Crayfish fossils from dinosaur age found in Australia

This video from Australia says about itself:

This is a Cherax quadricarinatus (Australian Red Claw) Crayfish moulting its shell.

Note: The crayfish is underwater, but in a separate breeding tank to protect it from harm.

From Emory University in Australia:

Crayfish body fossils and burrows discovered in Victoria, Australia, have provided the first physical evidence that crayfish existed on the continent as far back as the Mesozoic Era, says Emory University paleontologist Anthony Martin, who headed up a study on the finds.

“Studying the fossil burrows gives us a glimpse into the ecology of southern Australia about 115 million years ago, when the continent was still attached to Antarctica,” says Martin, a senior lecturer in environmental studies at Emory and an honorary research associate at Monash University in Melbourne. During that era, diverse plants grew in what is today Antarctica and dinosaurs roamed in prolonged polar darkness along southern Australia river plains. The period is of particular interest to scientists since it is believed to be the last time the Earth experienced pronounced global warming, with an average temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit – just 10 degrees warmer than today.

On Feb. 2, the earth science journal Gondwana Research published online the results of the crayfish study, which was conducted by Martin and a consortium of Australian scientists, including Thomas Rich and Gary Poore of the Museum of Victoria; Mark Schultz and Christopher Austin of Charles Darwin University; and Lesley Kool and Patricia Vickers-Rich of Monash.

The crayfish body fossils consist of an abdomen and two claws, and the fossil burrows are nearly identical to those made by modern crayfish in southeastern Australia. “Comparing these fossil burrows to those made by modern crayfish in Australia shows us that their behavior hasn’t changed that much,” says Martin, who specializes in trace fossils.

Biologists have long been fascinated by crayfish, due to their wide range – the freshwater decapods are found on almost every continent and have adapted to extremely diverse environments. Thomas Huxley, a colleague of Charles Darwin, was the first scientist to ponder how crayfish, which cannot survive in saltwater, could have spread to so many continents, according to Martin. Such studies helped lay the groundwork for plate tectonics, which revolutionized the earth sciences in the 1960s through the theory that the continents were once connected. More recently, molecular biologists have theorized that all Southern Hemisphere crayfish originated in southeastern Australia.

“The evolution of Southern Hemisphere crayfish has challenged researchers since the 1870s,” Martin says. “Only now, 140 years later, are we starting to put together the physical evidence for this evolution through the discovery of fossils.”

Australian crayfish today: here.

Birds and plants of St Helena

This is a video about Saint Helena island, and the wirebird.

From Wildlife Extra:

The remote island of St Helena, a dot in the vast expanse of the South Atlantic Ocean, is 1,200 miles from Africa and 1,800 miles from South America. Just ten miles by six miles and a population of around 3,000, it is home to some interesting endemic species.

The native flora has suffered over the years from the goats and donkeys that have grazed on the many endemic plants, many to the brink of extinction. Invasive weeds have also taken their toll of which the New Zealand flax is by far the worst culprit.

A small conservation team, working for the St Helena Government, is now endeavouring to grow and replant the island’s endemics. This is important work as many of the plants are not just endemic to the island but to just one cliff face of single valley, making them some of the rarest plants in the world. The St Helena ebony was thought to be extinct until 1980, when Saint George Benjamin found two plants on a remote cliff face and took cuttings so it could be re-introduced across the island.

Temperate Climate

This tropical island is full of contrasts; its memorable contrasting landscape is a result of its volcanic origins, with spectacular 1,000ft bronze-coloured cliffs, harsh desert and lush green valleys. And despite its position in the tropics, the climate is kept mild by the southeast trade winds; between 20 and 30 degrees centigrade in the summer and between 15 and 26 degrees in winter.

Much of St Helena is best explored by walking and for many it is a walker’s paradise. Whether it is a gentle stroll along country roads or up to the highest point – Diana’s Peak (2,685 ft) to view the endemic flora and fauna.

The Wirebird

The Wirebird is the national bird of St Helena, it is a small, long-legged, grey-brown plover with white under parts and a black mask extending to the sides of the neck. It is the only surviving endemic bird of St Helena.

The Wirebird prefers flat areas of short grassland with patches of bare ground. They eat mainly caterpillars, beetles and snails. They breed throughout the year, but most nesting occurs from October to March, during the dry season. They usually lay two eggs at a time.

Other endemic birds, such as the St Helena Rail, Crake, Dove, Hoopooe and Petrel were classified as extinct as far back as 1502, mostly due to introduced predators (rats, cats and humans) and the environmental changes that these brought to the island. The other birds seen on the island today have been introduced from other countries, these include: Yellow Canary; Madagascar fody; Chukar partridge; Peaceful Dove; Fairy tern; Java sparrow; Noddy terns; Madeiran storm petrel; Sooty tern; Ring-necked pheasant; red-billed tropicbird; St Helena waxbill; Common mynah bird; and the Rock dove.

