Chupacabra Science: How Evolution Made a Mythical Monster

Tales of a mysterious monster that sucks the blood of livestock have exploded inMexico, theU.S.Southwest, and evenChinasince the mid-1990s, when thechupacabra,orchupacabras,was first reported inPuerto Rico (map).

Now, just in time forHalloween, scientists say they can explain the stories with the help of evolutionary theory.

Flesh-and-blood chupacabras have allegedly been foundas recently as June—making the monsters eminently more accessible for study than, say, theLoch Ness monsteror Bigfoot. (See"Bigfoot Hoax: 'Body' Is Rubber Suit.")

In almost all these cases, the monsters have turned out to becoyotessuffering from very severe cases of mange, a painful, potentially fatal skin disease that can cause the animals' hair to fall out and skin to shrivel, among other symptoms. (Related:"'Balding' Bears: Mangy Mystery in Florida.")

For some scientists, this explanation for supposed chupacabras is sufficient."I don't think we need to look any further or to think that there's yet some other explanation for these observations,"saidBarry OConnor, a University of Michigan entomologist who has studiedSarcoptes scabiei,the parasite that causes mange.

Likewise, wildlife-disease specialistKevin Keelhas seen images of an alleged chupacabra corpse and clearly recognized it as a coyote, but said he could imagine how others might not.

"It still looks like a coyote, just a really sorry excuse for a coyote,"said Keel, of the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia.

"I wouldn't think it's a chupacabras if I saw it in the woods, but then I've been looking at coyotes and foxes with mange for a while. A layperson, however, might be confused as to its identity."

Chupacabra Evolution

Sarcoptes scabieialso causes the itchy rash known as scabies in humans. In humans and nonhuman animals alike, the mite burrows under the skin of its host and secretes eggs and waste material, which trigger an inflammatory response from the immune system.

In humans, scabies—the allergic reaction to the mites' waste—is usually just a minor annoyance. But mange can be life threatening for canines such as coyotes, which haven't evolved especially effective reactions toSarcoptesinfection.

The University of Michigan's OConnor speculates that the mite passed from humans todomestic dogs, and then on to coyotes,foxes, andwolvesin the wild.

His research suggests that the reason for the dramatically different responses is that humans and other primates have lived with theSarcoptesmite for much of their evolutionary history, while other animals have not.

"Primates are the original hosts"of the mite, OConnor said."Our evolutionary history with the mites help us to keep {scabies} in check so that it doesn't get out of hand like it does when it gets into {other} animals."

In other words, humans have evolved to the point where our immune systems can neutralize the infection before the infection neutralizes us. (Related:"Future Humans: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve.")

The mites too have been evolving, suggested the University of Georgia's Keel. The parasite has had time to optimize its attack on humans so as not to kill us, which would eliminate our usefulness to the mites, he said.

In nonhuman animals,Sarcopteshasn't figured out that balance yet. In coyotes, for example, the reaction can be so severe that it causes hair to fall out and blood vessels to constrict, adding to a general fatigue and even exhaustion.

"Goatsucker"Explained?

Since chupacabras are likely mangy coyotes, this explains why the creatures are often reported attacking livestock.

"Animals with mange are often quite debilitated,"OConnor said."And if they're having a hard time catching their normal prey, they might choose livestock, because it's easier."

As for the blood-sucking part of the chupacabra legend, that may just be make believe or exaggeration.

"I think that's pure myth,"OConnor said.

(Related:"Vampire Moth Discovered—Evolution at Work.")

"Evolution"of a Legend

Loren Coleman, director of theInternational Cryptozoology Museumin Portland, Maine, agreed that many chupacabra sightings—especially the more recent ones—could be explained away as appearances by mangy coyotes, dogs, and coyote-dog hybrids, or coydogs.

"It's certainly a good explanation,"Coleman said,"but it doesn't mean it explains the whole legend."

For example, the more than 200 original chupacabra reports from Puerto Rico in 1995 described a decidedly uncanine creature.

"In 1995 chupacabras was understood to be a bipedal creature that was three feet {about a meter} tall and covered in short gray hair, with spikes out of its back,"Coleman said.

But, as if in a game of telephone, the description of the chupacabra began to change in the late 1990s due to mistakes and mistranslations in news reports, he said.

By 2000 the original chupacabra had been largely replaced by the new, canine one. What was seen as a bipedal creature now stalks livestock on all fours.

"It was actually a big mistake,"Coleman said.

"Because of the whole confusion—with most of the media reporting chupacabras now as dogs or coyotes with mange—you really don't even hear any good reports from Puerto Rico or Brazil anymore like you did in the early days. Those reports have disappeared and the reports of canids with mange have increased."

First Chupacabras: Monkeys or Movie Madness?

So what explains the original chupacabra myth?

One possibility, Coleman said, is that people imagined things after watching or hearing about an alien-horror film that opened in Puerto Rico in the summer of 1995.

"If you look at the date when the movieSpeciesopened in Puerto Rico, you will see that it overlaps with the first explosion of reports there,"he said.

"Then compare the images of {actor}Natasha Henstridge's creature character, Sil {picture}, and you will see the unmistakable spikes out the back that match those of the first images of the chupacabras in 1995."

Another theory is that the Puerto Rico creatures were an escaped troop ofrhesus monkeyson the island, which often stand up on their hind legs.

"There was a population of rhesus monkeys being used in blood experiments in Puerto Rico at the time, and that troop could have got loose,"Coleman said.

"It could be something that simple, or it could be something much more interesting, because we know thatnew animals are being discovered all the time."

MORE HALLOWEEN FACTS, PHOTOS, VIDEO, AND TIPS

Green Halloween

•A Green Halloween: Costumes, Candy, Pumpkins and More

•Safe Halloween Costumes and Makeup

•"Fair Trade"Halloween Candy

Halloween Discoveries

•Vampire Moth Discovered—Evolution at Work (With Video)

•"Zombie Virus"Possible via Rabies-Flu Hybrid?

•African Spider Craves Human Blood, Scientists Find

•Halloween Shines Light on Witchcraft Today

•Ritual Cat Sacrifices a Halloween Myth, Experts Say

•Giant Pumpkins"Go Heavy"This Halloween

Halloween Interactives

•Salem Witch Trials: Confess!

•Quiz: Halloween, Harvests, and Honoring the Dead

•Quiz: Real-Life"Monsters"

Halloween Pictures

•Pictures: Animal Mummies (National GeographicMagazine)

•Animal"Zombies": Nature's"Walking Dead"in Pictures

•Pictures: Crypts and Catacombs

•Pictures: Eerie Animals

•Pictures: Dogs in Halloween Costumes

•Pictures: Creepy Animals for Halloween

•Transylvania Pictures

Halloween: For Kids Only!

