New Species

New Bamboo Found in Appalachia

Hill Cane, Iowa State University photo We tend to think that we … know our own biodiversity, and that there isn’t much left to discover in a place like the United States. I think this demonstrates that that’s not true.Lynn Clark, professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, Iowa State University Surprise, surprise! Two known species of North American bamboo discovered 200 years ago have been joined by a brand new one just found in the last year. The “hill cane” was discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. This new species of bamboo (Arundinaria appalachiana) grows only to about 6 feet, [...]

Idaho: New Bird Species Discovered

A male South Hills crossbill using its crossed mandibles to bite between lodgepole pine cone scales to access seeds. The decurved mandibles enable crossbills to exert strong biting forces at the tip of their bill. Credit: (photograph by Craig Benkman) One does not expect to discover a bird species new to science while wandering around the continental United States. Nor does one expect that such a species would provide much insight into how coevolutionary arms races promote speciation. On both fronts a paper to appear in The American Naturalist proves otherwise. Julie Smith, now at Pacific Lutheran University, and her [...]

Update: New Clouded Leopard

Of course, the media has gone wild and over-reached a bit in highlighting the “new species” discovery of the Borneo/Sumatra clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) as such a remarkable find in many news articles. Indeed, the cat was there all the time, and has been “in the books” for 184 years. Of course, as has been mentioned within previous comments, I first talked about the reclassification of the two clouded leopards via this blog, on December 15, 2006, here: “Clouded Leopards: Two Species.” It is exciting to find something that’s been under our noses all the time, but let’s be realistic [...]

No Friend of Sponge Bob!

There’s been another new marine species discovered in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This marine snail, Tylodina fungina, was collected in a dredge sample with its host sponge. This species feeds exclusively on a single species of sponge that exactly matches its bright yellow color. Despite being featured in field guides, very little is known about its biology. (Credit: Antonia Baeza, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) For more, see: New Marine Species Discovered In Eastern Pacific

New Brazilian Snapper

Lutjanus alexandrei is a new species discovered among the reefs of the Abrolhos region of the South Atlantic Ocean. (Credit: CI-Brasil/Rodrigo Moura) For more info see: New Species Of Snapper Discovered In Brazil

New Clouded Leopard

Talk about exciting! The World Wildlife Fund and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have annouced the discovery of the new animal pictured above, a clouded leopard found by a WWF member inside the Borneo rainforest, East of Malaysia. The clouded leopard of Borneo, discovered to be an entirely new species, is the latest in a growing list of animals and plants unique to the Southeast Asian country’s rainforest and underscores the need to preserve the area, conservationists said Thursday, March 15, 2007. (AP Photo/WWF, Alain Compost, HO) For fifty years the Clouded Leopard was regarded as a monotypic [...]

More on Aussie Serpent

An illustration of a central ranges taipan. Original news of find reported here on Cryptomundo. New deadly species found A NEW species of the world’s most venomous snake, the taipan, has been discovered. The central ranges taipan was found in the central desert of Western Australia but its habitat could extend into the Northern Territory and South Australia. Dr Mark Hutchinson, from the SA Museum, caught the snake crossing a dirt track on a sunny afternoon during a survey of the Ngaanyatjarra lands late last year. The find was announced yesterday. Laboratory analysis at the WA Museum, and DNA testing [...]

New Aussie Serpent

New species of taipan found AUSTRALIAN researchers have found a new species of taipan snake slithering in the outback. Similar to the western brown snake, the still unnamed species was discovered during an expedition to a remote region about 200km northwest of Uluru in September last year. Dr Mark Hutchinson, reptile and amphibian curator at the South Australian Museum, caught the immature female taipan while it was crossing a dirt track. He said the reptile was about one metre long but, because it was one of the most venomous snakes in the world, he did not inspect the creature on [...]