In the case of seabirds like the sooty tern, I really doubt whether these were introduced by humans.

St Helena sedge, thought extinct, found again: here.

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New bird species in Colombia may already be extinct

This is a video about birds in the Amboró National Park, Bolivia.

From Wildlife Extra:

New Bird Species Recognised in Colombia, May Already be Extinct

A new bird species, the Antioquia Brush-Finch or Atlapetes blancae – has been described as a result of studies supported by Fundación ProAves in Colombia. Ornithologists are concerned about the conservation of the new species, as nobody knows whether or not it still exists.

The species was recognised from 3 skins collected separately over the last 50 years. They were initially thought to be from another species, but have recently been recognised as a separate species. No one has seen a live one, and it isn’t even known for sure exactly where they are to be found as the skins were not well labelled or documented.

The description of the Antioquia Brush-Finch was published in the latest edition of the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club by Thomas Donegan of ProAves.

About a related species, see here.

March 2008. The first private protected area for the critically endangered Fuertes’s Parrot has been established by Fundación ProAves. The species, whose population size is estimated at just 160 individuals, lives only in a small area in the Andes of Colombia that is heavily impacted by deforestation: here.

New Reserve Created in Colombia to Protect the Helmeted Curassow: here.

Critically endangered Yellow-eared parrot has record breeding year [in Colombia]: here.

Many in the birding and wildlife community rejoiced in 1998 when Fundación ProAves, funded by ABC and Loro Parque (an environmental group focused on saving parrots) rediscovered a colony of 81 Yellow-eared Parrots in the Andes of Colombia, South America after the species was thought to be extinct: here.

New conservation zone set up for the critically endangered Yellow-eared Parrot: here.

August 2010: For 91 years, the indigo-winged parrot – otherwise known as the Fuerte’s parrot – was thought to be extinct, and then in 2002, a 60-strong colony was discovered in an area of cloud forest in the central Andes, in Colombia. Now their future looks more secure, thanks to the creation of a new bird reserve which protects a 368-acre fragment of cloud forest: here.

Colombian reserve to double in size, aiding critically endangered parrot. April 2012. With fewer than 250 individuals thought to exist, the beautifully coloured Fuertes’s Parrot is one of the world’s rarest birds. Also known as the Indigo-winged Parrot, it was thought to be extinct for 90 years, but was rediscovered in 2002 when ProAves biologists, funded by an ABC grant, discovered a small population of about a dozen individuals living in fragmented and unprotected high-Andean cloud forests at the site of this reserve. The Fuertes’s sole breeding habitat remains a 19-square-mile area: here.

Four new lizard species discovered in Panama

This video is called Bocas Del Toro, Panama – The Nature Conservancy.

From Wildlife Extra:

Four Lizards New to Science Discovered in The Highlands of Panama

The first live endemic anoles ever discovered in this region were found in a single day during a biological research expedition at 6000 feet in the Serranía de Tabasara of the Panamian Highlands.

As recently described in Herpetologia by Dr. Gunther Köhler and his research colleagues, all of the anoles found in the cloud forest of the Serrania de Tabasara mountain chain top at 6000 feet above sea level are almost certainly endemic to this area, considering their isolated geographical habitat. This makes them the first endemic reptiles ever discovered in the Serrania de Tabasara, which is a very poorly explored region, biologically speaking.

Discovering all four in a single day was quite spectacular. …

Panama is known for its great climatic and topographical diversity, which in spite of its relatively small size of 77082 sq kilometres (3.7 times the size of Wales), includes one of the most diverse and abundant herpeto-fauna of any Central American country. Thirty-one species of the genus Anolis are known to occur in Panama, eleven of which are restricted to the highlands of lower Central America. Even against this background the scientists were initially surprised to encounter four undescribed species within a 24 h period.

Four New Species

Nevertheless, comparisons showed that these lizards represent four undescribed species. As there is Anolis gruuo, Anolis pseudokemptoni, Anolis pseudopachypus and Anolis datzorum.

See also here.

When anole lizards (Anolis roquet) arrived on Martinique more than 8 million years ago, there were four separate, smaller islands. Over time, this physical isolation should have allowed the lizards to evolve into different species, according to conventional evolutionary wisdom. But that’s not what happened: here.

Anolis lizards have been shown to have “higher intelligence” by swiftly adapting behaviour to changing circumstances: here.

Origin of tropical American burrowing reptiles by transatlantic rafting: here.

Wall lizards and slow worms of Maastricht, the Netherlands, see here. Update Maastricht lizards, July 2008: here.

Wall lizards in Maastricht, January 2010: here. September 2011: here. January 2012: here.

Dutch lizards: here.