•Halloween Quiz Game

•Kids' Green Halloween Ideas

forNational Geographic News

Source

New Amazon Species:"Bluetooth" Tarantula, Electric Fish

The poison dart frogRanitomeya amazonicais one of more than 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates discovered in the Amazonrain forestbetween 1999 and 2009, the international conservation groupWWFannounced Tuesday in anew reporthighlighting the region's biodiversity.

At least 17 percent of the Amazon has been cleared to make room for cattle or crops that are grown for animal feed andbiofuels, WWF says. The wildlife group is calling for greater species protection in the face of increasing development pressure. (Related:"Ethanol Production Could Be Eco-Disaster, Brazil's Critics Say.")

R. amazonica,which sports a burst of"flame"on its head and water-patterned legs, was discovered in 1999 in moist lowland forests. The new species' primary threats include land clearing and collection for the wildlife trade, WWF reports. (See"Farming the Amazon.")

—John Roach

Source

New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered, Eaten

A new monkey species inMyanmaris so snub-nosed that rainfall is said to makes it sneeze—but that's apparently the least of problems.

The only scientifically observed specimen (pictured above) had been killed by local hunters the time researchers found it—and was eaten soon after. But local demand for monkey meat is only one reason the new species is already considered endangered.

(Also see"'Extinct' Bird Seen, Eaten.")

Scientists first learned of"Snubby"—as they nicknamed the species—from hunters in the remote, mountainous Kachin state (map) in early 2010, according to the U.K.-based conservation groupFlora& Fauna International(FFI), which announced the discovery Wednesday.

The hunters told the team ofR. strykeri's fleshy lips, upturned nose, and odd respiratory issue: Rain falling into the monkeys' noses possibly causes the animals to sneeze, so they often spend soggy days with their heads tucked between their knees, the hunters said.

"We were surveying during the rainy season, and we were asking, 'Does it make sense to survey these monkeys in the rainy season?'"said Frank Momberg, FFI's Asia-Pacific development director. The hunters said,"'Of course! It's much easier to find them'"due to the sound, he added.

"Hunters hunt them more often in the rainy season, because they are much easier to locate—normally they're pretty quiet."

Eventually other members of the team did find live snub-nosed monkeys, but the creatures escaped before pictures could be taken, Momberg said. (FFI has, though, released aphoto composite of the deadR. strykeri's face on the torso of a live monkey of a different species {link to BBC News}.)

Other snub-nosed monkey species are known fromChinaandVietnam, butR. strykeriis the first known species in Myanmar (Burma). Ranging across about a hundred square miles (270 square kilometers), the new species is also distinguished by its wispy white beard and ear tufts as well as its relatively long tail, according to FFI.

(Related:"Ultrarare Shark Found, Eaten.")

New Snub-Nosed Monkey Already Endangered

Generally preferring bear meat, the local hunters don't usually target the snub-nosed monkey, Momberg said. But"when a hunter comes across a monkey and there's nothing more delicious, he will shoot it."

(Related:"Lemurs Hunted, Eaten Amid Civil Unrest, Group Says.")

The bush-meat trade is just one of the pressures facingR. strykeri.

Chinese logging companies, for example, are encroaching on the new snub-nosed monkey's habitat, FFI says. And with logging comes more than habitat destruction.

As trees are extracted, so are the roots that anchor soil to steep mountains, leading to increased landslide risks. And as logging camps proliferate, so do guns, traps, and demand for bush meat.

Based on talks with the Lisu hunters, scientists estimate that only about 300 of these monkeys remain—few enough to qualifyR. strykerifor"critically endangered"status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature'sRed List of Threatened Species, FFI says.

But if the new species' noisy sneeze gives them away to hunters—and presumably other predators—why didR. strykerievolve its odd face? To find out, Momberg said,"we would need to habituate a group of these monkeys {to humans} and then observe them in the wild. That would take at least a year."

Thestudy of the new species of snub-nosed monkeyappears in the October issue of theAmerican Journal of Primatology.

forNational Geographic News

Source

Ocean Pictures: Contest Winners Show Sea Life in Peril

A diver frees one of 17sea turtlesdrowned by a discarded fishing net off the Brazilian coast in the winning shot ofMarine Photobank's 2010Ocean in FocusConservation Photo Contest.

Marine Photobank's mission is to advanceoceanconservation by providing free, high-quality marine pictures to media and noncommercial outlets. For this photo contest, Marine Photobank was looking for powerful images that"illuminate the many threats facing our ocean."(The National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News, donated prizes for the contest winners.)

"Turtles are in serious trouble,"commented marine ecologist andNational Geographic explorer-in-residence Sylvia Earle."Their numbers are even more depressed than {other} ocean wildlife. Maybe 5 percent of some species remain."(Take anocean-issues quiz.)

"The good news is the ocean is large and resilient. The bad news is that there's a limit to resilience,"Earle added."We see 90 percent of many of the big fish gone, 40 percent of the plankton gone, half the coral reefs gone or in a state of serious degradation, {and now} hundreds of dead zones. All this is serious, bad news.

"The good news is that there's still plenty of reason for hope. The ocean is not dead. We still have 10 percent of many of the species that are in sharp decline. ... We still have a chance, but we have to hurry."

—Sean Markey

Source

Gulf Manta Rays Affected by Oil Spill?

SPECIAL SERIES | DEEP IMPACT
Deciphering the unseen, underwater effects of the Gulf oil spill.

The Gulf of Mexico's mysterious manta rays could face invisible and long-lasting threats from theBP oil spill, experts say.

In the weeks after the April 20 disaster, aerial photos and reports from boaters placed at least some mantas in the thick of the surface spill. But it's the oil's unseen impacts, deep underwater, may be even more troubling, especially as preliminary studies suggestthe spill isn't going away.

(Related:"Whale Sharks Killed, Displaced by Gulf Oil?")

Mantas are filter feeders that reach huge sizes in part by taking in seawater and ejecting it through their gills, retaining plankton or other tiny creatures, according to Rachel Graham, lead shark scientist with theWildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program.

"Gill filaments, which enable mantas to extract oxygen from the water, are very vulnerable to any kind of toxin or oil coverage,"Graham said."If they are covered, they will likely die."

What's more, there's so little known about Gulf mantas that scientists aren't sure if the 20-foot-wide (6-meter-wide)fishbelong to one of two known manta species—or if the Gulf mantas are their own species altogether.

Oil and Mantas Don't Mix

After burning and sinking last April, the damagedDeepwater Horizonwellhead released nearly five million barrels of oil into the northernGulf of Mexico (map). Each barrel equals 42 gallons, or 159 liters, of oil.

The oil could affect the"ways mantas live their day-to-day lives for years,"said marine biologist Andrea Marshall of theMozambique-basedFoundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna."It won't clear up over a few months."

