Scientists uncover new species of Andean marsupial frog

Scientists uncover new species of Andean marsupial frog
By: Jordanna Dulaney
March 05, 2014
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0304-dulaney-marsupial-frog.html#iwwFCpx0lcI1k8bG.99

The term "marsupial frog" might sound like a hoax, but, believe it or not, it's real. Recently, herpetologists welcomed a new species, known as Gastrotheca dysprosita and described in the journal Phyllomedusa. 

Unlike mammal marsupials, which typically carry their young in pouches on their torsos and are found primarily in Australia, the Gastrotheca genus of frogs, which contains 62 species, is found in the Andes region on South America and sport their pouches on their backs (also called a "dorsal brood pouch"). The female frog's vascular tissue provides oxygen to the eggs, which she carries for three to four months until they hatch as fully-developed froglets and head off on their own. 

This most recently described species owes its classification to William Duellman, of the University of Kansas. While announced in June 2013, the story of this frog's discovery really began in 1972 when Fred G. Thompson, a malacologist from the University of Florida, collected the first specimen in the Peruvian Amazon. Thompson brought the mystery frog back to the U.S., and gave it to Duellman to identify and catalog. 



An adult male of the species Gastrotheca dysprosita. Photo by W. E. Duellman 

The plot thickened when, in 1989, another research group both heard and caught another unidentifiable male in the same region. A second call was heard higher up the mountain, but rainy weather made it impossible to find another specimen. 

"The jar containing the holotype [original specimen] of this new species has been gathering dust… I have been trying to clean up loose ends during the preparation of a monograph [a detailed study] on marsupial frogs," Duellman wrote in his article announcing Gastrotheca dysprosita. "Thus, herein I eliminate a loose end by describing a new species." 

For his description, Duellman took meticulous measurements of the two frogs' bodies, and compared them to known species. In life, the new species has bumpy, bright green skin with stripes of creamish and brown spots down its back and sides. Duellman describes the iris as a "reddish copper" color. The two individuals were found between 3,370 to 3,440 meters (11,000 to 11,300 feet) on the Cerro Barro Negro, a single mountain in Peru. 

Little is known about the behavior patterns of Gastrotheca dysprosita since only two frogs have been found up to this point. Under the IUCN's (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) guidelines, it's impossible to make a guess at population size because there simply isn't enough data. 

Even the name of the frog is mysterious: dysprosita, from the Greek word dysprositos, literally means "hard to find." The name would thus be translated as the "hard-to-find marsupial frog." 

"The name reflects the difficulty in finding this elusive frog," Duellman states in the species description. 

Citations:

• Duellman, William E. "An Elusive New Species of Marsupial Frog (Anura: Hemiphractidae: Gastrotheca) from the Andes of Northern Peru." Phyllomedusa12.3-11 (2013): n. pag. Web.

Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0304-dulaney-marsupial-frog.html#iwwFCpx0lcI1k8bG.99

New Large Land Mammal Newly Discovered

Scientists make one of the biggest animal discoveries of the century: a new tapir

Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
December 16, 2013
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2013/1216-hance-new-tapir-kabomani.html#MdZhwzqqD35e80ox.99



Scientists have uncovered a new tapir in Brazil: Tapirus kabomani. Photo courtesy of: Cozzuol et al.

In what will likely be considered one of the biggest (literally) zoological discoveries of the Twenty-First Century, scientists today announced they have discovered a new species of tapir in Brazil and Colombia. The new mammal, hidden from science but known to local indigenous tribes, is actually one of the biggest animals on the continent, although it's still the smallest living tapir. Described in the Journal of Mammology, the scientists have named the new tapir Tapirus kabomani after the name for "tapir" in the local Paumari language: "Arabo kabomani."

Tapirus kabomani, or the Kobomani tapir, is the fifth tapir found in the world and the first to be discovered since 1865. It is also the first mammal in the order Perissodactyla (which includes tapirs, rhinos, and horses) found in over a hundred years. Moreover, this is the largest land mammal to be uncovered in decades: in 1992 scientists discovered the saola in Vietnam and Cambodia, a rainforest bovine that is about the same size as the new tapir.

