A genetic study of giant tortoises on the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz reveals two different species and causes some head scratching amongst taxonomists...
Galapagos gets a new species of giant tortoise
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Queen's Birthday Honours 2016: the full list
COMPANION (AC) IN THE GENERAL DIVISION OF THE ORDER OF AUSTRALIA Advertisement Professor Brian David Anderson Red Hill, ACT. For eminent service to information and communications technology, to engineering and to higher education, as an academic, researcher and author, to professional scientific associations, and as a mentor of young scientists. Mr Anthony John Beddison Toorak, VIC. For eminent service to the community through leading roles with national and international charitable organisations, as an advocate for corporate social responsibility, philanthropy and business innovation, to children's health, and to business. Professor Richard Allan Bryant East Killara, NSW. For...
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Rebuild zoology courses in educational institutions: ZSI director
Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) Director Kailash Chandra, on Friday, urged the policymakers to rebuild zoology courses in educational institutions. Delivering a lecture on ‘Status of Fauna Diversity in India and Role of Zoological Survey of India’, organised by the Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH), Mysuru, as a part of its 21st foundation day, the director...
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Tourists beware: The 10 most dangerous animals in Australia
Australia has what you might call a bad reputation for its deadly animals. Some of the flack may be a fair call — after all, the country lost a beloved icon, conservationist and crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, to a stringray — but not all threats are created equal. See also: Few people have walked on Earth's newest island The Australian Museum in Sydney has a ranking of Australia's most dangerous animals based on the level of threat they pose, combined with how likely an unlucky punter is to encounter one in the wild. While many of the usual suspects are there, you might be surprised to find the humble honey bee features high up on the list. Martyn Robinson, a naturalist at the Australian...
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Agreement With Cuban Museum Paves Way for Deeper Collaboration and New Exhibition (American Museum of Natural History)
(Source: American Museum of Natural History) The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Cuban National Museum of Natural History (Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba, MNHN) will collaborate on research, exhibitions, and education as part of a formal Memorandum of Understanding signed in Havana on July 9. As the first initiative under the agreement, the American Museum of Natural History announced that this fall it will present a bilingual exhibition, ¡Cuba!, about the Caribbean island nation. The Museum facade from Central Park West. © AMNH/D. Finnin The agreement follows more than a century of scientific...
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In ‘retirement,’ three emeriti profs reap honors (University of California - Berkeley)
(Source: University of California - Berkeley) The UC Berkeley Emeriti Association has announced the winners of two annual awards, the UCBEA Distinguished Emeritus of the Year and the Dickson Emeriti Professorship. David Wake The association's 2016-17 'emeritus of the year' is David Wake, a professor emeritus of integrative biology and former director and curator of herpetology at the Museum of...
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Unique Sulawesi frog gives birth to tadpoles (University of California - Berkeley)
(Source: University of California - Berkeley) BERKELEY - UC Berkeley herpetologist Jim McGuire was slogging through the rain forests of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island one night this past summer when he grabbed what he thought was a male frog and found himself juggling not only a frog but also dozens of slippery, newborn tadpoles. He had found what he was looking for: direct proof that the female of a new species of frog does what no other frog does. It gives birth to live tadpoles instead of laying eggs. A member of the Asian group of fanged frogs, the new species was discovered a few decades ago by Indonesian researcher Djoko Iskandar, McGuire's colleague, and was thought to give direct birth...
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Florida Travel Tips & Deals
Check this list often as new tips, events and deals around Florida come in: New fitness offering at The Breakers Ocean Fitness will debut as The Breakers’ flagship fitness offering in early December. A 6,000 sq. ft., indoor/outdoor oceanfront fitness experience, situated in the resort’s Mediterranean-style Beach Club complex, it is complimentary to hotel guests. More than twice as large as the resort’s previous rendition within the Spa, Ocean Fitness will encompass 4,300 square feet of air-conditioned interior space, a 1,700 square foot oceanfront terrace featuring treadmills and classes for outdoor workouts, including spin classes, and 10 foot-tall windows showcasing...
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In Philippines, researcher rediscovers the long-lost Malatgan caecilian (KU - The University of Kansas)
(Source: KU - The University of Kansas) LAWRENCE - It's easy to mistake the reclusive amphibian called a caecilian for an earthworm. Both pass their lives mostly underground, squirming through dirt and mud with long, segmented bodies. But on closer inspection, the caecilian has eyes, mouth and teeth - a face. Although caecilians exist all over the world, a very rare species was discovered and first described by University of Kansas herpetologist Edward Taylor about 100 years ago on the Philippine island of Palawan. It was dubbed the Malatgan River caecilian. In recent decades, however, the Malatgan River caecilian had pulled a disappearing act. "We have been looking for this species...
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Origins of Vanuatu and Tonga's first people revealed » (The Australian National University)
(Source: The Australian National University) The origins of Vanuatu and Tonga's first inhabitants has been revealed in a surprise discovery made by ANU archaeologists in the first major study of ancient DNA (aDNA) from the Pacific Islands. The study, published in the scientific journal Nature, reveals Vanuatu's first people arrived 3,000 years ago from Taiwan and northern Philippines, and not from the neighbouring Australo-Papuan populations of Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands that had been in the region for between 40,000 and 50,000 years. Researcher Professor Matthew Spriggs said the discovery was confirmed...
