New Species Discovered

[N.B. Forrest]

Originally Posted by ss alyy

Scientists in the Australian state of Queensland have discovered three new species of a rodent-like marsupial. With the species, the males fornicate until they collapse.

The new species belong to the genus Antechinus. One characteristic that the new species share is that the males die off in high numbers at the conclusion of the mating season. This is an event called "semelparity" (a single reproductive episode before death).

^
Seen this animal on animal planet 1/2 years ago. Amazing how they've been genetically wired to just mate and mate until they die of exhaustion. Talk about high sex drives. Amazing to watch.

All other animals/ humans at least take a break.

Beyatch had it goin' OWN...

[Alyss]

Well the female of that kind as it real good. The females screw around and live longer. More than I can say for the male. Though the female doesnt live much longer life, if I recall rightly.

[Jae Manzel]

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC140...ce-species.htm

An inside job – scientists notice hoppers trapped inside host organism

NIWA scientists have discovered a new-to-science species of sand-hopper living inside another deep sea organism on the Chatham Rise.



Marine biologists Drs Dennis Gordon and Anne-Nina Loerz believe the discovery of an amphipod species living inside a bryozoan is the only example of a relationship between these two types of organisms observed anywhere in the world.

While examining specimens held in NIWA’s Marine Invertebrate Collection, the scientists noticed the organisms inside a see-through layer on the bryozoans which live between 500 and 1500 m deep on the Chatham Rise, Bounty Trough and Solander Trough.

“It is a significant find as much less is known about relationships among organisms in the deep sea, compared to those in shallower water,” Dr Gordon said.

Males, females and juvenile hoppers (Amphipoda), up to one centimetre long, have been found living inside a species of bryozoan that grows to about 5 cm in length. The hoppers are protected in the cavity by a transparent membrane.

“The question is if the hoppers are trapped in there, how did they get in there in the first place?”
The scientists believe the most likely scenario is that the female hopper makes a slit in the see-through layer on the back side of the bryozoan and enters the cavity beneath it, accompanied by a dwarf male. The slit then repairs itself. The hoppers then reproduce with the female releasing juveniles from a brood pouch. When the bryozoan dies, the amphipods leave and colonise another one in the same habitat.

The scientists are unsure whether both the amphipods and the bryozoa benefit from the arrangement or whether the hoppers are the sole beneficiaries, deriving nutrients and protection from their host.

“We are also wondering if there is a two-way nutrient flow whereby the secretions of the hopper can be transferred to the bryozoan but we don’t really know. We do know that the hopper is incapable of forming the membrane.”

Dr Gordon says there are all sorts of weird associations in the sea between animals, including a fish that lives in the rectum of a sea cucumber and a species of crab that forces corals to form a protective growth around it, known as a gall.

“Other bryozoans are known to have body cavities on their underside but they’ve never been seen before in this family. That’s what is really weird and mysterious about it,” Dr Gordon said.
The scientists have named the new species tutus (meaning safe) and the new amphipod genusBryoconversor (living in Bryozoa).

They are keen to gather fresh samples and conduct DNA testing. Dr Loerz says while a lot of New Zealand’s marine biodiversity is not known, this was a special find.

[Jae Manzel]

http://www.designntrend.com/articles...-australia.htm



A new species discovered in Australia has a certain favorite routine. And like Bukowski once said, "Find what you love and let it kill you," is the critter's motto.

The black-tailed antechinus, a pink-nosed marsupial that keenly resembles a rodent, was discovered in the Springbrook National Park by a team of mammalogists from the Queensland University of Technology, Live Science reported.

The team found that the male species of the mammals have so much sex with multiple females, that they die before their offsprings are born. The females then end up giving birth to multiple offsprings from different fathers, Live Science reported.

The black-tailed Antechinus was first spotted in May 2013. They managed to catch it by luring it into a trap using peanuts and oats.

"When we caught the first black-tailed antechinus in a trap, we knew we were onto something pretty special," Mammalogist Andrew Baker said in a press release obtained by Live Science.

The male of the species runs marathons of sex with the females for hours on end to increase their likelihood of becoming a father, but the consequence of this is a high increase in the male's stress hormone, causing them to die. The session can last up to 14 hours, with both genders hopping from partner to partner.

The females then hold the sperm through the breeding season, and then they ovulate causing the eggs to be fertilized by multiple males. Once they begin to give birth, the mothers usually die after the first batch, but some do live long enough to give birth to several sets.

