Most species are rare, but not very rare

More than 100 years of observations in nature have revealed a universal pattern of species abundances: Most species are rare but not very rare, and only a few species are very common. These so-called global species abundance distributions have become fully unveiled for some well-monitored species groups, such as birds. For other species groups, such as insects, however, the veil remains partially unlifted. These are the findings of an international team of researchers led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of Florida (UF), published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. The study demonstrates how important biodiversity monitoring is for detecting species abundances on planet Earth and for understanding how they change.

"Who can explain why one species ranges widely and is very numerous, and why another allied species has a narrow range and is rare?" This question was asked by Charles Darwin in his ground-breaking book "The Origin of Species," published over 150 years ago. A related challenge has been to understand how many species are common (numerous) and how many are rare, the so-called global species abundance distribution (gSAD).

Two main gSAD models have been proposed in the last century: R. A. Fisher, a statistician and biologist, proposed that most species are very rare and that the number of species declines for more common species (so-called log-series model). On the other hand, F. W. Preston, an engineer and ecologist, argued that only few species are actually very rare and that most species have some intermediate level of commonness (so-called log-normal model). However, until now and despite decades of research, scientists did not know which model describes the planet's true gSAD.

Solving this problem calls for vast amounts of data. The study authors used data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and downloaded data representing over 1 billion species observations in nature from 1900 to 2019.

"The GBIF database is an amazing resource for all sorts of biodiversity related research, particularly because it brings together both data collected from professional and citizen scientists all over the world," says first author Dr Corey Callaghan. He began the study while working at iDiv and MLU and is now working at the UF.

Callaghan and his fellow researchers divided the downloaded data into 39 species groups, for instance, birds, insects, or mammals. For each, they compiled the respective global species abundance distribution (gSAD).

The researchers detected a potentially universal pattern, which emerges once the species abundance distribution is fully unveiled: Most species are rare but not very rare, and only a few species are very common, as predicted in the log-normal model. However, the researchers also found that the veil has been fully lifted only for a few species groups like cycads and birds. For all other species groups, the data are yet insufficient.

"If you don't have enough data, it looks as though most species are very rare," says senior author Prof Henrique Pereira, research group head at iDiv and the MLU. "But by adding more and more observations, the picture changes. You start seeing that there are, in fact, more rare species than very rare species. You can see this shift for cycads and birds when comparing the species observations from back in 1900, when less data was available, with the more comprehensive species observations we have today. It is fascinating: we can clearly see the phenomenon of unveiling the full species abundance distribution, as predicted by Preston several decades ago, but only now demonstrated at the scale of the entire planet."

"Even though we have been recording observations for decades, we have only lifted the veil for a few species groups," says Callaghan. "We still have a long way to go. But GBIF and the sharing of data really represents the future of biodiversity research and monitoring, to me."

The new study's findings enable scientists to assess how far the gSADs have been unveiled for different species groups. This allows for answering another long-standing research question: How many species are out there? This study finds that while for some groups like birds, nearly all species have been identified, this is not the case for other taxa such as insects and cephalopods.

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Planet's rarest birds at higher risk of extinction

A new study finds that bird species with extreme or uncommon combinations of traits face the highest risk of extinction. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology.

A new study led by researchers at Imperial College London finds that the most unique birds on the planet are also the most threatened. Losing these species and the unique roles they play in the environment, such as seed dispersal, pollination and predation, could have severe consequences to the functioning of ecosystems.

The study analysed the extinction risk and physical attributes (such as beak shape and wing length) of 99% of all living bird species, making it the most comprehensive study of its kind to date.

The researchers found that in simulated scenarios in which all threatened and near-threatened bird species became extinct, there would be a significantly greater reduction in the physical (or morphological) diversity among birds than in scenarios where extinctions were random.

Bird species that are both morphologically unique and threatened include the Christmas Frigatebird (Fregata andrewsi), which nests only on Christmas Island, and the Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis), which migrates from its breeding grounds in Alaska to South Pacific islands every year.

Jarome Ali, a PhD candidate at Princeton University who completed the research at Imperial College London and was the lead author of the research, said: "Our study shows that extinctions will most likely prune a large proportion of unique species from the avian tree. Losing these unique species will mean a loss of the specialised roles that they play in ecosystems.

"If we do not take action to protect threatened species and avert extinctions, the functioning of ecosystems will be dramatically disrupted."

In the study, the authors used a dataset of measurements collected from living birds and museum specimens, totalling 9943 bird species. The measurements included physical traits like beak size and shape, and the length of wings, tails and legs.

The authors combined the morphological data with extinction risk, based on each species' current threat status on the IUCN Red List. They then ran simulations on what would happen if the most threatened birds were to go extinct.

Although the dataset used in the study was able to show that the most unique birds were also classified as threatened on the Red List, it was unable to show what links uniqueness in birds to extinction risk.

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Lost or extinct? Study finds the existence of more than 500 animal species remains uncertain

An international study provides the first global evaluation of all terrestrial vertebrate species that have not been declared extinct and identifies more than 500 species considered to be 'lost' -- those that haven't been seen by anyone in more than 50 years.

Researchers reviewed information on 32,802 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN Red List) and identified 562 lost species. Their findings appear in the journal Animal Conservation.