Tropical lizards may be slow. But they aren’t dumb. They can do problem-solving tasks just as well as birds and mammals, a new study shows. A new experiment tested Puerto Rican anoles on several cognitive tasks and found they can learn and remember to solve a problem they’ve never faced before: here.

First Lizard Genome Sequenced: Green Anole Lizard’s Genome Sheds Light On Vertebrate Evolution: here.

Endangered ducks back in New Zealand nature reserve

From Wildlife Extra:

Endangered Pateke – Brown Teal – Released in Special New Zealand Reserve, Tawharanui

Another rare bird species is being welcomed back to Tawharanui this weekend. Up to 30 endangered pateke, or brown teal, will be released into the open sanctuary at Tawharanui Regional Park.

The release of these special ducks is took place on Saturday 2 February, World Wetlands Day – a day where government agencies, interest groups and wetlands around the world undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values.

About the pateke

* The pateke is a small brown dabbling duck of teal-like size. It has a distinctive whitish narrow ring around each eye, and its head, face and throat is a mottled brown.
* The Pateke Recovery Captive Breeding Network is made up of 20 volunteer breeders from all around New Zealand who contribute juvenile pateke for release into the wild each year.
* The Tawharanui release is one of four planned for 2008. The others being at Tutukaka in Northland, Cape Kidnappers in the Hawke’s Bay and Tuhua (Mayor) Island.
* This release at is the first of up to four planned for Tawharanui over the next two to three years.
* For further information about pateke go here.

Success and Failure of Releasing Animals Back into the Wild: here.

March 2011: Eighty pateke, New Zealand’s rarest waterfowl, have just been released into Fiordland National Park: here.

Parakeets of New Zealand Gulf islands

This video from New Zealand is called Common Dolphins in the Hauraki Gulf.

From Wildlife Extra:

Rare Kakariki Parakeets to Re-Populate New Zealand Gulf Islands

An ambitious plan to translocate 100 kakariki (red-crowned parakeets) from Little Barrier Island to two other Hauraki Gulf islands as well as a mainland site means more people will be able to see the rare birds.

Conservation researcher Luis Ortiz-Catedral, based at Massey University in Auckland, has been studying a small population of translocated orange-fronted kakariki, which are extremely rare and critically endangered, on remote Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds. He is now planning a large-scale translocation further north of their relative, the red-crowned kakariki. The two-pronged project is part of his doctoral thesis as a researcher at the Institute of Natural Resources, comparing how wild and captive birds cope with translocation.

Red-crowned Kakariki

The red-crowned kakariki thrive in abundance on Little Barrier Island, a protected conservation reserve. Mr Ortiz-Catedral is organising a project to capture then release the 100 birds at Rakino and Motuihe Islands as well as Tawharanui conservation reserve north of Auckland.

This will expand the geographical range of the species and enable scientists and conservationists to better understand how newly located translocated kakariki cope with the change.

April 2011: The first orange-fronted parakeet or kākāriki to fledge in the wild north of the Cook Strait in about 130 years has been confirmed on Tuhua – New Zealand’s Mayor Island: here.

Six new fish species discovered in Indian Ocean

This video shows king penguins at the beach at Crozet island, in the southern Indian Ocean.

From Wildlife Extra:

Six new species of deep sea fish discovered by Oceanlab scientist

A sharp eyed marine scientist who spotted six strange fish during a deep sea research expedition has been rewarded for trusting her instincts.

After painstaking work with three taxonomy experts, Dr Nikki King discovered that the six different fish were all unknown to science. The fish were among marine life landed by the Oceanlab team during a trawl of a stretch of the darkest depths of the Southern Indian Ocean aboard the Royal Research Ship Discovery.

The scientists were carrying out research for the Benthic Crozet project which is a major exploration of the waters and ocean dwellers off the Crozet Islands. Dr King from the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab was among those responsible for examining any marine creatures caught.

She said: ‘I could only identify the six so far – not down to species level. So we packed them into preservative and took them home.’

The Research Fellow then worked closely with Dr Peter Moller and Professor Jorgen Nielsen of the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, and Professor Guy Duhamel of the Paris Natural History Museum before the three confirmed the six were indeed new to science.

Dr King said: ‘Ever since I set my heart on becoming a marine biologist I hoped I would discover one new species, so to have discovered six is tremendously exciting!’

New Species Names

Nikki and her taxonomy collaborators then had the honour of naming the deep sea creatures. As a result, Professor Monty Priede, Director of Oceanlab, can take great pride in the knowledge that somewhere in the deep lurks a pink eelpout bearing the name Pachycara priedei. Professor George Wolff from the University of Liverpool – who led the research expedition – was the inspiration for the snailfish now called Paraliparis wolffi.