For instance,oil—and dispersants used to break it up—might hurt the rays' plankton food sources, as well as the"cleaning stations"where mantas go to have their parasites eaten by smaller fish.

Oil could also disrupt mantas' migrations throughout the Gulf, or even their reproduction—no one knows where the animals give birth, according to Mexican marine biologist Silvia Hinojosa Alvarez of theMexican Caribbean Manta Project.

"The main problem is that we know {very little} about their biology,"Alvarez said."So how can we predict with accuracy what will happen?"

(Related picture:"First Giant Manta Ray Born in Captivity Dies.")

Complicating matters is the Gulf's role as a manta hot spot.

Fortunately, well-known Gulf manta haunts such asFlower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuarywere not in the direct path of the oil, said the Wildlife Conservation Society's Graham.

However,"we have this huge threat of a deepwater oil spill, but {we} don't know any population sizes, and we have no baseline,"she added."So it's very difficult to estimate the impact of something like this."

(See relatedpictures:"Giant Rays' 'Feeding Frenzy' Spots Protected.")

In addition, scientists believe that mantas are likely found throughout the Gulf."So while those at the Flower Gardens may not be directly impacted, they may also move into areas affected by the spill,"said Tim Clark, a marine ecologist with the National Park of American Samoa.

Gulf Mantas: Hybrids or Unique Species?

In 2008 the megafauna foundation's Marshalldiscovered that the manta ray is actually two separate species, and her work left the door open for the existence of a third species.

According to Marshall's work, the smaller, more familiar manta species,Mantaalfredi, tends to stay near coasts as a year-round coral reef resident with a small home range.

The larger species, Manta birostriscan top 4,400 pounds (2,000 kilograms) and tends to wander widely on deep-ocean migrations through a variety of marine habitats.

Scientists in the Gulf have been studying the region's mantas—informally called Yucatán mantas—to see where thesestingraycousins fit on the family tree.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's Graham has studied Gulf mantas closely and conductedacoustic tagging researchat Flower Garden. She said Gulf mantas share physical and behavioral elements of both confirmed species, including varied sizes, mixed markings, and colors. Also, the Gulf mantas' travel habits lie somewhere between the two extremes.

"It's almost like they are a hybrid,"Graham said."Interestingly, at Flower Garden Banks, {Gulf mantas} tend to be really small, while in the southern Gulf, the ones I recently tagged are really big,birostris-sized animals.

(See the satellite tracking online.)

“What I’ve seen from tags is that they seem to be spending a fair amount of time in the southern Gulf aggregation area but occasionally move over 56 miles {90 kilometers} before returning to the aggregation site. Why? {That’s} another mystery to uncover.”

After diving with Gulf mantas recently, Marshall, who first indentified the two known manta species, said she thinks that they may represent a third species but might also be hybrids or evenM. birostriswith regional color variations.

At this stage there is"tempting evidence"for each of these hypotheses, she said.

Gulf Manta Gene Study Underway

The Mexican manta project's Alvarez and colleagues are also unsure what to make of the Gulf animals.

"When we saw all the differences between them, {including} color patterns, presence or absence of {tail} spines, behavior, habitat, {and} skin, we could not classify our Yucatán mantas"as either known manta species, Alvarez said.

"Our Yucatán mantas shared morphological {structural} characteristics with {each of} the two mantas previously {described} by Dr. Marshall."

(Read about manta rays inNational Geographicmagazine.)

American Samoa's Clark did some early genetic work on manta species nearly a decade ago and suspected that the animals in the Gulf could be a new species.

"The Gulf mantas are genetically distinct,"he said."IfM. alfrediandM. birostrisare {separate} species—which Andrea {Marshall's} morphological work shows is true—then there is strong genetic support for a third species in the Gulf of Mexico."

Alvarez and colleagues have also begun a genetic study of the Gulf species, though there are no results yet, she said.

"The main thing, and what is important, is that scientific knowledge of this species is poor and needs to be supported so {we} can continue research with this species.

"We are working in a marine protected area, and as scientists {we} need to know what kind of mantas we have in the area."(Seepictures of U.S. marine protected areas.)

Manta Research May Boost Protection

Classifying the new manta species could also aid efforts to protect the fish by revealing more about how they use the Gulf and its resources, scientists say.

To this end, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Graham is working with the National Marine Sanctuary's Emma Hickerson on programs such as the Flower Garden Banks'Manta Catalog.

The site has solicited photos from divers, boaters, scientists, and others who have spotted animals on the site—and already identified more than 70 individual Gulf mantas.

"One of the things that we've found in the photo catalog—which is also supported by the acoustic tag work—is that a lot of mantas certainly ... {stick} to these coral-covered salt domes and seamounts on the edge of the continental shelf,"Graham said.

(Relatedpictures:"Undersea Mountain Photos: Brittlestar Swarm, More Found.")

"Are these mantas staying in this particular area for their entire lifetime, or are they moving away, possibly to the southern Gulf and then returning to the northern Gulf banks?”

Solving such mysteries will shed light on where and how the animals live and how best to protect them.

Graham believes that's an obvious goal for anyone who has ever encountered the graceful giants close-up.

"A manta will interact with you,"she said."They are unbelievably smart animals—they have the largest brain-size-per-weight ratio of all the sharks and rays."(Seestingray pictures.)

"When you are swimming alongside one and look into its eyes, you can see that they are very cognizant."

forNational Geographic News

Source

Fuzzy Critters'Crystallized Pee Changes Climate Record?

A guinea-pig-like mammal's prehistoric urine may be one of the best tools for understandingclimatechange in arid regions, scientists announced Tuesday. Already, analysis of crystallized rock hyrax pee appears to contradict some results of current climate models.

Looking like a rodent but more closely related to elephants and manatees, the roughly rabbit-size rock hyrax has, for tens of thousands of years, lived in colonies of up to about 50 individuals in sub-SaharanAfricaand the Middle East (regional map).

The animals use communal"toilets"called middens, where rock hyrax waste slowly crystallizes into a layered, amber-esque, smelly substance.

Like amber, the middens can contain valuable evidence—in this case, traces of how much grass the animals were eating and isotopes indicating how dry that grass was. (Related:"Spider's Blood Found in Amber May Hold Prehistoric Secrets.")

As a result, some middens are essentially unbroken, 28,000-year-old records of changes in regional vegetation, said study leaderBrian Chaseof the Institute of Science and Evolution at the University of Montpellier 2 in France.

The ancient waste is especially prized because evidence of ancient climate change is hard to come by in arid regions—including southern Africa, where the team's recent research took place.

Clues to prehistoric climate often come from sediment layers in lakes or peat bogs, noted team memberMike Meadows. But in dry regions,"we don't have many lakes, we don't have many boggy areas,"added Meadlows, a physical geographer at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

(Also see"Urine Vision? How Rodents Communicate With UV Light.")