The IUCN Red List defines extinct as 'when there is no reasonable doubt the last individual of a species has died,' which can be challenging to verify. According to Simon Fraser University biodiversity professor and study co-author Arne Mooers, the Red List categorizes 75 of these 562 lost species as 'possibly extinct.' The researchers note the existence of many species with an uncertain conservation status may become increasingly problematic as the extinction crisis worsens and more species go missing.

A total of 311 terrestrial vertebrate species have been declared extinct since 1500, meaning 80 per cent more species are considered lost than have been declared extinct.

Reptiles led the way with 257 species considered lost, followed by 137 species of amphibians, 130 species of mammals and 38 species of birds. Most of these lost animals were last seen in megadiverse countries such as Indonesia (69 species), Mexico (33 species) and Brazil (29 species).

While not surprising, this concentration is important, according to researchers. "The fact most of these lost species are found in megadiverse tropical countries is worrying, given such countries are expected to experience the highest numbers of extinctions in the coming decades," says study lead author Tom Martin from the UK's Paignton Zoo.

Mooers, who anchored the study, says: "While theoretical estimates of ongoing 'extinction rates' are fine and good, looking hard for actual species seems better."

Gareth Bennett, an SFU undergraduate student who did much of the data combing, adds: "We hope this simple study will help make these lost species a focus in future searches."

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Conservation commitments should focus on the best places to protect rare species

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has pledged to protect 30% of land to support the recovery of nature, but a new study finds that much of the new land that has been allocated to meet this aspiration is not in the highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation.

Currently, only 9% of Britain's land area has a legal status that specifically mandates biodiversity protection.

The UK 30by30 commitment includes land that is currently designated as 'protected landscapes' in England, such as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but these areas were not originally chosen nor managed for biodiversity.

New research by the University of York and Natural England finds that 58% of British 'protected landscapes' lie outside the highest 30% priority land for species conservation.

The study comes in response to the UK Government's pledge to protect 30% of land to support the recovery of nature by 2030, made last September.

The authors of the report say the 30by30 commitment is a positive step for UK conservation, but requires better planning and implementation if it is to deliver its intended goals.

They argue that designating areas with high landscape value does not offer efficient protection of high priority species (such as tree sparrows and white-letter hairstreak butterflies) and habitats. This is because many attractive landscapes are not in the right places to enhance the country's existing protected area network.

The team identified potential areas for nature recovery, which they say could improve species representation outcomes by 68%, compared to only 38% using the pledged landscapes

The study found the most important areas to prioritise, in a way that is likely to benefit the most species, are largely concentrated in southern and eastern England. Northern and upland areas of Britain have disproportionately larger areas protected for biodiversity, so the greatest gains in species representation can potentially be achieved by increased levels of protection and habitat restoration in southern and lowland areas.

Charles Cunningham, a PhD researcher from the University of York's Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity who is first author of the study, said: "Increasingly, ambitious conservation pledges that focus on large areas may draw attention away from where threatened species are actually located."

"Our findings show that including all of these landscapes is an inefficient way to expand the existing conservation network, and a mixture of landscapes inside and outside of protected landscapes would result in much better species protection."

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Finding rare birds is never a picnic, contrary to popular Patagonia belief

 One of birdwatching's most commonly held and colorfully named beliefs, the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect, is more a fun myth than a true phenomenon, Oregon State University research suggests.

Owing its moniker to an Arizona rest area, the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect, often shortened to PPTE, has for decades been cited as a key driver of behavior, and rare-species-finding success, among participants in the multibillion-dollar recreational birding business -- an industry that has gotten even stronger during a pandemic that's shut down so many other activities.

But a study led by an OSU College of Science graduate student shows that the PPTE -- which says that after a rare bird is spotted somewhere, birders flock to the area and then find additional rare species at an accelerated rate -- is not borne out by the data.

Findings were published in PeerJ.

"Birdwatching is one of the fastest growing recreational activities in the world," said OSU integrative biology Ph.D. student Jesse Laney. "The lure of finding very rare birds adds a level of excitement that draws birders even from distant locations."

The specifics of the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect's origin story have grown slightly murky over time, but its basic gist is engrained in birder lore.

Patagonia is a tiny town near the Arizona-Mexico border, and a nearby rest area gave rise to the picnic table part of the name. Sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, birders saw a rare black-capped gnatcatcher, or possibly a nesting pair of rose-throated becards, at the rest area.

Whichever it was, or whether it was something else entirely, word began to spread and birders began descending on Patagonia, which led to other interesting sightings, among them the thick-billed kingbird, five-striped sparrow and yellow grosbeak. The rest area remains a pilgrimage location for birdwatchers.

"It is anecdotal that when rare species are reported, increased activity by birders attempting to add rarities to their personal lists leads to the discovery of additional rare birds," Laney said. "The U.S. birdwatching community has been a big subscriber to the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect -- it's something they really believe in."

Laney and collaborators in the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences and at Cornell University examined the PPTE's veracity by analyzing a decade's worth of information in eBird, an online, public bird observation database maintained by Cornell.

"We wanted to know how often a discovery of one rare bird draws so many birders to a place that even more rarities are discovered?" Laney said. "We found that birders had no better chance of finding additional rarities at locations where a rare species had been discovered than they did when searching elsewhere for rare species. In a nutshell we found little support for the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect and therefore have to consider it a myth -- while acknowledging that it is a really fun myth."