Found inhabiting open grasslands and forests in the southwest Amazon (the Brazilian states of Rondônia and Amazonas, as well as the Colombian department of Amazonas), the new species is regularly hunted by the Karitiana tribe who call it the "little black tapir." The new species is most similar to the Brazilian tapir (Tapirus terrestris), but sports darker hair and is significantly smaller: while a Brazilian tapir can weigh up to 320 kilograms (710 pounds), the Kabomani weighs-in around 110 kilograms (240 pounds). Given its relatively small size it likely won't be long till conservationists christen it the pygmy or dwarf tapir. It also has shorter legs, a distinctly-shaped skull, and a less prominent crest.

"[Indigenous people] traditionally reported seeing what they called 'a different kind of anta [tapir in Portuguese].' However, the scientific community has never paid much attention to the fact, stating that it was always the same Tapirus terrestris," explains lead author Mario Cozzuol, the paleontologist who first started investigating the new species ten years ago. "They did not give value to local knowledge and thought the locals were wrong. Knowledge of the local community needs to be taken into account and that's what we did in our study, which culminated in the discovery of a new species to science."


A pair of Kobomani tapirs caught on camera trap. The individual on the left is a female and on the right a male. Females of the new species are characterized by a light patch on lower head and neck. Photo courtesy of Fabrício R. Santos.

Cozzuol first found evidence of the new species a decade ago while looking at tapir skulls, which were markedly different than any other. Researchers then collected genetic material and tapir specimens from local hunters and the Karitiana Indians. Extensive research into both the tapir's physical appearance (morphology) and its genetics proved that the researchers were indeed dealing with an as-yet-undescribed species of megafauna. Amazingly, this new species of tapir was actually hunted by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 with a specimen from his exploits still resting in the American Museum of Natural History in New York to this day. At the time of his hunt, Roosevelt wrote that the local hunters called the tapir a "distinct kind."

"[Indigenous people] were essential," co-author Fabrício R. Santos told mongabay.com, "particularly because they know about this 'variety' for decades, if not, centuries, and the hunters can precisely differentiate both species, because all of skulls they provide us matched our morphometric and DNA analyses."

Tapirs first appeared around 50 million years ago in the Eocene and are considered living fossils because they haven't changed much since then. They are easily identifiable by their massive size and their distinct, impressively-flexible proboscis, which the animal employs to grasp vegetation. Despite their bulk, tapirs are generally considered shy and elusive and are mostly active at night. They are also excellent swimmers and despite reputations in some countries for being slow (the name for tapir in Portuguese translates loosely to "jackass"), they are in fact quite intelligent, charismatic animals. Tapirs first evolved in North America and then migrated to Asia, South America, and even Europe in a tapir evolutionary-extravaganza before many species died out. Today, five species remain: four are found in Central and South America (the Brazilian tapir, mountain tapir, Baird's tapir, and the new Kabomani) while one species survives in Asia (the Malayan tapir).


The new tapir has a distinct head shape. Photo courtesy of Fabrício R. Santos.

The genetic research shows that the Kabomani tapir separated from its closest relative, the Brazilian, around 300,000 years ago. This means by the time humans first arrived in South America, the Kabomani tapir had long been separated from its relatives, although Brazilian tapirs and the Kabomani still share some of the same habitat today. The species is most common in the upper Madeira River where both forest and savanna habitat are present. When one of these ecosystems begins to dominate, however, the species becomes rarer. The scientists hypothesize in their paper that the species may have evolved "during dry periods of the Pleistocene, associated with forest fragmentation."

Moreover, the extensive genetic research undertaken by the scientists shows that the Brazilian tapir and the mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) are quite closely related (more closely than the Kabomani tapir), which could mean a recent break between the two species with mountain tapirs quickly evolving to the high-altitude Andean cloud forests or something even more surprising.

