiny gold and black insect-munching bat found in Central America.

The Sumatran Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), also known as the Sumatra Short-eared Rabbit or Sumatran Rabbit, is a rabbit found only in forest in the Barisan Mountains in western Sumatra, Indonesia. It is listed as a critically endangered species — its rarity may be due to deforestation and habitat loss.

It is time, says a U of T biologist, that we began 'to think of humans as part of the natural world' July 13, 2008 Murray Whyte Staff Reporter Consider the Jefferson salamander. About average-finger length, its grey skin mottled with black. Amphibious, spawning in Southern Ontario's quickly vanishing woodland vernal pools. Prognosis: Dying. Now, the urban raccoon. Plump and furry, not so adept at fishing as its rural cousins, perhaps, but expert at garbage-tipping. An adaptable squatter in buildings both abandoned and, as homeowners near High Park well know, occupied. Prognosis: Thriving. The tiny Jefferson, its numbers dwindling to...

Neanderthals were separate species, says new human family tree A wax figure representing a Neanderthal man on display at a museum. A new, simplified family tree of humanity has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. A new, simplified family tree of humanity, published on Sunday, has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. Neanderthals were a separate species to Homo sapiens, as anatomically modern humans are known, rather than offshoots of the same species, the new organigram...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Two plants that were thought to have been extinct since the late 1800s have been rediscovered in far northern Australia, according to an official report released on Saturday. The Queensland state government's State of the Environment report said the two species were found on Cape York, in tropical far north Queensland. "The Rhaphidospora cavernarum, which is a large herb that stands about one and a half meters high, has reappeared," state climate change minister Andrew McNamara told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "It hasn't been seen in Queensland since 1873," he said. He said the second plant that...

WASHINGTON — With little- noticed procedural and policy moves over several years, Bush administration officials have made it substantially more difficult to designate domestic animals and plants for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Good Neighbor Forum is proud to announce Mr. Lyle Laverty, US Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, will speak at the: 2nd Annual Good Neighbor Forum Topic: Food in the 21st Century How policies including conservation easements, ESA, Water, Roadless, EU, precautionary principles and trade will impact your food supply. March 15, 2008 9:00 am - 4:00 pm For more information contact: Roni 970-284-6874 Featured Speakers include Mr. Lawrence Kogan, Esq. - N.J. Will address Precautionary Principle, European Union and more. Dr. Corey Ciochhetti - CO Will address Ethics and Essence of being a...

Liberals say we are destroying the planet and destroying species. Yet, just about everyday something new is discovered. Maybe this earth is bigger than we think. Discovery New Tribe Spotted in Peruvian Amazon! Found: Giant Lobster Species! New Genus! Australian Truffles! New Species of Orchid Flirts With Wasps Squid Body + Octopus Legs = New Species? What’ll They Do Next- Revive the Dodo? uh..no- really? 9 July, 2007 From an article by Kate RaviliousNational Geographic News July 3, 2007 Adventurers exploring a cave on an island in the Indian Ocean have discovered the most complete and well-preserved dodo skeleton ever found, scientists reported yesterday. Researchers...

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar - A self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, botanists said Thursday. The name of the giant palm and its remarkable life cycle will be detailed in a study by Kew Gardens scientists in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published Thursday. "It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm," said Mijoro Rakotoarinivo, who works for the London botanical gardens in Madagascar. "But then a large...

'Hobbits' not a different species, say scientists By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 03/01/2008 The long-running debate about the existence of so-called hobbits of Indonesia has taken a new turn with a study that suggests these ancient people were not an unusual species of human but modern humans with a growth disorder. Scientists believe the "hobbit" had the same growth condition as Paddy Ryan The work, if confirmed, suggests that there could be up to around 100 documented such "hobbits" in the world today, the people who have the mutation that leads to them being normally proportioned...

A giant rodent five times the size of a common rat, has been found in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea.

Giraffes And Frogs Provide More Evidence Of New Species Hidden In Plain SightGenetic subdivision in the giraffe based on microsatellites alleles. (Credit: David M Brown et al., Courtesy BMC Biology) ScienceDaily (Jan. 2, 2008) — Two new articles provide further evidence that we have hugely underestimated the number of species with which we share our planet. Today sophisticated genetic techniques mean that superficially identical animals previously classed as members of a single species, including the frogs and giraffes in these studies, could in fact come from several distinct 'cryptic' species. In the Upper Amazon, Kathryn Elmer and Stephen Lougheed working...

Not one but 'six giraffe species' Anna-Marie Lever Science and nature reporter, BBC News Giraffe populations have dropped by 30% over the past decade The world's tallest animal, the giraffe, may actually be several species, a study has found. A report in BMC Biology uses genetic evidence to show that there may be at least six species of giraffe in Africa. Currently giraffes are considered to represent a single species classified into multiple subspecies. The study shows geographic variation in hair coat colour is evident across the giraffe's range in sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting reproductive isolation. "Using molecular techniques we found...