Laney and collaborators Tyler Hallman and W. Douglas Robinson of the College of Agricultural Sciences and OSU alumna Jenna Curtis, now a staff member at Cornell, focused on sightings of North American "mega-rarities," 81 of the hardest-to-spot bird species on the continent -- all were rated as 4 or 5 on the American Birding Association's five-point rarity scale.

The scientists looked at 273 mega-rarity discoveries involving those 81 birds over 10 years starting in 2008, and the ensuing "draw and decay" -- birders descending on an area following a sighting, and then the tapering off of birding activity after the draw peaks. The mega-rarity events included a northern lapwing in Maine in 2013, a Eurasian hobby on Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 2014, and a streak-backed oriole at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 2015.

"Across those 273 mega-rarity events, eBird data show that birder effort increased above the pre-event baseline level," Laney said. "The power of rare species to draw attention of birders was influenced by locational factors such as latitude and proximity to an airport, and by the year in which events took place."

The speed with which birders lost interest in seeking each rarity -- the decay rate -- was influenced by how long those rare birds continued to be detected, he added.

"Still, the decay rate was pretty variable among those events," Laney said. "We found no indication that draw was influenced by species identity or rarity level. To us, this suggests that mega-rarities have a profound influence on the behavior of birders simply by virtue of being very rare."

Read more at Science Daily

Extremely rare parasitic crustacean discovered in museum shark collection

 Scientists have discovered an extremely rare species of cymothoid from the mouth of a museum specimen of a deep-sea shark caught from the East China Sea, suggesting its wide distribution around the globe.

Cymothoids are a family of isopods (a type of crustacean) that are ectoparasites of fish. Some species in this family are also known as tongue-biter or tongue-eating louse (e.g., Cymothoa exigua).

Assistant Professor Ryota Kawanishi and Dr. Shinpei Ohashi from Hokkaido University have reported the discovery of an extremely rare species of cymothoid, Elthusa splendida, from the East China Sea. Their paper, published in the journal Species Diversity, expands the range of this species to almost the opposite sides of the Earth.

Cymothoids are a diverse family of more than 300 species of parasites, and parasitize a wide variety of fish, from freshwater to the deep sea. A recent study into the genetics of the family has shown that it is highly likely that they evolved in the deep sea and diversified. A number of deep sea cymothoids, however, are poorly studied, primarily due to the difficulty of deep sea sampling.

Elthusa splendida is the least studied of all deep sea cymothoids. Only five specimens have ever been cataloged and described, in 1981. Those specimens were recovered from a Cuban dogfish, a deep-sea shark, which was captured off southern Brazil in the western South Atlantic. No additional specimens have been reported since then.

In the current study, the scientists discovered the specimen of Elthusa splendida while processing fish specimens at the Fisheries Science Center, Hokkaido University Museum (HUMZ), Hakodate. The specimen was found in a Japanese spurdog, also a deep-sea shark, that had been collected from the East China Sea in June 2003 and preserved in formalin. The scientists confirmed the identification of the specimen by comparing the morphological features of the specimen with the original description of the species. The unique feature that defines Elthusa splendida is the presence of four pits on the first pereonite (first segment behind the head); this feature was examined using a computerized 3D measurement system. DNA sequencing was not used for identification as the sequence of the original specimen is unknown.

This discovery is important as it shows the distribution of Elthusa splendida extends from two locations that are almost antipodal to each other -- almost as far as it is physically possible to be on the planet. The scientists suggest that other species of deep sea cartilaginous fish in the genus Squalus (to which both the Cuban dogfish and the Japanese spurdog belong) can potentially serve as hosts for this parasite. They have also confirmed that Elthusa splendida is rare among other Elthusa species in parasitizing the mouth of the host, rather than the gills; furthermore, even among those cymothoids that parasitize the mouth, Elthusa splendida is one of the rare species that attach to the palate.

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Rare South American ground beetles sport unusual, likely multi-purpose antennal cleaners

For 157 years, scientists have wished they could understand the evolutionary relationships of a curious South American ground beetle that was missing a distinctive feature of the huge family of ground beetles (Carabidae). Could it be that this rare species was indeed lacking a characteristic trait known in over 40,000 species worldwide and how could that be? Was that species assigned to the wrong family from the very beginning?

The species, Nototylus fryi, or Fry's strange-combed beetle, is known so far only from a single, damaged specimen found in 1863 in the Brazilian State of Espíritu Santo, which today is kept in the Natural History Museum of London. So rare and unusual, due to its lack of "antennal cleaners" -- specialised "combing" structures located on the forelegs and used by carabids to keep their antennae clean, it also prompted the description of its own genus: Nototylus, now colloquially called strange-combed beetles.

No mention of the structure was made in the original description of the species, so, at one point, scientists even started to wonder whether the beetle they were looking at was in fact a carabid at all.

Because the area where Fry's strange-combed beetle had been found was once Southern Atlantic Forest, but today is mostly sugar cane fields, cacao plantations, and cattle ranches, scientists have feared that additional specimens of strange-combed beetles might never be collected again and that the group was already extinct. Recently, however, a US team of entomologists have reported the discovery of a second specimen, one also representing a second species of strange-combed beetles new to science.