Ancient Urine Suggests Old Climate Model All Wet?

The hyrax pee is important for understanding the climate of not just southern Africa but perhaps the world, the study team says.

For example, current climate models suggest that, as the Northern Hemisphere became drier about 5,500 years ago, the Southern Hemisphere got wetter. But traces in the hyrax-urine samples suggest that the southern part of Africa also dried out during this period, according to apaper by the team published in the July 2010 issue ofQuaternary Research.

"If the model can't simulate the past. ... how much trust do we have in its ability to predict the future?"study leader Chase said.

To help answer that question, Chase, also an accomplished rock climber, has been collecting hyrax urine since 2006 and is in the middle of a five-year project to collect more—not an easy process. The urine-rich middens, which need to be chipped off with power tools, are in caves and under rock ledges.

And then there's the smell:"It's not too unpleasant, but it's not all that nice,"the University of Cape Town's Meadows said."It does smell like pee. ... You kind of get used to it."

More:"Giant Bird Poop Provides Glimpse of Pre-Human New Zealand Landscape">>

forNational Geographic News

Source

Giant Pterosaurs Could Fly 10,000 Miles Nonstop

Largepterosaursmay have been the frequent-flier champions of the dinosaur age, capable of soaring up to 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) at a stretch, scientists say (explore aprehistoric time line).

Currently paleontologists know of four species of giant pterosaur, some of which were as tall asgiraffesand had wingspans of more than 30 feet (10 meters).

The huge animals likely relied on updrafts of warm air and wind currents to achieve their record distances, said study co-author Michael Habib, a paleontologist atChatham Universityin Pittsburgh.

"They probably only flapped for a few minutes at a time ... and then their muscles had to recover,"he said."In between, they're going to use unpowered flight"and glide. (Related:"Toothy Texas Pterosaur Discovered; Soared Over Dallas.")

Even so, the winged reptiles would have needed to burn about 160 pounds (72 kilograms) worth of fat reserves per trip, Habib said.

"They're basically burning off the equivalent of a good-size human on each trip."

Bulky Pterosaurs Launched From All Fours

The new flight distance estimate for pterosaurs is based on the latest models of the ancient animals' wingspans, wing shapes, body masses, and fat capacities.

"The tricky part was deciding how much fuel they can carry,"Habib said. For example,"migrating birds lose about 50 percent of their body weight during long migrations."

But the needs of pterosaurs may have been different, because their anatomy suggests they flew differently than modern-day birds. (Take ananimal-migrations quiz.)

For instance, scientists had previouslyused the largest living bird, the wandering albatross, to model pterosaur flight. But"we don't expect {pterosaurs} to have the same flapping frequency as an albatross, nor do we expect that they soared the same way as an albatross,"Habib said.

The 10,000-mile flight estimate may even be a little conservative, said Habib, who presented his work this week at the annualSociety for Vertebrate Paleontologymeeting in Pittsburgh.

"The lowest range estimates were about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers), while the highest were around 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers),"he said."In the middle range, where all the numbers lined up and I had high confidence, you get about 10,000 miles."

The findings would seem to contradict past studies that suggested large pterosaurs had problems just getting off the ground due to their massive sizes.

For example,Quetzalcoatlus northropi,a giant pterosaur that lived in what is now Texas 70 million years ago, is thought to be the largest flying creature that ever lived, weighing more than 400 pounds (200 kilograms). (See apicture of whatQuetzalcoatlusmight have looked like.)

Some scientists speculate this hefty species couldn't take off from the ground as birds do, but had to drop from trees or cliffs to take to the skies.

Instead, Habib and colleagues think that—like some modern bats—large pterosaurs may have used all four limbs to launch themselves into the airbefore flapping their wings.

"I'm pretty confident that pterosaurs didn't take off anything like a bird,"Habib said.

Giant Pterosaurs Were Global"Superspecies"?

Overall, the new research"makes all of us think more about how {pterosaurs} might have functioned,"saidAlexander Kellner, a pterosaur expert at Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. But Kellner has some doubts about the results.

That's because there are several things scientists still don't know about pterosaur body structure that could affect flight distance calculations, he said. One particularly well-preserved Chinese pterosaur fossil, for example, haswing membranes made up of multiple layers of structural fibers unlike anything found in a living animal.

"We are not sure what the composition of those {fibers} is, but we can say that they have a tremendous influence in the flight of those creatures,"Kellner said in an email.

If Habib's calculations are correct, the results raise the possibility that large pterosaurs could crisscross entire continents or even fly between continents on a fairly regular basis. Unlike most species, which tend to be native to specific geographic regions, the dino-era fliers may have been well-traveled"superspecies"that called the entire globe their home.

"If {giant pterosaurs} could fly very far, that might change how scientists think about their distribution,"Habib said.

forNational Geographic News

Source

Pictures: Best Micro-Photos of 2010

It's a good thing we don't yet have Smell-o-Vision: A sulfur compound has the starring role in this winning picture from the 2010 Small World Microphotography Competition, whose top images were announced Wednesday.

To make the image, John Hart of the University of Colorado, Boulder, melted together sulfur (picture) and acetanilide, a toxic substance once used as an antiseptic. The mixture then formed crystals, seen here magnified ten times under specially polarized light.

Sponsored by Nikon, the annual contest showcases"the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope."

Source

Surprising Ant"Mixing Bowl" Found in Manhattan

An unexpected cast of characters has found a home on Broadway: At least 13 species ofantsmingle along the famous thoroughfare and other Manhattan streets, a new study says.

Thisinsectdiversity surprised scientists, who discovered the many ants living on street medians inNew York City, the United States' largest metropolis.

Just like human New Yorkers, the ants are a jumble of personalities, from the tiny thief ant—which, as the name suggests, feeds its colonies with stolen food—to the street-smart pavement ant, a fiercely territorial insect that nests under cement. (Seeant pictures inNational Geographicmagazine.)

Though most of the species are native to North America, the team also found a few foreign species living peacefully among the locals, likely having hitched a ride to the Big Apple in soil from potted plants or wood mulch.

For instance, the poisonous Asian needle ant had never before been found north ofVirginia. (Also see"Brain-Controlling Flies to Triumph Over Alien Ants?")

Not all alien species are detrimental to native species."Quite the opposite,"study leader Marko Pećarević, aColumbia Universityecologist, said in an email."Given enough time—centuries or millennia—they tend to complement the native richness.

"The problem is that one in a hundred will be an invasive, and cause great damage to the environment, usually by altering habitats and/or directly killing other species,"he added.

Despite this rich diversity, for ants Manhattan is more a mixing bowl than a melting pot, the study authors noted.