[Jae Manzel]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/h...w/30907841.cms



WASHIGNTON: A 14-inch long giant Pacific oyster found off the coast of Denmark has been confirmed as the world's largest by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The giant mollusc was found in October last year and is still alive and growing, according to Christine Ditlefsen, biologist at the Wadden Sea Centre.

The Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) measures 35.5 cm (13.97 in) in length and 10.7 cm (4.21 in) in width, Guinness said on its website.

Roughly the length of a size 11 shoe, this large mollusc has another five oysters attached to it.

In total, this cluster of oysters weighs 1.62 kg, 'National Public Radio' reported.

The oyster was found in October last year in Wadden Sea National Park, on Denmark's southwestern coast.

Its size and shape could be said to resemble a huge plaintain. But when it was found, the Wadden staff compared the oyster to a large and sturdy shoe, the report said.

"It is 15-20 years old, and probably one of the first Pacific Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) that came to our part of the Wadden Sea," said Ditlefsen.

[Jae Manzel]

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/sci...cle5732502.ece

Researchers have revised a genus of cockroach in the poorly studied family Corydiidae for the first time since 1920

Scientists have discovered 39 new species of endemic desert cockroaches from the south-western US region and Mexico. Researchers have revised a genus of cockroach in the poorly studied family Corydiidae for the first time since 1920. The revision resulted in the discovery and description of 39 new species of Arenivaga, a genus which previously held nine species, researchers said.

The Corydiidae family of roaches is found worldwide and its constituents are frequently found in harsh, dry habitats not usually associated with cockroaches. The study was completed over a four-year period by Heidi Hopkins, who is a cockroach taxonomic specialist and PhD candidate at the University of New Mexico, Museum of Southwestern Biology, in Albuquerque. “The extent of the radiation of this genus is quite surprising,” said Ms.Hopkins.

“These animals have remarkable adaptations that allow them to succeed in some of the harshest places on earth. I suspect that the thorough application of modern collection methods would reveal many more species of Arenivaga across Mexico, and many more species of Corydiidae in the deserts and dry places of the rest of the world,” she said.

Arenivaga, also known as desert or sand cockroaches, are dramatically sexually dimorphic, meaning that the females look nothing like the males. This makes the association of female specimens of a species with male specimens of the same species very difficult. Ms.Hopkins’ work is based on male specimens only, and species are separated from one another by characters of the genitalia, which are incredibly complex.

“The order Blattodea (cockroaches) which includes termites, comprise some of the earth’s greatest decomposers. They are the planet’s recyclers and clearly they have a role to play even in terrain with very little plant matter requiring decomposition,” Ms.Hopkins said. “We can no longer think of cockroaches as creatures restricted to the moisture of the tropics,” she said. The results have been published in the journal ZooKeys.

[Jae Manzel]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...rsity-science/



Among the many animals that make their living off of other species, parasitic wasps are especially cunning. They inject other insects' larvae and eggs with their own eggs. When they hatch, the larval wasps gradually eat their victims from the inside out.

Now, with the help of ordinary Costa Ricans, scientists have discovered nearly 200 new species of these tiny killers in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste in the country's northwest corner, with expectations that 20,000 more are waiting to be described.

The research, published last week in the journal ZooKeys, greatly expands the number of species in the genus Apanteles—parasitic wasps that prey on caterpillars.
Some species of parasitic wasps—called parasitoid wasps by scientists—are valued because they target populations of aphids, beetles, and flies harmful to humans and agriculture




A Thing for Caterpillars

Most Apanteles wasps attack just one caterpillar species, or a few closely related ones, targeting their host by its smell or the smell of the leaf that it eats. (Watch a parasitic wasp inject a caterpillar with eggs.)

Along with her eggs, an Apanteles female injects the host with a virus, unique to her species, that protects her eggs from the host's immune system.

"The wasps use this virus like a form of biological warfare," says José Fernández-Triana, a researcher from the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes who was involved with the study.

Apanteles are one of the most common genera of parasitic wasps, with more than a thousand known species.

But the discovery of an additional 200 species in just one small corner of Costa Rica demonstrates by how much scientists have previously underestimated the number of species.

Fernández-Triana and Daniel Janzen, a biologist and conservationist from the University of Pennsylvania, hope to identify a thousand more new species in the next five years.



Bar-Coding DNA

In the past, species were distinguished mainly by morphological characteristics. But many Apanteles wasps look almost identical.