Following a careful study of this second, poorly preserved specimen, collected in French Guiana in 2014, the team of Dr Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution), Dr David Kavanaugh () and Dr David Maddison (Oregon State University) described the species, Nototylus balli, or Ball's strange-combed beetle, in a paper that they published in the open-access scholarly journal ZooKeys. The entomologists named the species in honour of their academic leader and renowned carabidologist George E. Ball, after presenting it to him in September 2016 around the time of his 90th birthday.

Despite its poor, yet relatively better condition, the new specimen shows that probable antennal grooming organs are indeed present in strange-combed beetles. However, they looked nothing like those seen in other genera of ground beetles and they are located on a different part of the front legs. Rather than stout and barely movable, the setae (hair-like structures) in the grooming organs of strange-combed beetles are slender, flexible and very differently shaped, which led the researchers to suggest that the structure had a different role in strange-combed beetles.

Judging from the shapes of the setae in the grooming organs, the scientists point out that they are best suited for painting or coating the antennae, rather than scraping or cleaning them. Their hypothesis is that these rare carabids use these grooming structures to cohabitate with ants or termites, where they use them to apply specific substances to their antennae, so that the host colony recognises them as a friendly species, a kind of behaviour already known in some beetles.

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Platypus on brink of extinction

Platypus

Australia's devastating drought is having a critical impact on the iconic platypus, a globally unique mammal, with increasing reports of rivers drying up and platypuses becoming stranded.

Platypuses were once considered widespread across the eastern Australian mainland and Tasmania, although not a lot is known about their distribution or abundance because of the species' secretive and nocturnal nature.

A new study led by UNSW Sydney's Centre for Ecosystem Science, funded through a UNSW-led Australian Research Council project and supported by the Taronga Conservation Society, has for the first time examined the risks of extinction for this intriguing animal.

Published in the international scientific journal Biological Conservation this month, the study examined the potentially devastating combination of threats to platypus populations, including water resource development, land clearing, climate change and increasingly severe periods of drought.

Lead author Dr Gilad Bino, a researcher at the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science, said action must be taken now to prevent the platypus from disappearing from our waterways.

"There is an urgent need for a national risk assessment for the platypus to assess its conservation status, evaluate risks and impacts, and prioritise management in order to minimise any risk of extinction," Dr Bino said.

Alarmingly, the study estimated that under current climate conditions and due to land clearing and fragmentation by dams, platypus numbers almost halved, leading to the extinction of local populations across about 40 per cent of the species' range, reflecting ongoing declines since European colonisation.

Under predicted climate change, the losses forecast were far greater because of increases in extreme drought frequencies and duration, such as the current dry spell.

Dr Bino added: "These dangers further expose the platypus to even worse local extinctions with no capacity to repopulate areas."

Documented declines and local extinctions of the platypus show a species facing considerable risks, while the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently downgraded the platypus' conservation status to "Near Threatened."

But the platypus remains unlisted in most jurisdictions in Australia -- except South Australia, where it is endangered.

Director of the UNSW Centre for Ecosystem Science and study co-author Professor Richard Kingsford said it was unfortunate that platypuses lived in areas undergoing extensive human development that threatened their lives and long-term viability.

"These include dams that stop their movements, agriculture which can destroy their burrows, fishing gear and yabby traps which can drown them and invasive foxes which can kill them," Prof Kingsford said.

Study co-author Professor Brendan Wintle at The University of Melbourne said it was important that preventative measures were taken now.

"Even for a presumed 'safe' species such as the platypus, mitigating or even stopping threats, such as new dams, is likely to be more effective than waiting for the risk of extinction to increase and possible failure," Prof Wintle said.

"We should learn from the peril facing the koala to understand what happens when we ignore the warning signs."

Dr Bino said the researchers' paper added to the increasing body of evidence which showed that the platypus, like many other native Australian species, was on the path to extinction.

"There is an urgent need to implement national conservation efforts for this unique mammal and other species by increasing monitoring, tracking trends, mitigating threats, and protecting and improving management of freshwater habitats," Dr Bino said.

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Turtle species in serious decline: Broad ecological impacts

Agassiz's desert tortoise.

Approximately 61 percent of the world's 356 turtle species are threatened or already extinct, and the decline could have ecological consequences.

These findings are according to a paper in the journal BioScience synthesizing the global status of turtles and their ecological roles by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, University of California, Davis, and the University of Georgia.

Turtles are now among the most threatened groups of vertebrate animals on earth, more so than birds, mammals, fish or amphibians. These animals outlived the dinosaurs and have roamed the earth for more than 200 million years. Reasons for the decline of turtles worldwide include habitat destruction, over-exploitation for pets and food, disease and climate change.

"Our goal is to provide resource managers with a full picture of the state of these iconic animals worldwide, and what long-term impacts our environment might experience if populations continue to decrease and species loss continues," said USGS scientist and lead author of the study Jeffrey Lovich. "Turtles contribute to the health of many environments, including desert, wetland, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and their decline may lead to negative effects on other species, including humans, that may not be immediately apparent."

Scientists synthesized existing published studies to bring attention to the status of turtles and identify what may be lost from an ecological perspective if current trends hold and they continue to decline and disappear.