"While we humans all belong to the same species and hence can reproduce and 'melt' our ancestral differences into a beautiful amalgam that is New York, the ants that make up the diversity found on the medians in NYC are truly different species and cannot reproduce, but merely mix and coexist,"  Pećarević said.

(Related:"Ants Practice Nepotism, Study Finds.")

Ants Adapting to City Life

In the summer of 2006, Pećarević and colleagues trapped ants on 44 medians along Broadway, Park Avenue, and the West Side Highway on Manhattan Island. (Seepictures of what Manhattan may have looked like in 1609.)

All the medians supported some type of vegetation, from the well-manicured lawns of Park Avenue to the tree-lined patches on Broadway, he said by email.

Since past studies of urban wildlife have focused mostly on areas that more closely mimic nature, such as gardens, observing medians or other built elements could reveal unknown animal habitats, the study said.

Predictably, the larger medians host more species, he said. Some species, such as the pavement ant, prefer medians with more concrete.

Others, such as the AsianNylanderia flavipes, like areas with more trees, according to the study, which appeared October 5 in the journalPLoS One.

Still other ants live underground, including the cornfield ant, which"herds"aphids like people care for cattle.

Future studies that collect ants from trees may reveal additional species in New York City, for a total of about 30, Pećarević predicted.

Eric Lonsdorf, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, said he was surprised by how many species were discovered in such small strips of land.

Lonsdorf was also intrigued by the idea of ants adapting to life in the city. For instance, past research has shown that odorous house ants living in cities set up larger colonies with multiple queens, according to the study.

Seeing"urban as a particular kind of habitat for animals, rather than universally unsuitable, is a shift in thinking,"Lonsdorf added.

City Critters Poorly Understood

The new research is a reminder that the pockets of nature urbanites encounter each day remain poorly understood—even as more people move into New York and other cities, the study says.

Indeed, finding such an assortment of ants in a city of eight million humans is"more evidence that we know little about how animals perceive urban areas as habitat,"Lonsdorf said.

According to study leader Pećarević, urban wildlife does a"lot of work that makes life more pleasant for us, such as waste removal, seed dispersal, {and} pollination of flowers, to mention but a few."

So the next time you're downtown,"take a few minutes to sit on a bench and look at ants go about their business,"he suggested.

"There is a whole new world to discover out there."

National Geographic News

Source

T. Rex Was a Cannibal, Bone Gashes Suggest

The formidableTyrannosaurus rexlikely had nothing to fear—except possibly its own kind, a new study suggests.

PaleontologistNick Longrichof Yale University was examining dinosaur bones found inMontanawhen he noticed large gouges in bones that had yet to be indentifiied.

The gouges had to have been made by a large carnivore, he said, and when the mystery fossils were deposited 65 million years ago,T. rexwas the only North American carnivore large and toothy enough to make such marks.

But the seemingly routine find took a macabre turn when Longrich discovered one of thebitten bones belonged to aT. rex—making it apparent evidence of cannibalism.

This toe bone"has giant theropod bite marks, and the only one there {at that time} wasT. rex,"he said."There was really no other conclusion I could come to."(Related:"TinyT. rexAncestors Achieved World Domination.")

Further analysis in several fossil collections turned up three more similarly bittenT. rexbones.

Longrich and colleagues speculate the giant predators may have engaged in cannibalism with some regularity—but it's unknown whether the dinosaurs fought to the death or simply scavengedT. rexcorpses.

T. RexCannibalism Would Mirror Modern Reptiles

Many modern predators, including distant dinosaur relatives such askomodo dragonsandcrocodiles, are known for cannibalistic behavior—particularly of their young.

Although the practice hasn't been well documented among dinosaurs, scientists do thinkMajungatholus atopus,a 30-foot-long (9-meter-long) theropod,dined on its kin on the island of Madagascar 65 million years ago.

Hans-Dieter Sues, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., isn't at all surprised byT. rex's taste for its own flesh and blood.

"Meat-eaters of all kinds feed on dead animals, which, after all, are just meat lying around for the taking,"said Sues, who was not involved in the study.

"Even pigs, which are omnivores, eat other dead pigs. There is nothing remarkable about this at all."

EatenT. RexWas Dinosaur Leftovers?

There's one clue as to whether the eatenT. rexwas killed or scavenged, Longrich noted: The cannibalistic bite marks appear to have been made some time after death.

(See"'Mighty'T. rexMostly Picked Off Youngsters?")

"It's kind of like the turkey on the fifth day after Thanksgiving—you're trying to get the last bits of meat off it,"he said."For the toes to be of interest, the carcass must have been pretty much picked clean."

But that evidence alone doesn't meanT. rexwas simply a scavenger, added Longrich, whose study appears online October 15 in the journalPLoS ONE.

"I wouldn't rule out the possibility of some sort of intraspecies combat going on,"he said.

"We see that today when animals like bears and lions take each other out. They are competing with one another, and the best way to get rid of your competitor is to get rid of him for good."

forNational Geographic News

Source

New Deep-Sea Pictures: Snailfish, Eels Found in Trench

It's no apparition—this new species of ghostly white snailfish was photographed swimming at depths of 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) during a recent expedition to thePeru-Chile trench (see map)in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.

The deepest dwelling vertebrates on Earth, snailfish have been discovered inoceantrenches in other parts of the Pacific.The deepest known fish, found at 4.8 miles (7.7 kilometers), are snailfish filmed in the Japan trench in 2008.

"The tantalizing thing is we've got a very clear photo of the species,"saidMonty Priede, director of Oceanlab at Scotland's University of Aberdeen, which co-sponsored the expedition."No one has ever seen this before, and it's never been captured before."

Living so far underwater, the newfound, 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) snailfish can withstand pressures equal to 1,600 elephants standing on the roof of a Mini Cooper, according to Oceanlab.

"If you saw that fish in the aquarium you wouldn't say, Wow that's weird,"Priede said."But at a molecular level, in the details of its biochemistry, it is highly adapted in order to survive the high pressure."

—Christine Dell'Amore

Source

Photos: Canadian Rain Forest Edges Oil Pipeline Path

Canada's pristine western coastline could be endangered by a plan to build a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the coast in order to export oil overseas, say environmental activists and native people who rely on these waters.

Oil company Enbridge plans to link the oil sands of Athabasca, in central Alberta, to the port town of Kitimat in British Columbia, with a new pipeline that would carry 525,000 barrels of oil to the coast per day.

There's just one problem: the pipeline would pass through watersheds important to Canada's commercial fishing industry and brush past Coastal First Nations lands and the Great Bear Rainforest, a protected coastal area filled with red cedars, spruce, and the elusive all-white"spirit bear."