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Cheating death: Papua New Guinea's snake man
In the grasslands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) they lurk - silent, lethal, deadly. The Papuan Taipan lies in wait, ready to pounce on unsuspecting villagers as they walk barefoot through the long grass. This danger zone is David Williams' workplace. Known in PNG as the "snake man", the Australian reptile handler-turned-scientist ventures where others fear to tread - literally. Every year, the Papuan Taipan kills up to 1,000 people in PNG, and in some parts of this South Pacific nation, there can be as many as 60 snakes per hectare. Those who live in remote villages far from medical help are especially vulnerable. "We could probably prevent 80 percent of all snake bites in this country, but the...
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Earliest colonizers of Vanuatu, Tonga came from Taiwan
Ancient DNA has revealed the first inhabitants of Vanuatu and Tonga came from Asia, not other Oceanic populations as has long been assumed, a study published yesterday found. The study sheds light on the last great human migration into unpopulated lands, when a people called the Lapita fanned out into...
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New gecko species gets ‘naked’ to avoid predators
A newly-discovered species of geckos have a unique method of escaping predators – the unusual creatures can not only detach their tail like other geckos but can also shed their scales in order to escape capture, according to research published Tuesday in the journal PeerJ. Identified as Geckolepis megalepis, the new species has fish-like scales that are larger than other members of its genus, the Los Angeles Times said, and while other geckos also have scales which can be removed, they lack the level of...
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New species of gecko found
A new species of the day gecko, a type of lizard usually found in warm climates, has been spotted at the ruins of the World Heritage Site of Hampi in Karnataka. The gecko has been named Cnemaspis adii after a young herpetology researcher from Hyderabad, Aditya Srinivasulu. The discovery of the gecko and its name were...
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Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference essay: Edward Osborne Wilson: The Real 'Ant Man'
People might associate "Ant Man" with Marvel's comics and films, but in fact, Edward Osborne Wilson is today's "Ant Man." He tracked the evolution of ants and wrote many books about his findings. His first Pulitzer Prize was for his book, On Human Nature, which is about the role of biology in the evolution of human culture. He also earned a second Pulitzer Prize with his other book, The Ants, which was co-written with Bert Holldobler and was where Wilson wrote about his boyhood interest with ants. E.O. Wilson was born in Birmingham, Ala.. Since his father was a government accountant, his family moved often, and because of how frequently they moved, Wilson never was able to have steady...
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Scientists find tree frog believed extinct for more than 100 years
The frog genus Frankixalus has been found in four northeast Indian states but could now be under threat due to human development...
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Scientists ID new genus of tree frogs long thought extinct
NEW DELHI (AP) — For more than a century, two mysterious tree frog specimens collected by a British naturalist in 1870 and housed at the Natural History Museum in London were assumed to be part of a vanished species, never again found in the wild. Until now. A group of scientists, led by renowned Indian biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju, has rediscovered the frogs and also identified them as part of a new genus — one step higher than a species on the taxonomic ranking. Not only have they found the frogs in abundance in northeast Indian jungles, they believe they could also be living across a wide swathe of Asia from China to Thailand. "This is an exciting find, but it doesn't mean the...
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Dr. Jim Mead’s Research Publications (Mammoth Site of Hot Springs Inc)
(Source: Mammoth Site of Hot Springs Inc) Peer-Reviewed Publications [* = senior or sole author] Published 2016 1)The vertebrate community on an ice-age Caribbean island. DW Steadman, NA Albury B Kakud, JIM, J A Soto-Centeno, HM Singleton and J Franklin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. doi/10.1073/pnas.1516490112. 2)Late Pleistocene (OIS 3) paleoenvironmental reconstruction for Térapa vertebrate site, northcentral Sonora, Mexico, based on stable isotopes and autecology of ostracodes. J Bright, CA Orem, JIM, and A Baez.. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geologicas 33:239-253. 2015 1) *Early Pleistocene (Blancan) helodermatid lizard from Arizona, USA. JIM, S Holte, RS White, and R...
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As doctors raced to save king cobra victim, 34 snakes removed from his home
As animal control workers catalogued and removed 34 snakes and dozens of other animals on Wednesday from the home of Ali Iyoob, who was bitten by his pet king cobra, reptile enthusiasts planned fundraisers to help with expected medical and legal bills. Reptile Rescue of the Carolinas posted a link to a GoFundMe page asking for contributions to defray some of the expected expenses. “If you know Ali Iyoob, a recent student of the biology department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, when you hear his name the first thing you think of is a passion for reptiles,” the GoFundMe page...
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Save snakes, say environmentalists on World Snake Day
As snake bites claim a number of human lives and at the same time countless snakes are killed in Odisha every year, conservationists on the occasion of World Snake Day have called for comprehensive strategy to prevent destruction of the reptile habitats. The Odisha government says as many as 302 persons, mostly in rural pockets, have died after being bit by snakes during 2015-16. Annually, on an average 300 persons lose lives to...
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