This paper provides the first major review of the various functional roles that large populations and diverse communities of turtles provide from an ecological perspective. This includes maintaining healthy food webs, dispersing seeds and creating habitats necessary for other species.

"Our purpose is to inform the public of the many critical ecological roles turtles perform on a global scale and bring awareness to the plight of these emblematic animals whose ancestors walked with the dinosaurs," said professor emeritus and senior ecologist Whit Gibbons, at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology. "These modern descendants of an ancient lineage are touchstones for how human influences are causing the decline of so much of the world's wildlife. Our hope is that everyone will be encouraged to engage in concerted efforts to conserve their well-earned legacy as part of our natural habitats."

Turtles can be major players in ecosystem food webs because they can be herbivores, omnivores or carnivores. They range from specialists that feed on one to a few food sources, to generalists, feeding on a wide range of items. Their diverse feeding habits allow them to influence the structure of other communities in their habitat. Some turtle species occur in dense numbers that can yield hundreds of pounds of turtles per acre, making them ecologically important by virtue of their mass alone. Such large masses of turtles equate to large amounts of potential food for organisms that feed on turtles or their eggs.

Turtles can be important for dispersing the seeds of dozens of plant species. Some turtle species may even be the primary seed dispersal agents for specific plants. Not all seeds are destroyed by the digestive tract. In fact, there are specific seeds that exhibit higher rates of germination after being eaten and passed by turtles.

Some turtles, like Agassiz's desert tortoise in the American Southwest and the gopher tortoise in the American Southeast, dig deep burrows creating habitat for other species. For example, the gopher tortoise can dig burrows over 30 feet long. The mounds of soil near the entrance of the burrows can create new habitat for some plant species, increasing overall plant diversity near burrow entrances. The burrows are used by hundreds of other species including spiders, insects, snakes, amphibians, other reptiles, rabbits, foxes and even bobcats.

"The ecological importance of turtles, especially freshwater turtles, is underappreciated, and they are generally understudied by ecologists," says Josh Ennen, research scientist at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. "The alarming rate of turtle disappearance could profoundly affect how ecosystems function as well as the structure of biological communities around the globe."

Read more at Science Daily

Giant Chinese salamander is at least five distinct species, all heading toward extinction

This photograph shows one living Chinese giant salamander from Guangxi Province.

With individuals weighing in at more than 140 pounds, the critically endangered Chinese giant salamander is well known as the world's largest amphibian. But researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on May 21 now find that those giant salamanders aren't one species, but five, and possibly as many as eight. The bad news as highlighted by another report appearing in the same issue is that all of the salamanders -- once thought to occur widely across China -- now face the imminent threat of extinction in the wild, due in no small part to demand for the amphibians as luxury food.

The discoveries highlight the importance of genetic assessments to properly identify the salamanders, the researchers say. It also suggests that the farming and release of giant salamanders back into the wild without any regard for their genetic differences is putting the salamanders' already dire future at even greater risk. In fact, some of the five newly identified species may already be extinct in the wild.

"We were not surprised to discover more than one species, as an earlier study suggested, but the extent of diversity -- perhaps up to eight species -- uncovered by the analyses sat us back in our chairs," says Jing Che from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. "This was not expected."

"The overexploitation of these incredible animals for human consumption has had a catastrophic effect on their numbers in the wild over an amazingly short time span," adds Samuel Turvey, from ZSL (Zoological Society of London. "Unless coordinated conservation measures are put in place as a matter of urgency, the future of the world's largest amphibian is in serious jeopardy."

The researchers were surprised to learn just how much movement of salamanders has already occurred due to human intervention. Salamander farms have sought to "maximize variation" by exchanging salamanders from distant areas, without realizing they are in fact distinct species, Che explains. As a result, she says, wild populations may now be at risk of becoming locally maladapted due to hybridization across species boundaries.

The researchers including Ya-Ping Zhang and Robert Murphy suspected Chinese giant salamanders might represent distinct species despite their similar appearances. That's because the salamanders inhabit three primary rivers in China, and several smaller ones, they explain. Each runs independently to sea.

Given that giant salamanders can't move across the land, they suspected that salamanders living in different river systems might have had opportunity to diverge over time into what should now be recognized as distinct species. And, indeed, that's exactly what the genetic evidence now suggests.

In the second study, Turvey and colleagues conducted field surveys and interviews from 2013 and 2016, in an effort that was possibly the largest wildlife survey ever conducted in China. The data revealed that populations of this once-widespread species are now critically depleted or extirpated across all surveyed areas of their range, and illegal poaching is widespread. The researchers were unable to confirm survival of wild salamanders at any survey site.

While the harvesting of wild salamanders is already prohibited, the findings show that farming practices and existing conservation activities that treat all salamander populations as a single species are potentially doing great damage, the researchers say.

"Conservation strategies for the Chinese giant salamander require urgent updating," Che says. She says it is especially critical to reconsider the design of reserves to protect the salamanders and an effort that has already released thousands of farm-started baby salamanders back into the wild.

Read more at Science Daily

Rare Cannibal ‘T. Rex’ Ants Spotted for the First Time Ever

T. rex ant.

An ant named after the fierce, carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex has been observed alive for the first time — and it failed to live up to the dinosaur's reputation.