"There may be another species inside what we call Tapirus terrestris, particularly the individuals found in the Amazon of Ecuador, and northern Peru," says Santos.

As megafauna, tapirs have been hunted by humans for thousands of years and still play a very important role in many indigenous tribes, both as food prey and in mythologies. In addition, these large animals are vital to the ecosystems they inhabit.

"As seed predators and dispersers, they have key roles in the dynamics of rain forests, Cerrado, Pantanal, and high mountain ecosystems," the scientists write in the paper.


The new species is further characterized by dark fur. Photo courtesy of Fabrício R. Santos.

All of the world's tapir species are currently listed as threatened with extinction due to overhunting and habitat destruction, and the scientists believe the Kabomani will be no different. In fact, given its scarcity and possibly smaller habitat than other tapirs, it could be hugely imperiled.

"[The Brazilian tapir] is considered Vulnerable by the IUCN, it lives in most of biomes of South America, and Tapirus kabomani was only found in Amazon areas with open grasslands. Because the new species is scarce, and more restricted in their local habitat, it should be much more threatened than the common tapir," notes Santos.

Moreover, the region of the Amazon where the tapir was discovered is facing heavy human pressures, including two large dams and massive road-building projects, in addition to high deforestation rates.

"Southwestern Amazonia is currently undergoing intense landscape modification by deforestation and increasing human population. The region is likely threatened more by global warming than are other South American regions and it is considered a biodiversity hot spot with undocumented species richness," the researchers write.

Now that the new tapir has finally been revealed to the global public, scientists and conservationists have their work cut out for them.

"Our next stage of research is to determine the actual distribution of occurrence and conservation status of the new species," says co-author Flávio Rodrigues, professor of ecology at UFMG. In fact, scientists suspect the new species may also be found in the Guiana Shield in the eastern Amazon, according to photographs and local knowledge from both Brazil and French Guiana.

The discovery of this new megafauna—so long-hidden to science—proves the invaluable contribution that indigenous people can make it science, if only they are more regularly consulted and respected, according to the researchers. It also proves once again that the natural world remains full of surprises.


Painting of the new tapir species. Painting courtesy of Fabrício R. Santos.


Brazilian tapir in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Photo by: Jeremy Hance.

Citation:

• Mario A. Cozzuol, Camila L. Clozato, Elizete C. Holanda, Flavio H. G. Rodriques, Samuel Nienow, Benoit De Thoisy, Rodrigo A. F. Redonod, and Fabricio R. Santos. (2013) A new species of tapir from the Amazon. Journal of Mammalogy.

Darren Naish subsequently added this chart in his notice for the new species. there are at least two other putative tapir species as yet unconfirmed and not included on this chart

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/12/17/new-living-species-of-tapir/

'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia

http://news.yahoo.com/lost-world-discovered-remote-australia-024127998.html

'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia        

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Sydney (AFP) - An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world".
Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found.
It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink -- a type of lizard -- and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.
"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime -- I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.
"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well."

View gallery."

Graphic on three new vertebrate species discovered in a remote part of northern Australia (AFP Photo …

The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago.
While surveys had previously been conducted in the boulder-fields around the base of Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top, identified by satellite imagery, had remained largely unexplored, fortressed by massive boulder walls.
Within days of arriving, the team had discovered the three new species as well as a host of other interesting finds that Hoskins said may also be new to science.
The highlight was the leaf-tailed gecko, a "primitive-looking" 20 centimetre-long (7.9 inches) creature that is an ancient relic from a time when rainforest was more widespread in Australia.
The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives and has been named Saltuarius eximius, Hoskin said, with the findings detailed in the latest edition of the international journal Zootaxa.

View gallery."