While the Northern Gateway pipeline itself wouldn't pass through the 4.4-million-square-mile Great Bear Rainforest, activists say it's a little too close for comfort. The International League of Conservation Photographers recently performed a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) in the area, sending a dozen photographers to the rain forest to document the ecosystem they believe is at risk. A pipeline means more tankers, and because the Kitimat terminal is separated from the open ocean by more than one hundred miles of channels and fjords, the photographers argue that a tanker spill would imperil the local environment."These are highly treacherous waters, with tremendous currents,"said Cristina Mittermeier, ILCP president.

(Related:Oil reserves put Canada's Great Bear Rainforest under the lens)

The danger is not just to plants and wildlife: The lifestyle of the First Nations people living in and around the rain forest, such as these Gitga'at fishermen gathering crab in a photo from the Great Bear RAVE, would be at risk."One major oil spill on the coast of British Columbia would wipe us out,"Coastal First Nations director Gerald Amos said in a statement.

–Rachel Kaufman

Source

Pictures:"Scruffy" New Carnivorous Mammal Found

Revealed Monday, the first new species of meat-eating mammal to be discovered in 24 years bears its teeth for the cameras in a recent picture.

First spotted swimming inMadagascar's Lac Alaotra in 2004, the cat-size creature resembles a"scruffy ferret"ormongoose, said John Fa, a director of conservation science at the U.K.'sDurrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, who was part of the discovery team.

"We biologists are a bit like children,"Fa said."We like new things. So a new species is something that really excites us."

Dubbed Durrell's vontsira in honor of the late conservationist Gerald Durrell, the new carnivore is an especially rare find:"The probability of finding a new herbivore"—or plant-eater—"is always greater, because there're more of them,"Fa said."Carnivores are much more specialized and usually found in low densities."

(See apicture of the Cypriot mouse, the first new mammal species to be discovered in Europe in more than a century.)

—Ker Than

Described in the September issue of the journalSystematics and Biodiversity, Durrell's vontsira was discovered by researchers from the Durrell trust, the Natural History Museum in London, Nature Heritage in Jersey, and Conservation International.

Source

New Species Photos: Vader-like Jelly, Whale Eater, More

Covered in neat rows of tiny hairs, this snail from a submarinevolcanodeep offJapanis the only known specimen of its species.

Shown in an undated picture, the animal—as yet unnamed—is among the many likely new species announced upon the conclusion of theCensus of Marine Life.

(See"Six-hundred-year-Old Worms Among Surprises of Ten-year Sea Survey.")

Prior to its final report, released Monday, the decade-long, globe-spanning inventory of ocean life, had already announced the discovery of roughly 6,000 new species.

The new marine snail, of theAlvinoconchagenus, was collected from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, a realm of extreme pressure, high temperatures, and eternal darkness. At least part of the animal's diet is obtained via symbiotic microbes living inside its gills.

(See another swimming snail found during Census of Marine Life expeditions.)

—Helen Scales

Source

Pictures: Five-Foot Fossil Penguin Revealed

The 36-million-year-old giant penguin speciesInkayacu paracasensisstood nearly as tall as a man and sported shades of red and gray (pictured in an artist's reconstruction), scientists announced Thursday.Read the full story>>

Source

Trampling Skews Artifact Dates by Thousands of Years?

Around the world, the hooves ofwater buffaloes, goats, and other large animals may have propelled countless Stone Age artifacts back in time, at least as far as archaeologists are concerned.

In wet areas, wild or domestic animals' heavy footfalls can push stone artifacts deep into the ground, making them seem older than they really are—in some cases, thousands of years older—according to a new study.

Scientists often date artifacts of the Stone Age, which began about two and a half million years ago, based on the depths at which the items are found: The deeper the object, the older it is, generally speaking.

There are other methods to date artifacts, but many rely on elements not found in stone—such as carbon.

"We can only do carbon dating on organic material that is associated with the stones,"said study author Metin Eren, an archaeologist atSouthern Methodist Universityin Dallas, Texas.

So if a stone artifact is next to a twig, for example, Eren said,"we'll date the twig and just assume that the artifact is also that age."

But in the new study, published in theJournal of Archaeological Science,Eren and his team show at least one way this method can lead to false ages for artifacts.

Mud Makes Data Go Soft

Archaeologists have long known that animal trampling can reorient artifacts—sometimes long after humas have left a site—and several trampling experiments have been performed on dry ground.

The new study, though, is the first to investigate the effects of trampling on water-saturated ground, such as near a water source—where a disproportionate number of human settlements happen to be found.

In an experiment, Eren, a master flint knapper, made replicas of early Stone Age tools, which he and his team scattered over a section of muddy ground inIndia's Jurreru River Valley. They then asked local herdsmen to walk their water buffaloes and goats across the area. (Also see"Ancient Stone 'Tools Found; May Be Among Americas' Oldest.")

"We then let everything settle and let the sediments dry and proceeded to excavate the area as if it were a real site,"Eren said."To our amazement, the disturbance was much greater than we had anticipated."

In some cases, the animals' hooves had pushed artifacts as much as 8 inches (21 centimeters) into the ground—a difference that can throw an age estimate off by thousands of years. (Related:"'Thor's Hammer' Found in Viking Graves.")

But in some instances, animal trampling would have made artifacts seem younger than they really were.

"If a water buffalo steps just next to an artifact, it displaces {the mud} and actually pushes it upward, making it appear younger,"Eren explained.

Trampling could even create the illusion of ancient sites where none really existed. For example,"you could have artifacts washing into a valley from somewhere else and herds walk over them, pushing the artifacts into the ground,"Eren said.

How to Spot a Suspect Site

Fortunately, the experiment also revealed a simple way to tell if a site has been trampled. When an animal walks over on an artifact in the mud, the creature's foot will often fall more firmly on one end of the object, causing that end to dip lower into the soft sediment than the other end.

As a result, a site that's been trampled by several animals will contain artifacts lying at various angles, Eren explained. Normally, buried artifacts end up pointing in the same basic direction.

"You generally don't get that in undisturbed open-air sites,"he said."So if you're excavating, and the angles of your artifacts are completely random, you can be pretty sure that the site has been disturbed, and you should be careful about any conclusions that you draw."

The new findings could explain a mysterious discovery at a site in India called Attirampakkam, where archaeologists recently discovered some Stone Age hand axes and other tools that appear to have been buried in nearly vertical positions. (Related:"Stone Age Hand Axes Found at Bottom of North Sea.")

"People wondered why this was, but after our experiment, it occurred to us that {Attirampakkam} is in a floodplain,"Eren said."So what's actually causing these hand axes to be vertical is probably the fact that they've got large mammals walking over them."

Past Findings in Jeopardy?

Anthropologist Julien Riel-Salvatore of theUniversity of Colorado Denversaid the new study was"really insightful and important."

"Even though archaeologists were aware of this, we haven't really known how to go about testing just how disruptive some of these processes were,"said Riel-Salvatore, who was not involved in the study.