Tyrannomyrmex rex is a timid, finicky eater, new research finds. The ants can, however, turn to cannibalism in times of need.

Until now, these Asian ants were a complete mystery to science, despite being discovered more than 20 years ago. No one had ever collected more than a single specimen, and no one had ever observed a T. rex ant alive for an extended period of time. So when biologist Mark Wong stumbled across a colony of T. rex ants while conducting an ant diversity survey in Singapore, he knew he had something important.

He and his colleague Gordon Yong from the National University of Singapore carefully collected the colony, which consisted of 13 workers, as well as eggs, larvae and pupae (the liminal stage between larva and adulthood). They then observed the ants in an attempt to figure out what makes them tick. Because the study is the first of its kind, everything the researchers discovered is new, Wong told Live Science.

Chance discovery

The T. rex ant was first discovered in Malaysia in 1994. It's part of the rare group of ants in the Tyrannomyrmex genus; there are only two other identified species. (T. dux from India and T. legatus from Sri Lanka.) The ants have pointed snouts, which may explain the T. rex namesake, Wong said.

In March 2016, Wong found the first known live colony of T. rex ants in a piece of rotting wood stuck in the ground in Singapore's Mandai area, just south of Malaysia and north of the Singapore Zoo. The ants were nesting in a second-growth forest that was once the home of 20th-century orchards and rubber plantations, Wong and Yong reported April 27 in the journal Asian Myrmecology.

In the field, it was apparent why the T. rex ant is so little-known. The colony was small, subterranean and unobtrusive. Ant collection methods rarely involve careful underground surveys, Wong said.
"Our finding of T. rex below the ground surface highlights the need for more focused exploration of the ant communities within this environment," he said.

Timid T. rex

In captivity, the colony further exhibited the retiring manner that has made these ants so elusive. They were more active at night than during the day, suggesting that they are probably nocturnal in the wild, Wong said. They are not aggressive. When exposed to a potential threat, like a millipede, the ants curled up and froze, likely hoping to be overlooked so they could run away when the immediate danger passed.

Despite offering the ants an absolute smorgasbord of food, Wong and Yong could not determine what the ant version of T. rex eats. They rejected termites, smaller ants, mites, millipedes and even honey, Wong said. When shown a drop of honey, they kept their distance, except for a tentative poke at the sticky substance with their antennae.

Read more at Discovery News

The Elusive Ruby Seadragon Is Seen for the First Time in the Wild

The mysterious Ruby seadragon, a new species known only from a handful of museum specimens, has been seen for the first time in the wild.

Scientists from the University of California San Diego (UC) and the Western Australia (WA) Museum went looking for the creature in waters off western Australia and hit a biological home run: almost 30 minutes of video (see below) featuring two Ruby seadragons.

The creature has only been known since early in 2015, when researchers confirmed the animal as a third seadragon species (joining the Common and Leafy varieties). That identification was made from CT scans of a small group of specimens – one of which a century old – previously thought to have been those of Common seadragons.

Seadragons are marine fish in the same taxonomic family as pipefish and seahorses. They live off Australia's coast, among reefs and beds of seaweed, dining on zooplankton and very small crustaceans.

The fiery new animal stands in visually stark contrast to the orange-tinted Leafy sundragon and the yellow/purple Common, and that's not the only difference, the researchers found.

Thanks to the video footage, researchers now know for sure that Ruby seadragon doesn't have the leaf-like appendages common to the other two species. The missing feature was documented in the CT scans of the earlier specimens, but before the live footage there was no way of knowing if this was how Ruby seadragons really looked or if the appendages had somehow been lost during collection.

Common (above) and Leafy seadragons have leaf-like appendages for camouflage, a feature lacking in the new Ruby species.

"It never occurred to me that a seadragon could lack appendages, because they are characterized by their beautiful camouflage leaves," said Josefin Stiller, co-author of a study documenting the find in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records, in a statement.

The Common and Leafy seadragons use the appendages for camouflage among seaweed, and researchers suspect the Ruby red version uses its color as camouflage instead: They think the creature inhabits deeper waters than its cousins, at depths where the red shading would be absorbed and serve as its own camouflage.

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Rare Endangered Primate Spotted in Vietnam

A new group of critically endangered primates has been spotted in Vietnam, raising hopes the rare creatures may not be wiped out in the next decade as scientists had feared.

The Delacour's langur, black and white with a full face of whiskers, is indigenous to Vietnam, but their numbers have dwindled in recent years because of poaching and mining activity in the country's northern forests.

A team of scientists from Fauna and Flora International spotted a group of about 40 of the primates, mostly juveniles and infants, bringing their total population to less than 250.

"It's great news for this particular species because had we not found this new population, they were in grave danger of being wiped out within a decade," spokeswoman for FFI in Vietnam, Akofa Wallace, told AFP Tuesday.

"The fact that they are breeding is brilliant news," she added.

FFI did not say where scientists spotted the langurs, whose habitat is threatened by mining activity in the area, including charcoal production.

They are also targeted by poachers who hunt them for meat, with their bones used for traditional medicine and their pelts for decoration.

The primate was discovered in northern Vietnam in the 1930s by French scientist Jean Theodore Delacour, and are only found in Vietnam.

FFI country director Benjamin Rawson said urgent interventions were needed to protect the species, which numbered about 300 in the early 1990s.