The research expedition’s exploration area and the cruise vessel itself gave rise to Careproctus crozentensis, Apagesoma (new species) and Careproctus discoveryae. But of the six the closest to Nikki’s heart was a large 42cm long brown eelpout now known as Pachycara cousinsi which was named after the 27-year-old’s geophysicist fiancé Michael Cousins.

The team were fishing in an area that had only been sampled once previously during the voyage of the HMS Challenger 132 years ago.

Florida scrub-jays in danger in the USA

This video from the USA says about itself:

This is a clip of my family visiting the Florida scrub-jays at Lyonia Preserve. Very sociable animals, as you can see.

From Wildlife Extra:

Populations of threatened Florida scrub-jays are declining, according to the latest annual Nature Conservancy study of jay populations across Central Florida. The scrub-jay is Florida’s only endemic bird, but these small, light blue birds are disappearing at 40 percent of their population sites, volunteer jay counters observed.

Results of a sixth-annual summer survey of Florida scrub-jays along the Lake Wales Ridge were reported recently at a volunteer recognition event at Historic Bok Sanctuary.

Statewide, virtually all of the large populations still occur only on the Lake Wales Ridge, Ocala National Forest, and on Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Station.

Florida Scrub-Jay Decreasing Rapidly: here.

A scrub jay blog: here.

Scrub jay on deer head photo: here.

Florida Scrub-jay: Great recession beneficiary: here.

The breeding ecology of the Island Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma insularis), North America’s only island-endemic bird, is the focus of an ongoing research and monitoring effort by personnel from the Smithsonian Institution, Colorado State University, the U. C. Davis Wildlife Health Center, and The Nature Conservancy: here.

The current population of the Island Scrub-Jay, a rare California bird, is only one fifth of what experts had previously believed, according to a new study. The Island Scrub-Jay is a brightly colored blue and gray bird that is only found on Santa Cruz Island, which is about 17 miles off the coast of California, directly south of Santa Barbara: here.

Blue jay photo: here.

When mobbing predators, Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group: here.

Related articles

• Santa Cruz Island Scrub-jay Even Rarer Than Thought (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
• Scrub Jays (travelingrainvilles.typepad.com)
• 5 Endangered Species You Could Hold in Your Hand (sierraclub.typepad.com)
• New Count Reveals One of Rarest US Birds (livescience.com)

Indian Fossil Bed Being Ground Into Cement

This video is about the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.

From National Geographic:

Indian Fossil Bed Being Ground Into Cement

Paroma Basu in New Delhi, India
for National Geographic News

February 6, 2008

A fossil-rich region of India’s war-torn state of Kashmir could be blasted out of existence by mining operations, according to eyewitness accounts by geologists.

Fossil beds in the rocky Guryul Ravine, just south of the city of Srinagar, date back 260 million years to the pre-dinosaur Permian period.

Specimens from the site include primordial corals, small invertebrates, plants, and a group of mammal-like reptiles known as therapsids. (See pictures of the ancient creatures of the Permian.)

But the fossils lie inside rich tracts of limestone—a key ingredient in cement manufacturing.

Local authorities declared the Guryul site a protected area last year and claim that mining activities have ceased.

But there are still quarry owners who supply stone chips to small-scale cement factories in nearby towns, said Ghulam Mohamad Bhat, a sediment geologist at Kashmir’s University of Jammu.

Bigger pieces of exploded rock are used in road and housing construction.

Quarry operators earn about 600 rupees (U.S. $15) per truckload of stones, according to a recent report in the Telegraph, a leading daily newspaper of eastern India.

“Underhanded mining has gone on for years and is still going on,” Bhat said. “Sadly, the fossil section at Guryul has been entirely put to sale.” …

Most of these creatures perished in a massive extinction event that took place between the Permian and Triassic periods about 251 million years ago.

While the event is also captured in stone in other parts of the world, including Iran and China, it is best preserved in the Kashmir section, Bhat said.

“Studying these fossils can tell us how life evolved afresh after the extinction,” Bhat said.

The Triassic therapsid Placerias: here.

Related articles

• Was there more life after Earth’s largest extinction? Discovery of a 247-million-year-old giant sea dragon fossil could be evidence more species survived after the ‘Great Dying’
• Mass Extinctions Caused Explosion of Biodiversity in Bony Fish
• Mass extinction led to many new species of bony fish
• Bizarre Prehistoric Platypus Look-alike Discovered in China
• Mass extinction led to many new species of bony fish
• Chinese Permian fossils discoveries
• Niger Permian reptile fossil discovery
• Triassic fossil fish discovery in Switzerland

Problem at my Blogsome blog. Solved?

My blog at Blogsome somehow was not working today. Though Blogsome itself seemed to work allright. I hoped that the tragedy of my ModBlog blog, which disappeared forever without any warning, would not repeat itself.

UPDATE: my Blogsome blog is back; though some aspects still seem to be not working properly.