"Pretty much any open-air site located near a water source will potentially be very seriously affected by some of these conclusions."

forNational Geographic News

Source

Best Environmental Photos of 2010 Named

Thousands of Munk's devil rays crowd the Sea of Cortez offMexico's Baja California Sur state (map)in 2009. The aerial image won top honors and the"Underwater World"category in the 2010 Environmental Photographer of the Year awards.

German photographerFlorian Schulzsaid the scope of the ray congregations was unknown until he and a pilot happened upon the gathering while searching for migrating whales.

Perhaps just as rare is the composition Schulz captured."I was able to show how these rays are jumping out of the water,"he said,"and at the same time I'm able to show—almost like an underwater photograph—how there're layers and layers and layers of rays."

The International Union for Conservation Unionlists Munk's devil raysas near threatened, due in part to their vulnerability to gill nets—hard-to-see"curtains"of netting.

Given ray gatherings like the one pictured, Schulz said,"you could imagine a single net could take thousands and thousands."

This helps explain why, upon seeing the winning photo, marine ecologistGiuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciaraemailed Schulz to express his delight at seeing so many Munk's devil rays thriving in a single frame. Di Sciara helped identify the species in 1987.

Organized by the London-basedChartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, the Environmental Photographer of the Year contest honors amateur and professional photographers who"raise awareness of environmental and social issues."This year's edition drew more than 4,500 entries from photographers in 97 countries.

—John Roach

Source

600-Year-Old Worms Among Surprises of 10-Year Sea Survey

Uncovering thousands of likely new species, and sending thousands of scientists on hundreds of expeditions from pole to pole, the ten-yearCensus of Marine Life, which ended Monday, can seem as overwhelming as theoceanitself.

But a look at just five of the census's great discoveries gives a sense as to just how much the ten-year ocean inventory accomplished—and how much remains unknown.

(Related: our picks of the13 best Census of Marine Life pictures.)

1. SIX-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD TUBE WORMS

Inhabitants of the perpetual dark of the deep sea, yard-long (meter-long) tube worms calledEscarpia laminatawere found by the Census of Marine life to live for around 600 years—making them some of the oldest known animals on Earth.

Another age-defying denizen of the deep is a new species of giantoyster,Neopycnodonte zibrowii, also discovered during the census. These species' seashells form reefs on deep underwater cliffs and were shown, using radiocarbon dating, to reach 100 to 500 years old.

(Seepictures from the final batch of Census of marine Life new species.)

2. BUGS RULE THE WAVES

Ninety percent of the living biomass in the oceans is made up of hard-to-see microbes, together weighing the equivalent of 35 elephants for every living human—another fact uncovered by the Census of Marine Life.

(Seepictures of Census of Marine Life microbes.)

"Microbes play a huge role in how ecosystems function,"saidTom Webb, an ecologist from the U.K.'s University of Sheffield, who was not directly involved in the census.

"The census has suggested there might be millions of microbe species in the oceans,"he said,"and we hardly know anything about any of them."

That's despite the project's globe-spanning efforts to catalogue every ocean species—even the tiniest. As marine biologistNancy Knowltonsaid,"This is the first time anything like this has been attempted."

3. BIG BLUE EQUALS BIG UNKNOWN

Even after 540 Census of Marine Life expeditions to countless corners of the Earth, more than 20 percent of the oceans remain totally unexplored, organizers say.

And though it's brought the tally of estimated known marine species from 230,000 to 250,000, census scientists"still could not reliably estimate the total number of species, the kinds of life, known and unknown, in the ocean,"according to a press statement. They do say, though, that a million species is a fair guess.

Knowlton, co-director of the Census of Coral Reefs, a field project of the census, said,"As well as chipping away at the unknown and turning it into the known, the census also gives us a sense of the scale of the unknown."

The University of Sheffield's Webb said,"A big part of the achievement of the Census is getting a handle on what we don't know.

"The deep pelagic ocean is, by a very long distance, the largest habitat on Earth and one that we've hardly touched with our surveying,"he said."These are areas that don't really have an edge, with living things that never meet a hard surface."

(Related pictures:"'Alien' Jellyfish Found in Arctic Deep.")

4. MANHATTAN-SIZE FISH SCHOOL

Tens of millions of Atlantic herring have been tracked in theGulf of Maine (map)forming a school the size ofManhattan (map)during the Census of Marine Life. The schools sometimes contained more than eight of the roughly foot-long (30-centimeter-long) fish per square yard (0.8 square meter).

The discovery was made in part by an acoustic system created by the census that allows scientists to track fish over thousands of square miles—one of several new standardized tools created during the census.

The tools should improve future ocean research, said Knowlton, also a marine biologist at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History.

"If we want to think about Census II,"Knowlton said,"we really know what to do next."

If a second census is in the offing, this would be the week to get the ball rolling.

More than 300 Census of Marine Life participants are gathering inLondonfrom October 4 to 7 to share their results, consider what happens next, and debut some of the fruits of their labor, including the National Geographic Society bookCitizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures From the Census of Marine Life,a new National Geographicmap of ocean life,and a freeonline directorythat allows anyone to find out which species live where in the oceans.

(The Society owns National Geographic News.)

5."DOLLHOUSES"REVEAL CORAL DIVERSITY

Looking like empty dollhouses,Automated Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)—developed for the Census of Marine Life—allow scientists to accurately compare the coral reef diversity in different regions for the first time.

Mimicking the natural nooks and crannies of coral reefs, the 600 or so layered acrylic structures, now deployed in coral reefs around the world, will encourage species to move in while researchers look on.

The ARMS are helping reveal that coral reefs are"so diverse we really can't put a firm number on"their species variation, Knowlton said.

(Watchvideo of new species found on Australia's Great Barrier Reef during the Census of Marine Life.)

Census of Marine Life More Than Just Academic?

As with a human census, findings from the Census of Marine Life will be put to a variety of real-world uses.

The U.S. $650 million inventory has helped clarify which areas of the ocean most need protecting and provides a baseline with which future changes can be compared—including the impacts of climate change, overfishing, and oil spills and other forms of pollution.

"We're increasingly recognizing how under-threat the seas are from all kinds of human activities,"the University of Sheffield's Webb said.

"I'm hopeful,"he added,"that the Census of Marine Life will act as a clarion call for the biodiversity of the oceans and how much we depend on them for our well-being."

forNational Geographic News

Source

Pictures: Tube-Nosed Bat, More Rare Species Found

This tube-nosed fruit bat is just one of the roughly 200 species encountered during two scientific expeditions toPapua New Guineain 2009—including a katydid that"aims for the eyes"and a frog that does a mean cricket impression,Conservation International announced late Tuesday.