New taxonomic approaches, especially DNA bar-coding, rely on molecular information in addition to morphology to distinguish species. Just as reading bar codes in a supermarket identifies particular products, scanning a particular short region of DNA common to all species reveals differences that vary predictably among them.

The DNA bar codes of Apanteles showed that even though many of the specimens looked alike and were collected in close proximity to one another, they were too dissimilar genetically to be mating with each other—the traditional definition of the boundary between two species.

"Using DNA bar codes, we were able to identify the individual species of wasps and see how they are related to each other," says Fernández-Triana.

Teaching Conservation

Fernández-Triana's study was part of a larger effort to take inventory of the caterpillars, plant food, and parasitic wasps in Área de Conservación Guanacaste.

The Costa Rican wildlife reserve is a tropical hotbed of biological diversity, with one of the best preserved dry forests in Central America.

Janzen and Fernández-Triana predict that more than 15,000 species of caterpillars and more than 20,000 species of parasitoid wasps live within the conservation area.

The caterpillars were reared and collected over a period of 36 years under Janzen's direction. After noticing that the wasps were attacking the caterpillars, he started collecting both insects.

In 1989, Janzen began training local Costa Ricans to help collect specimens, hoping to strengthen the bond between locals and the Área de Conservación Guanacaste.

"The [locals] are trained by us through apprenticeships, where they live and work," Janzen explained in an email message.

There are now 34 of these locally trained research assistants. Janzen and his team have collected more than half a million caterpillars and thousands of wasps.



Researchers were able to match the wasps with the caterpillars they attack, the viruses the wasps carry, and the plants the caterpillars eat—providing valuable insight into the wasps' role in the Costa Rican ecosystem.

Fernández-Triana says that how the research was conducted will help protect the wasps and their habitat from being cut down or converted into farmland.

"It's an example to the rest of the world of how to do tropical conservation," says Fernández-Triana. "When the people get involved with the nature and feel like they own it, they take care of it."

The scientists named some of the new wasp species after the local people who collected them, including Apanteles carlosguadamuzi, Apanteles isidrochaconi, and Apanteles leonelgarayi.

[Jae Manzel]

http://www.thedailystar.net/new-bird...-in-asia-14186



unique family of birds containing just one species has been discovered by researchers.

Scientists investigating families within the Passerida group of perching birds identified 10 separate branches in their tree of life.

The analysis also revealed that the spotted wren-babbler sat on its own branch and was not related to either wrens or wren-babblers.

Experts recommend the distinctive bird should now be referred to as Elachura.

The discovery is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"This single species is the only living representative of one of the earliest off-shoots within the largest group of [perching birds], which comprises [around] 36 percent of the world's 10,500 bird species," said Prof Per Alstrom from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, who undertook the study alongside researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.

Elachura formosa, previously known as Spelaeornis formosus, is a small perching bird - or passerine - that is found from the eastern Himalayas to southeast China.

Prof Alstrom describes it as "extremely secretive and difficult to observe, as it usually hides in very dense tangled undergrowth in the subtropical mountain forests."

"However, during the breeding season, when the males sing their characteristic, high-pitched song, which doesn't resemble any other continental Asian bird song, it can sometimes be seen sitting on a branch inside a bush."

He suggests the bird had previously been overlooked because it looks "strikingly similar" to wrens and wren-babblers.

"This similarity is apparently either due to pure chance or to convergent evolution, which may result in similar appearances in unrelated species that live in similar environments - some wren-babblers can be neighbours to the Elachura," Prof Alstrom explained.

The biologists made their discovery by analysing the molecular differences in the DNA of the birds to understand what they had inherited, and thus reveal their evolutionary heritage.

This method has been widely used in recent years and is responsible for a number of surprising discoveries including the revelation that a peregrine falcon is more closely related to a bullfinch than a sparrowhawk.

"Molecular analyses have been instrumental in resolving the relationships among birds, and have revealed multiple totally unexpected relationships, such as between flamingos and grebes, between falcons, parrots and passerines, and between larks and the bearded tit," explained Prof Alstrom.

"It is possible that more such cases will be discovered in the future, as more and more species are being analysed. However, I doubt that there are many - if any - such unique species as the Elachura left to be identified."