"We continue to work alongside officials and local communities to ensure the Delacour's langur doesn't become this century's first primate extinction," Rawson said in a statement.

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'Ultimate Pokémon' Squirrel Evades the Eyes of Science

An illustration from 1898 shows the Zenkerella insignis.

They know it exists, thanks to eyewitness accounts and a handful of bodies found over time, but a squirrel in central Africa continues to elude biologists, who have yet to see one alive. Three new bodies, however, have at least given scientists a chance to sample its DNA for the first time.

The squirrel, Zenkerella insignis, a rodent with scales at the base of its tail, has been so successful at staying off the grid that only 14 of its specimens are curated in museums.

"Zenkerella could be seen as the ultimate Pokémon that scientists have still not been able to find or catch alive," said Erik Seiffert, lead author of a new study in the journal Peer J on the little-seen rodent, in a statement.

"After all," added the professor of cell and neurobiology at the University of Southern California, "it probably only shows up in the middle of the night, deep in the jungles of central Africa, and might spend most of its time way up in tall trees where it would be particularly hard to see."

The second of three new specimens of Zenkerella insignis was found by hunters near the village of Ureca on Bioko, an island off the west coast of Africa.

But genetic testing can tell scientists much about the critter, even if they can't spot one alive.

Cheek swabs taken from three recent specimens of the creature allowed Seiffert and his colleagues to compare Zenkerella's DNA against other rodent DNA sequences, to learn more about the mysterious animal's place in the taxonomic tree.

Having traditionally been lumped in with two other "scaly-tailed squirrels" in the Anomaluridae family, thanks to brain and jaw similarities, the researchers argue that Zenkerella actually belongs under its own, newly named family Zenkerellidae.

At issue is the ability to glide. The other two Anomaluridae squirrels -- Anomalurus and Idiurus -- have webbing between their legs and elbows, which allows them to glide between trees. But Zenkerella has no such webbing.

According to the researchers, grouping the three squirrels together, implied "that either the Zenkerella lineage lost its gliding adaptations, or that Anomalurus and Idiurus evolved theirs independently."

The scientists say their data shows that gliding only evolved once among the Anomaluridae, without subsequent loss of the ability, making Zenkerella a distant cousin to Anomalurus and Idiurus and worthy of a different family.

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Ghostly Deep-Sea Fish Seen Alive for First Time

During its ongoing exploration of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean -- the world's deepest undersea formation -- scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) caught something special on video: a fish no one had ever seen alive before.

The NOAA team shot footage of a pale, nearly translucent representative of the family Aphyonidae, an eel-like clan that lives in the deepest of waters, from 8,000 to about 20,000 feet (2,438 to 6,096 meters) below the surface. It reminded viewers of "Casper," the ghostly octopus spotted by NOAA on a prior mission.

NOAA researchers on the video (see below) brim with excitement at the sight of the small fish (typically running just under 4 inches -- 10 centimeters -- long), whose skin has no scales and no pigment.

It was spotted about 8,200 feet down (2,500 meters).

"I am sure this is the first time a fish in this family has ever been seen alive," NOAA fishery biologist Bruce Mandy said on the accompanying video below. "This is really an unusual sighting."

"Look at those eyes!" NOAA researcher and expedition team leader Shirley Pomponi exclaimed.

In addition to the sighting itself being a thrill, the video may help answer an ongoing debate about the Aphyonidae. Mandy explains that some believe the fish live in the pelagic (not close to the bottom or the shore) zone while others think the aphyonidae are bottom dwellers.

While not conclusive, Mandy indicated, the video could present a "strong argument that, yes, this family is a bottom-living family."

From Discovery News

Rare Devil's Hole Pupfish Dead After Park Break-In

The National Park Service (NPS) is investigating an incident of vandalism and trespassing in Death Valley National Park that may have led to the death of an extremely rare fish, the Devil’s Hole pupfish.

According to an NPS release, on April 30 three men, likely drunk, broke into the special, detached Devil’s Hole unit of the park, which contains the only habitat of the pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis).

The critically endangered fish live in a 500-foot-deep cavern filled with water, Devil’s Hole. One of the men swam in its waters, leaving behind articles of clothing.

One of the pupfish was found dead in the water after the men visited the site. Officials say a necropsy is being performed on the fish to see if the men’s actions caused its death.

The pupfish is native to Devil’s Hole and is often described as the world’s rarest fish. Its population varies seasonally, from 100-200 in the winter to 300-500 in the late summer.

The fish colonized Devil’s Hole anywhere from 100 to 800 years ago, according to researchers who studied its breeding earlier this year.

The men, who left behind multiple beer cans, carried guns they fired at least 10 times while shooting at signs, the locks of chained gates and motion sensors.

Investigators are poring over remote camera video footage of the intruders, including the scene included here, and are asking for help identifying them via phone (888-653-0009), email, Facebook, or via a tip form. There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.

From Discovery News

Rare Albino Turtle Hatchling Treks Across Aussie Beach

Queensland, Australia’s Castaways Beach played host to a rare sight, as an albino green sea turtle was spotted in the sand, soon to head for the ocean.

The Coolum District Coast Care turtle survey group posted pictures of the tiny hatchling on its Facebook page, noting that it’s the first albino turtle it has seen in nine years of monitoring turtles.