Though seen on previous expeditions, the bat has yet to be formally documented as a new species, or even named. Like other fruit bats, though, it disperses seeds from the fruit in its diet, perhaps making the flying mammal crucial to its tropical rain forest ecosystem.

In all, the expeditions to Papua New Guinea's Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges found 24 new species of frogs, 2 newmammals, and nearly a hundred newinsects. The remote island country's mountain ranges—which have yielded troves of new and unusual species in recent years—are accessible only by plane, boat, foot, or helicopter.

(Also seepictures of new species from Papua New Guinea's"Lost World.")

—Rachel Kaufman

Source

13 Stunning Photos From 10-Year Sea Census

Its fuzzy, winter-white coat might look at home in the Himalaya, but the yeti crab was discovered skittering around hydrothermal vents about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) under the South Pacific offEaster Island (map)in March 2005.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter), blind crustacean—officiallyKiwa hirsuta—is among the more than 6,000 new species discovered during theCensus of Marine Life, a ten-year effort to document all sea life that concluded Monday.

(See"Six-hundred-year-Old Worms Among Surprises of Ten-year Sea Survey.")

The project's 500-plus expeditions have also amassed a visual legacy as unique as the organisms uncovered—from which National Geographic News has selected these images as the 13 best of the census. (Read more about the yeti crab.)

Source

Photos: Great Whites"Take Turns" Feeding on Dead Whale

Agreat white sharktakes a bite from a dead Brydes whale (see pictures) in False Bay,South Africa, on September 10.

The whale carcass was methodically stripped by at least 30 great whites—but without a violent feeding frenzy that can sometimes occur, witness Alison Kock, of theSave Our Seas Shark Centre, said by email.

"It was extraordinary to see so many sharks and so little aggression,"said Kock, who spent nine days at sea watching the fish scour the carcass clean.

"With such abundant food on offer, there was no need for fierce competition between them,"Kock said.

(Watch a related video:"Carnivore Sharks.")

Source

Pictures:"Bizarre" New Tailless Whip Scorpions Found

A member of a new species of whip spider munches on a cricket in anIndonesiancave in an undated picture.

Found in 2004, the half-inch-long (centimeter-long)Sarax yayukaeis one of four new whip spider species announced this month. All four were discovered during a series of expeditions in the Indonesian section of the island ofBorneo (map), which also includes sections administered by Brunei and Malaysia.

These arachnids, also called tailless whip scorpions, are neither spiders nor scorpions and feature front legs that have evolved into long, flexible whiplike feelers. The"bizarre"creatures also have  flat bodies and grasping appendages lined with spines, according to the study documenting the new species.

Though whip spiders have been crawling the world's tropics since theDevonian period, about 416 million years ago, relatively few whip spider species survive today, according to study leader Cahyo Rahmadi, a biologist at theIndonesian Institute of Sciencesin Jakarta.

The surviving whip spiders—many found only in smallcavesystems—may be threatened by plans for coal and limestone mining on Borneo, Rahmadi said by email. (Seecave-exploration pictures.)

—Christine Dell'Amore

New whip spider study published September 15 in the journalZootaxa.

Source

BO Attracting Predators to Birds

New Zealand's native-bird BO is so pungent, it's alerting predators to thebirds' presence, ongoing research shows.

The smells may drive some species to extinction, unless conservationists take unorthodox measures, such as adding"deodorant"to bird nests, according to biologistJim Briskieof Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Many bird scents stem from a gland that produces waxes essential to keeping feathers healthy.

In Europe and the Americas, birds' bodies alter this preening wax during breeding season, changing the wax's composition to reduce smells and keep the birds' nests less detectable.

In a recent experiment in New Zealand, Briskie compared waxes from six native species, such as robins and warblers, with waxes from invasive species, such as blackbirds and sparrows, which had evolved in Europe until the 1870s.

"The European birds in New Zealand changed their preen waxes to become less smelly in the breeding season,"he said."But native birds did not, and they remained more smelly overall,"Briskie said.

(TryNational Geographic's backyard bird identifier.)

For instance, nativekiwis—flightless, chicken-size birds—smell like ammonia, and kakapo parrots, also flightless, smell like"musty violin cases,"he said.

Other New Zealand species seem to have similarly distinctive scents, Briskie said, unlike most birds on other continents.

"We do know that it's easy for muzzled dogs to find kakapo and kiwi by their smell, so I suspect that predators like rats or feral cats might be able to easily find native birds also,"Briskie said.

Alien Predators On the Scent

New Zealand's birds may be so pungent largely because they were able to get away with it for so many centuries, Briskie suspects.

When New Zealand split away fromAustraliasome 80 million years ago, no predatory mammals came along for the ride, so native birds never had to evolve means of masking their scents to survive, he said.

But eventually humans changed the landscape. The native Maori people introduced the rat, and Europeans later unleashed the domestic cat and the stoat—a type of weasel—which have easily caught on to the birds' scents.

(See"Rat Invasions Causing Seabird Decline Worldwide.")

Partly as a result, some 43 native birds have already gone extinct, Briskie said. Seventy-three other native species, many of them flightless, are listed as threatened by theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature.

Deodorant to Mask Smelly Birds?

One solution could be to give deodorant to the odorous birds, Briskie said. (Seebird pictures.)

"If we prove that this is a problem, we might be able to envision some kind of odor-eater or deodorant we could put into the nest to absorb some of those odors and protect them more effectively,"Briskie said.

But there's a potential downside—the birds' stench may serve other purposes.

Bird deodorant"would only be useful as long as we knew it didn't interfere with the waythose odors might be used in communication with matesor offspring,"Briskie explained.

In addition, bird BO might also be used to turn the tables on predators.

"It could be another way of building a better mousetrap to catch {invasive} rats or stoats,"Briskie said.

"Perhaps instead of controversial poisons, we might come up with long-lasting baits using essence of kiwi or kakapo that lure predators into a trap."

forNational Geographic News

Source

Undersea Mountain Photos: Brittlestar Swarm, More Found

An orange roughy glides over an undersea mountain, or"seamount,"located off the eastern coast ofNew Zealandin a 2006 picture.

Results from a five-year project to document and study the world's seamounts, calledCenSeam, were released this week. The project is part of a larger endeavor, the decade-longCensus of Marine Life, which aims to document alloceanflora and fauna. The census's final summary of up to 230,000 species will be released October 4.

(Relatedcensus pictures:"Dragonfish, Fireworm, More Found by Sea Surveys.")

Scientists estimate there are about 30,000 seamounts– defined as undersea mountains rising more than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) high – scattered throughout the world's oceans.

Yet fewer than 300 seamounts have been looked at in any detail, saidMireille Consalvey, a CenSeam project coordinator based in New Zealand.

—Ker Than

CenSeam funding provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries; Land Information New Zealand; and the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

Source