[Alex Linder]

New Species of Blind Snake Discovered in Brazil

Tuesday, March 4, 2014



Back in November of 2011, engineers drained a hydroelectric dam in Brazil that spans a river connected to the Amazon, and discovered six particularly unusual looking snakes, at the bottom of the river-bed. With wrinkly flesh-colored skin and no eyes, immature folks like myself have had no choice but to dub the newly discovered creatures 'penis snakes,' but the scientific name is a bit less giggle-inducing; Atretochoana eiselti.



Several months after the discovery, scientists determined that these slithering oddities are actually not snakes at all but are rather more closely related to salamanders and frogs. As reported by the UK Daily Mail, they've confirmed that they're rare creatures that have been spotted very sporadically over the years, after first being sighted way back in 1968. Biologist Julian Tupan believes that the animals probably breathe through their skin, and feed on small fish and worms. However, "there is still nothing proven," he says.



Of the six phallic creatures discovered, two have been kept for studies, three were released back into the wild and one unfortunately died.

Makes ya wonder how many strange creatures are lurking under the water that we've still yet to discover, doesn't it?

- See more at: http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-art....O3rMsofL.dpuf

[Alex Linder]

Microscopic Creepy-Crawly Discovered By Ohio State Graduate Student

March 2, 2014


Images Credit: USDA Agricultural Research Center and Samuel Bolton, Ohio State

It may resemble a worm, but it’s actually a previously undiscovered microscopic species of mite discovered on The Ohio State University campus.

Discovered by Samuel Bolton, a graduate student at Ohio State, the mite was officially named Osperalycus tenerphagus (or as it is affectionately known – the “Buckeye Dragon Mite”). Osperalycus tenerphagus is Latin for “mouth purse” and “tender feeding,” referring to its complex and highly unusual oral structure.

Rather than the mythological winged dragon, the mite resembles the snake-like Chinese dancing dragons that appear in New Year festivals. It does not, however, resemble the typical mite, which is characterized by a large round body and tough external surface. The adult O. tenerphagus is just 600 microns, or just over half a millimeter and cannot be seen by the naked eye.

“It is incredibly intricate despite being the same size as some single-cell organisms,” Bolton, who is a doctoral student in evolution, ecology and organismal biology, told Ohio State’s Emily Caldwell. “That’s the fascinating thing about mites and arthropods – mites have taken the same primitive and complex form and structure that they’ve inherited and shrunken everything down. So we’re dealing with complexity at an incredibly small scale.” Bolton described his discovery online in the Journal of Natural History. O. tenerphagus is the fifth species from the worm-like family Nematalycidae to be described, and only the second in North America.

Initial examination of the mites collected from silty clay loam soil across the street from the acarology lab suggested that Bolton had discovered a novel species. Bolton collected his mites from a soil depth of about 20 inches. When he examined them under a compound microscope, he found that they had numerous straight hairs all along their bodies (known as setae) that didn’t match any of the known members of this family. The mites use these hairs to feel their way around.

Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...Slje3UrrCDJ.99

[Alex Linder]

New Species of Freshwater Shrimp Discovered in India

04 March 2014



INDIA - A new freshwater shrimp, has been discovered in Vamanapuram river.

The new species, Macrobrachium Abrahami, has been identified by P Madhusoodanan Pillai, Registrar and Dean of the faculty of Central Agriculture University, V Unnikrishnan, teacher of Vembayam Konchira Government School and U Suresh Kumar of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, reports the NewIndianExpress.

The international science journal 'Zootaxa’ published the morphology and DNA bar code of the new species along with phylogeny. Gene sequences of the new species have been submitted to the gene bank of National Centre for Biotechnology Information for the reference of international scientific community.

“Even though the new species has morphological resemblances with M scabriculum and M lanatum, it shows more genetic similarity to M prabhakarani, which was reported last year. Genomic investigation and maximum likelihood tree reveal that M scabriculum, M prabhakarani and M abrahami evolved from a common ancestor,” Unnikrishnan said.

M abrahami is named in honour of Thomas Abraham, former head of Dept of Zoology, St Thomas College, Kozhencherry.

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/...vered-in-india

[Alex Linder]

New 'jellybean' spider species found on Queensland's Darling Downs

BY ASHLEIGH STEVENSON
February 25, 2014



Scientists from the Queensland Museum have discovered two new species of goblin spiders on the state's Darling Downs.

Dr Barbara Baehr says her team discovered the Opopaea broadwater, also known as the jellybean goblin spider in Dalby.