The group said the turtle, dubbed “Alby,” was the last of more than 100 hatchlings to make its way out to sea from the beach.

“Albino hatchlings are extremely rare. It probably occurs at the rate of one in many hundreds of thousands of eggs that are laid,” Queensland scientist Col Limpu told Australia’s ABC.

Alby’s chances of survival are dicey, Coolum District Coast Care President Leigh Warneminde told CNN. His color will make him stand out to predators, and, as it is, only 1 in 1,000 green sea turtles survives to adulthood.

From Discovery News

Brainless, Eyeless Deep-Sea 'Flatworm' Finally Identified

Four new species of deep-sea flatwormlike animals that look like deflated whoopee cushions and lack complex organs have helped solve a complicated puzzle about their group’s placement on the tree of life, scientists found.

The new study, representing 12 years of specimen collection and analysis, adds the new species to a group previously known by only a single species, and in doing so, provides a clearer picture of the evolutionary position these animals hold.

When describing the physical characteristics of these baggy marine creatures, “simple” doesn’t begin to do justice to how simple they are, as animals go. They have no recognizable face or limbs. Their bodies are blobs that look more like empty socks than animals, and are wrinkled by muscular folds and propelled by cilia. A mouth opening at one end leads to a gut sack, but there is no anal opening in the back end. They have no digestive system, no excretory system, no reproductive organs, but they probably don’t worry about that too much because they don’t have brains, either — just a neural network.

Surface appearances aside, this genus — Xenoturbella — has proved surprisingly difficult to position on the tree of life, ever since the first species, Xenoturbella bocki, was discovered in 1950, according to the study researchers. Scientists first classified it as a flatworm, and then, in the 1990s, suggested that it was a type of mollusk that had “degenerated,” losing its more developed features over time to reach a simpler form. This explanation placed Xenoturbella closer to vertebrates andechinoderms — the group of marine life that includes starfish and sea urchins — rather than in an earlier evolutionary location on a more distant branch from these more complex animals.

But new genetic data, with more than 1,000 genes sequenced from just one of the new species, disproves that Xenoturbellawas once complex, according to study lead author Greg Rouse, a marine biologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at the University of California at San Diego. “Our new analysis and that of another paper in the same issue of Nature using much more data overturns this idea, and supports the idea that Xenoturbella is simple,” Rouse told Live Science in an email. “Sequencing more than 1,000 genes of one of the species gave a large amount of data that could be directly compared with other animals,” he said.

The new species — X. hollanduram, X. monstrosa, X. profunda, and X. churro (named after the fried-dough dessert)—were found in diverse and remote deep-sea locations off the coasts of California and Mexico, the deepest of which, where X. produnda hugged the seafloor, was a hydrothermal vent 12,139 feet (3,700 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of California. The biggest species, X. monstrosa, measured 8 inches (20 centimeters) long, while tiny X. hollandorum was a mere 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) in length.

Read more at Discovery News

Extremely Rare White Giraffe Spotted in Tanzania

An extremely rare white giraffe has been spotted at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.

The giraffe calf has a condition called leucism that results in loss of pigmentation.  “Her body surface cells are not capable of making pigment, but she is not an albino,” explained the Wild Nature Institute, in a blog post.

A guide named the giraffe Omo after a popular brand of local detergent.

Experts at the Wild Nature Institute first spotted Omo last year. “We were lucky enough to resight her again this January, almost exactly one year later,” the Institute explained, in its blog post. “We are thrilled that she is still alive and well.”

Leucism occurs when some or all pigment cells fail to develop during differentiation, so part or all of the animal’s body surface lacks cells capable of making pigment. “One way to tell the difference between albino and leucistic animals is that albino individuals lack melanin everywhere, including in the eyes, so the resulting eye color is red from the underlying blood vessels,” explained the Institute.

“ is simply a rare genetic condition – drawing four aces in a row from a deck of cards is also a rare occurrence,” noted Derek Lee, quantitative ecologist at the World Nature Institute, in an email to FoxNews.com. “Whether a mutation affecting coloration, such as leucism, is adaptive or not over evolutionary time will require continued observations.”

Omo’s unusual coloration, however, has prompted fears that she could become a target for poachers.

From Discovery News

Giant Squid Visits Harbor in Japan

Giant squid fans got a nice Christmas present, when one of the titans of the deep appeared in a Japanese harbor on Christmas Eve. Better still for those on hand, it hung around to let itself be recorded in some amazing footage, CNN reports.

The rarely seen aquatic behemoth paid a visit to Japan’s Toyama Bay, swimming near the surface among the harbor’s boats, and giving onlookers a thrill.

One of those watching the squid was a dive shop owner who leaped into the water to trail the creature. The footage above was caught by a submersible camera.

“This squid was not damaged and looked lively, spurting ink and trying to entangle his tentacles around me,” the diver told CNN.

The animal stayed in the harbor for a few hours, before the diver guided it back out to the ocean. It's likely a juvenile, as it was on the small side for the species, at about 12 feet long (adults can reach some 30 to 40 feet long).

Experts told the network that it was rare to see giant squid — normally denizens of the deepest seas — swimming so close inland among boat moors. There was no immediately clear reason why this one had done so.

Read more at Discovery News