NAIROBI (AFP) - A new giant species of spitting cobra -- about 2.6 metres long and with enough venom to kill up to 20 people in one bite -- has been discovered in Kenya, a study said Friday. The large brown spitting cobra, initially included under the black-necked spitting cobra species, was discovered at a snake farm in June 2004, but confirmed as a separate species this year. The black-necked species grows to a maximum two metres, with an average of 1.5 metres, scientists said, making the new species the largest in the world. The new Naja Ashei species, named...

Human race will 'split into two different species' The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist. 100,000 years into the future, sexual selection will mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed. The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000. Go to the link in the header/excerpt for more, or the link in the...

MANILA, Philippines - Scientists exploring a deep ocean basin in search of species isolated for millions of years found marine life believed to be previously undiscovered, including a tentacled orange worm and an unusual black jellyfish. Project leader Dr. Larry Madin said Tuesday that U.S. and Philippine scientists collected about 100 different specimens in a search in the Celebes Sea south of the Philippines. Madin, of the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the sea is at the heart of the "coral triangle" bordered by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia — a region recognized by scientists as having a high...

MANILA (AFP) - A new species of flying fox or fruit bat has been discovered on an island south of Manila, it was reported Monday. The orange-coloured bat with a distinctive white-stripped face was discovered in a protected wildlife area on Mindoro Island, the Philippine Star newspaper said quoting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The discovery was a result of joint research between the University of Kansas' Biodiversity Research Center and a team from the Comparative Biogeography and Conservation of Philippine Vertebrates (CBCPV), the paper said. Known as the Mindoro Stripe-Faced Fruitbat for its striking facial features...

In a once-lost forest in Africa, six animal species new to science have been discovered, members of a two-month expedition now reveal, including a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs. "If we can find six new species in such a short period, it makes you wonder what else is out there," said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Andrew Plumptre. The bat appears to be a kind of horseshoe bat (genus Rhinolophus), known for the large horseshoe-shaped "nose leaves" used for directing their ultrasound. These new species were discovered in an expedition from January and March 2007 into woods just...

HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun's energy captured by plants - the most of any species. The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species, reducing the amount of energy available to them by almost 10 per cent, scientists report. Researchers said the findings showed humans were using "a remarkable share" of the earth's plant productivity "to meet the needs and wants of one species". They also warned that the increased use of biofuels - such as ethanol and canola - should be...

A frog with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of eastern Suriname, scientists said Monday. The expedition was sponsored by two mining companies hoping to excavate the area for bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, and it was unknown how the findings would affect their plans. Scientists discovered the species during a 2005 expedition led by the U.S.-based nonprofit Conservation International in rainforests and swamps about 80 miles southeast of Paramaribo, the capital of the South American country, organization spokesman Tom Cohen said.

NEW DELHI - An Indian zoologist said Monday he has found a new species of limbless lizard in a forested area in the country's east. "Preliminary scientific study reveals that the lizard belongs to the genus Sepsophis," said Sushil Kumar Dutta, who led a team of researchers from "Vasundhra," a non-governmental organization, and the North Orissa University. The newly found 7-inch long lizard looks like a scaly, small snake, Dutta said. "It prefers to live in a cool retreat, soft soil and below stones." "The lizard is new to science and is an important discovery. It is not found anywhere...

BOGOTA, Colombia - There's a new chirp in the forest but it may be choked by the slashing and burning of trees by coca farmers, researchers said. The Gorgeted Puffleg, a rare hummingbird that boasts a plumage of violet blue and iridescent green on its throat, has been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia, researchers announced. The species belongs to the Puffleg genus, which appear to have "little cotton balls above their legs," said Luis Mazariegos-Hurtado, who has spent 30 years documenting hummingbirds and founded the Colombian Hummingbird Conservancy. The species — known by its scientific name...

Source: University of California - Berkeley Date: March 11, 2007 Gene Transfer Between Species Is Surprisingly Common Science Daily — Bacteria are known to share genes, spreading drug resistance, for example. But how common is it in other organisms, including mammals like us? Two new studies show that most bacteria have genes or large groups of genes shared by other bacteria. Even among higher organisms, shared genes are the rule rather than the exception, UC Berkeley and LBNL researchers say. Two new studies by University of California, Berkeley, scientists highlight the amazing promiscuity of genes, which appear to shuttle frequently...

CLEVELAND - A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the small-horned creatures that followed, experts said. The dinosaur's horns, thick as a human arm, are like those of triceratops — which came 10 million years later. However, this animal belonged to a subfamily that usually had bony nubbins a few inches long above their eyes. Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, published the discovery in this month's Journal of Paleontology. He dug up the...

JAKARTA (Agencies): Andalas, the first Sumatra rhino born in captivity in more than 100 years was now heading home to its habitat on Sumatra Island with a single task -- to breed with females and help save the endangered species from extinction. The 5-year-old rhino, Andalas, was being flown from a zoo in the United States to Jakarta's international airport. He then is to travel by truck and ferry to a rhino sanctuary in Lampung province, where males Rosa and Ratu await.

Florida State University Date: January 29, 2007 Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A Separate Species Science Daily — After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic -- a human with an abnormally small skull. Not so, said Dean Falk, a world-renowned paleoneurologist and chair of Florida State University's anthropology department, who along with an international team of experts created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase and concluded that the so-called Hobbit was...