They also discovered the Leichhardteus badius, or reddish brown swift spider, while exploring a rainforest in the Bunya Mountains last year.

The museum says the genus name Leichhardteus was chosen to honour German explorer and scientist Ludwig Leichhardt, who came to Australia in 1842 to study wildlife.

It says the species name badius refers to the Latin badium, meaning reddish brown in reference to the body colour.

It was also chosen to honour former Greens senator Bob Brown, who rescued rainforest environments.

Dr Baehr says the jellybean goblin spider is only one millimetre long and has an armour-like shell.

"That helps them to protect themselves from desiccation because they're very small, so they're very sensitive about humidity, so they have developed this little shell," she said.

Dr Baehr says they are important discoveries.

"It's important to know about the species who are around us because if you don't know them, we can't protect them, and they will extinguish before we even know them," she said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/21668129/...darling-downs/

[Alex Linder]

On 2 March this year, a research group from Fukushima University will present the results of their study in which they believe to have found a new species of mayfly. This particular insect was found in a remote swamp near Lake Hibara. This new species is unique in that rather than living from a day to a week like related mayflies, this particular one has a life span of only an hour.

This mayfly is reportedly a part of the himeshirokagerou (white princess mayfly) family which has around 150 types in the world, four of which can be found in Japan. Grad student Shota Masubachi came across its larva that was about twice the size of similar species. “At first we didn’t think it was a new species, but after studying the morphology we found a high possibility that it was one,” he said.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/03/0...ption-glasses/

[Alex Linder]

Five new species of armoured spiders discovered in Southeast China caves
Saturday, March 15, 2014

Washington: Lurking in the darkness of caves in Southeast China, scientists have discovered five new species of armoured spiders.

Distinguished by their peculiar armour-like abdominal pattern, these tropical and subtropical spiders are mainly collected from litter and soil, but like the newly described species some live in caves. Some cave species, but also some soil inhabitants, show typical adaptations of cave spiders, such as loss of eyes. The genus Tetrablemma, for example, to which two of the new species belong, is distinguished by having only 4 eyes.

All these new spiders are collected from the South China Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The South China Karst spans the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan.

Colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Professor Shuqiang LI have investigated more than 2000 caves in the South China Karst. Several hundred new species of cave spiders are reported by Shuqiang Li and colleagues.

As a result, the total known spider species of China increased from 2300 species to 4300 species in the last 10 years.

The study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-ne...es_918181.html

[Alex Linder]

A great discovery came in a small package for paleontologists who've unearthed a new species of tiny tyrannosaur in northern Alaska.

Dubbed Nanuqsaurus hoglundi, the polar pygmy measured about 20 feet (6 meters) long, about half the size of its close relative Tyrannosaurus rex. The first part of the dinosaur's name, Nanuq, means "polar bear" in the Alaska Inupiat language, a nod to the tyrannosaur's role as top predator in its late Cretaceous environment. Hoglundi honors philanthropist Forrest Hoglund, according to a new study, which appeared March 12 in the journal PLOS ONE.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...imals-science/

[Alex Linder]

New species of prehistoric porpoise discovered


This photo shows the skull and jaws of skimmer porpoise.

March 2014: A CT scan of fossils found over 20 years ago have revealed a bizarre new species of a porpoise that had an extra-long lower jaw that extended well beyond the upper, creating a distinct and unusual underbite.

Semirostrum ceruttii lived along the coast of California millions of years ago and analysis of the fossilized skull also shows that the porpoise's pronounced beak included innervated jaws, which the animal likely used to feel for prey along the ocean floor.

"The extinct porpoise is a bizarre new animal, with the mandible extending well beyond the beak-like snout, which it may have used for probing and 'skimming' in the substrate," says Rachel Racicot of Yale University. "Although this morphology has been recorded in birds and fish, this is the first described mammal with this anatomy."

Although Racicot discovered the fossils along the California coast in 1990, and immediately recognized it as special, it wasn’t until medical CT scans taken years later that a new species was confirmed.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news...se-014.html#cr

[Alex Linder]

LIMA: Scientists have discovered a new species of lizard at a national park in Peru, experts said on Tuesday.

The new species, named Potamites erythrocularis, was located in the upper part of Manu National Park in Peru´s southeast Cusco region, the environmental ministry said.

The new species "differs from the others by having messy keeled scales on the back, undivided frontonasal scales, a red ring around the eye in males and absence of femoral pores in females," it said.