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28, 2013 shows the Ca …

"The second I saw the gecko I knew it was a new species. Everything about it was obviously distinct," he said.
Highly camouflaged, the geckos sit motionless, head-down, waiting to ambush passing insects and spiders.
The Cape Melville Shade Skink is also restricted to moist rocky rainforest on the plateau, and is highly distinct from its relatives, which are found in rainforests to the south.
Also discovered was a small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist, allowing female frogs to lay their eggs in wet cracks in the rocks.
In the absence of water, the tadpole develops within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out.

View gallery."

Image provided by Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University Queensland on October 28, 2013 shows the Ca …

Once the summer wet season begins the frogs emerge on the surface of the rocks to feed and breed in the rain.
Tim Laman, a National Geographic photographer and Harvard University researcher who joined Hoskin on the expedition, said he was stunned to know such undiscovered places remained.
"What's really exciting about this expedition is that in a place like Australia, which people think is fairly well explored, there are still places like Cape Melville where there are all these species to discover," he said.
"There's still a big world out there to explore."
According to National Geographic, the team plans to return to Cape Melville within months to search for more new species, including snails, spiders, and perhaps even small mammals.
"All the animals from Cape Melville are incredible just for their ability to persist for millions of years in the same area and not go extinct. It's just mind-blowing," Hoskin said.

World's first venomous crustacean found in WAustralia

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/2013/10/25/12/36/worlds-first-venomous-crab-found-in-wa

World's first venomous crustacean found in WA

ninemsn staff

12:36pm October 25, 2013

The crustaceans are found in underwater caves of the Caribbean, Canary Islands and Australia. (Supplied)

The first world's first known venomous crustacean has been found in waters off Western Australia.
 The blind "remipede" poisons its prey with a similar kind of venom to that found in rattlesnakes, the BBC reports.
The venom contains a complex cocktail of poisons, including a paralysing agent, which breaks down a prey's body tissue, allowing the remipede to suck out a kind of liquid meal from its victim's exoskeleton.
The deadly crustacean can also be found in underwater caves of the Caribbean and Canary Islands and usually spends its time feeding on other small animals.
Dr Bjoern von Reumont from the Natural History Museum in London detailed the discovery in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
"This is the first time we have seen venom being used in crustaceans and the study adds a new major animal group to the roster of known venomous animals," he wrote.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified the remipede as a crab. While both species are crustaceans, their features are quite different. A remipede looks more like an underwater centipede, with head and an elongate trunk of up to forty-two similar body segments.
Source: BBC, Natural History Museum
Author: Natasha Lee, Approving editor: Nick Pearson

[The ones in the Canary Islands and Caribbean suggest a Transatlantic landbridge link in earlier times. The friend that sent this into me suggested a Sundaland connection for the Australian kind-DD]

Interesting Recent New Species of ProtoEel

Species New to Science

new & recent described Flora & Fauna species from all over the World esp. Asia, Oriental, Indomalayan & Malesiana region 

 

 

Thursday, August 18, 2011

[Ichthyology • 2011] Protoanguilla palau • A 'living fossil' eel (Anguilliformes: Protoanguillidae, fam. nov.) from an undersea cave in Palau

Protoanguilla palau

Johnson, Ida, Sakaue, Sado, Asahida & Miya, 2011

Abstract

We report the discovery of an enigmatic, small eel-like fish from a 35 m-deep fringing-reef cave in the western Pacific Ocean Republic of Palau that exhibits an unusual suite of morphological characters. Many of these uniquely characterize the Recent members of the 19 families comprising the elopomorph order Anguilliformes, the true eels. Others are found among anguilliforms only in the Cretaceous fossils, and still others are primitive with respect to both Recent and fossil eels. Thus, morphological evidence explicitly places it as the most basal lineage (i.e. the sister group of extant anguilliforms). Phylogenetic analysis and divergence time estimation based on whole mitogenome sequences from various actinopterygians, including representatives of all eel families, demonstrate that this fish represents one of the most basal, independent lineages of the true eels, with a long evolutionary history comparable to that of the entire Anguilliformes (approx. 200 Myr). Such a long, independent evolutionary history dating back to the early Mesozoic and a retention of primitive morphological features (e.g. the presence of a premaxilla, metapterygoid, free symplectic, gill rakers, pseudobranch and distinct caudal fin rays) warrant recognition of this species as a ‘living fossil’ of the true eels, herein described as Protoanguilla palau genus et species nov. in the new family Protoanguillidae.

