New Species

Three Eel-Like Catfish Discovered

News and photographs of new fish species are routinely published in Practical Fishkeeping. Above are photos of the new Mexican catfish discovered in 2005. This week, the magazine is noting three new eel-like catfish species. Belgian scientists have described three new species belonging to the African eel-like clariid genus Channallabes. Publishing their results in the latest issue of the journal Belgian Journal of Zoology, Stijn Devaere, Dominique Adriaens and Walter Verraes of Ghent University describe Channallabes ogooensis and C. teugelsi in one study and C. sanghaensis in another. The eel-like clariids of Africa are also rediagnosed in the first study, [...]

Kangahippomouse?

No, it’s not a new member of the Flight of the Conchords group, which already include performers with the pseudonyms of the Hiphopopotamus and the Rhymenoceros. No, the Kangahippomouse is the thing above. Mark Frauenfelder has blogged an entry entitled “Mystery creature photographed in Seattle — a kangahippomouse?” over at Boing Boing. A reader at BB recently sent in a photograph (above) of this whatever: “Just outside of Seattle, WA my roommate Ed recently took a photo of this . . . thing.” Mark is looking for help in identifying it. My first thoughts ran to that of the naked [...]

First Zanzibar Coelacanth Caught

Small coelacanth from Tanzania caught in February 2007; it is not the one discussed below. Photo courtesy dinofish. The known range of the coelacanth is expanded with this new discovery, and hope remains high that the “living fossil” fish may exist in some surprising locations around the world. Zanzibar, Tanzania – Fishermen have caught a rare and endangered fish, the coelacanth, off the coast of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar, a researcher said on Monday [July 16, 2007]. The find makes Zanzibar the third place in Tanzania where fishermen have caught the coelacanth, a heavy-bodied, many-finned fish with a [...]

Extinct Echidna Rediscovered

Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), thought extinct since 1961, appears to not be gone, after all. Researchers have found burrows, tracks, and nose pokes made by the long-beaked echidna, recently in Papua’s Cyclops Mountains. Also, locals had said they have seen the animals as recently as 2005. “The month-long expedition by scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) involved travelling to parts of the mountain range, covered by thick jungle, which had remained unexplored for more than 45 years,” reported the BBC News. This echidna was named after TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The species is only known to [...]

Discovering The Bili Ape

Dr. Shelly Williams holds the Bili Ape cast for media photographs in 2003. Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla. Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the [...]

Recent New Species in Pictures

Sometimes a “new species” to the media is one only new to the area and/or out-of-place… Squacco Heron. Humboldt Penguin. Infrequently, a new species is a surprising discovery, unique to zoology… Eleutherodactylus Frog. Atelopus Frog.

Tatzelwurm Sources and Notes

Tatzelwurm, Source Alp Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Alpenburg: Mythen und Sagen Tirols, Zürich, 1857 And Roy Chapman Andrews: Auf der Fährte des Urmenschen, Leipzig, 1927, pp. 93-94 BN Blätter für Naturkunde und Naturschutz, Wien, 21.Jhg. 1934, pp. 22-23, 40-41 Bre1 Prof.Dr.Otto zur Strassen (Editor): Brehms Tierleben, Vierte Auflage Band 5, Lurche und Kriechtiere – Band 2, Leipzig und Wien, 1913 Bre2 Dr.Theo Jahn (Editor): Brehms Neue Tierenzyklopädie, Band 9, Reptilien, Amphibien, Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 1976 Bre3 Dr. Vincenz Brehm: Der Tazzelwurm, in: Natur und Land, 1949/1950, pp. 174-75 Dal Prof.Dr.K.W.von Dalla Torre: Die Drachensage im Alpengebiet, in: Zeitschrift des Deutschen und Österreichischen [...]