The research was led by scientists Alessandro Catenazzi and German Chavez and a team of biologists and rangers of the Manu National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The tropical forest in the lower tiers is home to an unrivaled variety of animal and plant species, according to the United Nations. (AFP)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-14...overed-in-Peru

[Alex Linder]

Two New Species Of Desert Poppy Found In California And Arizona



March 11, 2014

Who said that there is only sand in the deserts? Not quite desert roses, two new species of desert poppies from North America prove such statements wrong with their simple beauty. The newly described plants are found in the deserts of California and Arizona and have a vibrant yellow colored inflorescences, typical for all the desert dwellers from the Eschscholzia genus of the poppy family. The study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Most commonly known for the iconic California Poppy, the state flower of California, Eschscholzia is a genus in the poppy family Papaveraceae that previously held 12 species. The genus is native to the mainland and islands of western North America in both the United States and Mexico, but the type species, Eschscholzia californica, is commonly spread and has invaded Mediterranean regions around the world.

Shannon Still discovered the new species while studying Eschscholzia for his dissertation research at the University of California Davis. “What is interesting about these new species is that, while people have been collecting these plants for decades, they were not recognized as something different” Still said. “They were always confused for existing species. This confusion led to my study of the group, and ultimately, recognizing something new. I imagine there are many more desert plant species that are also understudied.”

The two new desert species E. androuxii and E. papastillii are found in desert washes, flats, and slopes growing in coarse and sandy soil across California deserts and parts of Arizona. Eschscholzia androuxii has a small range, is fairly uncommon and is suggested that it be listed as a rare plant species. The wide distribution of the other species, suggests there are no conservation threats at the moment.

Still acknowledges the resources that lay the foundation for his research. “My work would have been impossible without a strong system of specimen and data sharing from herbaria around the world, and especially in California. I used the herbarium specimens to compare with collections I had made from the field, to establish important characters used to identify the species, and to examine the species’ geographic ranges. This work highlights the value that herbarium collections play in cataloging, understanding and conserving our biological diversity.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science...o9GyKUk7SFC.99

[N.B. Forrest]

In NSW Australia:

Hidden in one of Australia's most developed and fastest growing areas lives one of the world's smallest freshwater crayfish species. Robert B McCormack the Team Leader for the Australian Crayfish Project described the new species belonging to the genus Gramastacus, after 8 years of research in the swamps and creeks of coastal New South Wales, Australia. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Being a small crayfish species it has remained undescribed and undiscovered in one of the fastest developing regions of Australia. Only one other species of Gramastacus crayfish is known and it occurs some 900 km away in the Grampians region of Victoria.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0408111723.htm

[Alex Linder]

Newly discovered species of beautiful snails may be going extinct

By Tanya Lewis and Live Science, Published: April 7



They look like ethereal little beings from another planet, but they’re are actually newly discovered species of snail. And unfortunately, some of them are already going extinct.

A team of biologists catalogued 31 species of the snail genus Plectostoma from Malaysia, Sumatra and Thailand, 10 of which were new to science. But the snails live on limestone hills mined by cement companies, which threaten to destroy the snails and their habitat along with them.
in D.C.

Dressed in shells of neon orange, lilac and crimson, the snails dazzle the eyes. “They flaunt all shell-coiling rules, by having very irregularly coiled and ornamented shells, making them look like microjewelry,” said study researcher Thor-Seng Liew of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. [Photos: Gorgeous Neon Malaysian Snails]

Liew and his colleagues imaged the shells using a micro-CT scanner, a device that produces 3-D X-rays of tiny objects.

The snails live only on limestone hills, which are rare in Southeast Asia, so each snail colony is isolated from the others. As a result, many of the species are endemic to a single hill.

This limited habitat means that when mining companies quarry the hills for cement, they can destroy entire species of snail. Plectostoma sciaphilum already went extinct when its hill was mined around 2003. At least six other snail species face similar threats; for instance, P. tenggekensis, one of the species found in the study, may be gone by the end of 2014, the researchers said.

To raise awareness about these exquisite invertebrates, the researchers named some of the new species after conservationists and politicians who have supported preservation of the hills these snails call home. (For example, Plectostoma whitteni was named after Tony Whitten, a former senior biodiversity specialist for the World Bank and the current regional director for Asia-Pacific Fauna & Flora International.)

All of the species were described last week in the journal ZooKeys.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...67d_story.html