Keywords: eel; morphology; phylogeny; new species, genus and family; divergence time

Figure 1. Protoanguilla palau. (a) Holotype, NSMT-P 98249 female, 176 mm SL. (b–g) Paratype USNM 396016 juvenile, 65 mm SL: (b) whole specimen; (c,d) head in lateral and ventral view, respectively; (e) close-up of tubular gill opening, left side in ventral view; (f) alizarin red-stained body scales along lateral midline (lateral-line scales are forming in alcian blue-stained areas); (g) USNM 396051, 150 mm SL, alizarin red-stained, close-up of lace-like, tubular lateral-line scale.

Protoanguilla palau

• A primitive-looking eel from an undersea cave in Palau retains ancient Dinosaur-Era features.

• Since the eel's history goes back 200 million years, with few bodily changes occurring over that time, scientists refer to it as a "living fossil."

• The eel's only known habitat is the Palau cave, so it could be highly endangered.

Johnson, G. D.; Ida H., Sakaue J., Sado T., Asahida T. & Miya M. (2011). "A 'living fossil' eel (Anguilliformes: Protoanguillidae, fam nov) from an undersea cave in Palau". Proceedings of the Royal Society B (in press). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1289 Retrieved 17 August 2011.

Media:

• 'Living Fossil' Retains Dinosaur-Era Look : Discovery News http://news.discovery.com/animals/eel-living-fossil-110816.html

• 'Fossil eel' squirms into the record books http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-fossil-eel-squirms.html

• New species of dinosaur-era eel wriggles into history books as a 'living fossil': http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2026935/New-Pacific-eel-living-fossil-Protoanguilla-Palau-200m-years-old.html

New Mouse Lemur Species Discovered

Microcebus gerpi. Photo by Blanchard Randrianambinina
Photo: Tiny lemur discovered in Madagascar forest
wildmadagascar.org
January 08, 2012
A new species of mouse lemur has been discovered in eastern Madagascar, report researchers from Germany. The species is described in a recent issue of the journal Primates.
The diminutive primate is named Gerp's mouse lemur (Microcebus gerpi) after a GERP (Groupe d'Étude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar), a local lemur research group. It was discovered during surveys in 2008 and 2009 in Sahafina Forest, a fragment of rainforest just 50 km away from the well-known Mantadia National Park, which lies east of Madagascar's capital city of Antananarivo. The lemur was confirmed as a "new species" after genetic analysis of small biopsies collected during the surveys. Lemurs were not killed to make the determination that it was an undescribed species.
At 68 grams (2.4 ounces), Gerp's mouse lemur is "a giant" relative to Goodman's mouse lemur, a species found in nearby Mantadia, according to a press release from Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, the German institution that supported the research.
The conservation status of the new species is presently unknown, but due to fragmentation of habitat in the region, it is likely at risk from further deforestation.
More than 40 species of lemur have been described in the past decade. There are more than 100 lemur species Madagascar, the only place lemurs occur naturally in the wild.
Mouse lemurs are the smallest lemurs and among the tiniest primates in the world. They are found in virtually all of Madagascar's forests where they feed on insects, fruit, and plant sap. Mouse lemurs are nocturnal and betray their presence with high-pitched chirps.

CITATION: Ute Radespiel, Jonah H. Ratsimbazafy, Solofonirina Rasoloharijaona, Herimalala Raveloson, Nicole Andriaholinirina, Romule Rakotondravony, Rose M. Randrianarison, Blanchard Randrianambinina. First indications of a highland specialist among mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.) and evidence for a new mouse lemur species from eastern Madagascar. Primates, 2011; DOI: 10.1007/s10329-011-0290-2