SAN FRANCISCO - A judge has overturned a decision by state wildlife regulators to reject a petition to give protected status to the California tiger salamander. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd G. Connelly ordered the Fish and Game Commission to conduct a 12-month review to determine whether to list the yellow-and-black amphibian as an endangered or threatened species. Connelly said the commission "misstated or ignored substantial evidence" and "relied on conflicting information of doubtful scientific value" when it voted 3-2 two years ago to reject the petition to list the salamander under the California Endangered Species Act. In the Dec....

Bring dingoes back to stop species extinction 17:23 02 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service Rachel Nowak Dingoes may make a comeback Bizarrely, reintroducing dingoes – Australia’s top natural predator – could improve the survival of smaller marsupial species that they often prey on, researchers say. The Eastern hare-wallaby? Gone. The lesser bilby? Gone. In the past two centuries, 18 mammals have gone extinct in Australia, accounting for almost half the mammalian extinctions in the world over that time period. Biologists usually blame that infamous record on a complex set of circumstances, including changes in how people use fire to clear...

In new ads, ski company says global warming could dry up snow during the next century... The Aspen Skiing Co. hopes potential customers are ready for a snow job. On Wednesday, the company unveiled a new advertising campaign for the 2006-07 season that centers around the message that snow — and skiing — will disappear around 2100 if humans don’t take drastic action to slow global warming. Three full-page ads, which show a melting snowflake imposed over Highland Bowl, will run in SKI and Outside magazines in the next few months. One ad portrays a “certificate of death” for snow....

FORT HUACHUCA — A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement in which the post and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will renegotiate a biological opinion. “Fort Huachuca’s proactive decision to re-initiate consultation was instrumental in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Army agreeing to settle the lawsuit involving activities at Fort Huachuca and the impact of these activities on the San Pedro River basin,” post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said Tuesday. Jeff Humphrey, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman in Phoenix, said the settlement was signed Friday by U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson, who is assigned to...

Good news for dinosaur fans: There are probably a lot more of them waiting to be discovered. At least, their fossils are. Peter Dodson of the University of Pennsylvania and Steve Wang of Swarthmore College estimate that 71 per cent of all dinosaur genera — groups of dinosaur species — have yet to be discovered. “It's a safe bet that a child born today could expect a very fruitful career in dinosaur paleontology,” Dr. Dodson said in a statement. The estimate appears in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Dodson — a professor of anatomy...

Two butterfly species have been bred in the lab to make a third distinct species, the journal Nature reports. In a species, individuals need to be capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring. The study demonstrates that two animal species can evolve to form one, instead of the more common scenario where one species diverges to form two. The process has been likened to building a new bike from a pair of second-hand ones. The Heliconius heurippa butterfly appears to be the product of a process called hybrid speciation. Most species are thought to form when groups of organisms gradually...

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Wednesday they have created a distinctive red and yellow butterfly in the laboratory by interbreeding two different species in a way similar to what they believe has occurred in nature. The laboratory hybrid is nearly identical to a wild species of butterfly in Colombia known as Heliconius heurippa. "We recreated the evolutionary steps that may have given rise to Heliconius heurippa, a hybrid butterfly species, in the lab," said Jesus Mavarez, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, Panama. Animal hybrids are thought to be very rare because they are less able...

Discovery of eight previously unknown, ancient animal species within “a new and unique underground ecosystem” in Israel was revealed today by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers. In a press conference on the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University, the researchers said the discovery came about when a small opening was found , leading to a cave extending to a depth of 100 meters beneath the surface of a quarry in the vicinity of Ramle, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The quarry is operated by cement manufacturer Nesher Industries. The cave, which has been dubbed the Ayalon Cave, is “unique...

05-05-2006 10:00 am “Might everything disappear? Species, languages, cultures, values…” is the theme to be debated at the next 21st Century Talks to be held at UNESCO on 9 May 2006 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, (Room II). Chaired by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, and moderated by Jérôme Bindé, Deputy Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences and Director of the Division of Foresight the talks will bring together four personalities of international renown. Jean Baudrillard teaches sociology at the Universities of Paris IX and X and lectures internationally. His numerous published works include: The Consumer Society: Myths and...

FRESNO – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday rejected a petition to list the California spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act, saying the population is stable and programs that prevent forest wildfires will allow it to thrive. The decision rankled the environmental groups that had requested protection of the speckled, football-sized owl. This was their second effort to list the bird in three years. The petition's denial was based in part on the recommendation of scientists commissioned to study the owl, said Steve Thompson, manager of the agency's California-Nevada operations office. They found that fires that creep...

Birders Find No New Evidence of Woodpecker By ANNIE BERGMAN Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — With news Thursday that search teams had found no new confirmation of the ivory-billed woodpecker's existence in the swamps of eastern Arkansas, wildlife managers said there was no longer a reason to limit public access to the region. "Based on the information coming from the search and research that we have done, I feel there is no need any longer to limit public use within this area," said Dennis Widner, manager of the Cache River Wildlife Management Area...