African Wolf aka Egyptian Jackal

This is not really fish related but cool enough to warrant a post here anyway. Scientists have discovered a new species of Wolf in Egypt. A team a researchers from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), the University of Oslo, and Addis Ababa University, with funding from the University of Oslo, shows that Gray wolves reached Africa around 3 million years ago before spreading throughout the northern hemisphere. The new wolf is a relative of the Holarctic grey wolf, the Indian wolf and the Himalayan wolf.

The Egyptian jackal (Canis aureus lupaster) is an importan part of the Egyptian mythology and has until now been considered a subspecies of the Golden jackal (Canis aureus) but this new research show that the egyptian jackal is infact a species of wolf. This new species is not closely related to the rare Ethiopian wolves. Ethiopian wolves are a relatively recent of spring from the gray wolf complex while this new species, ”African wolf” (suggested name by Professor Sillero), likely arrived in Africa much earlier.

Professor David Macdonald says: “A wolf in Africa is not only important conservation news, but raises fascinating biological questions about how the new African wolf evolved and lived alongside not only the real golden jackals but also the vanishingly rare Ethiopian wolf, which is a very different species with which the new discovery should not be confused.”

The jackal is important in Egyptian Mythology

The team also found genetically very similar specimens to this new wolf in the highlands of Ethiopia, 2,500 km from Egypt, suggesting that the new species might have a large distrobution and that it is not just found in Egypt.

The conservational status of this new species is not known.

Professor Sillero says: “It seems as if the Egyptian jackal is urgently set for a name-change, and its unique status as the only member of the grey wolf complex in Africa suggests that it should be re-named ‘the African wolf’.”

WildCRU is part of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology.

If you want to read the entire paper (direct link) you can do so at PlosOne:

Photo by: L. Brian Stauffer.

‘A species of giant crayfish native to Tennessee in the United States has been scientifically described and given the name Barbicambarus simmonis.

Barbicambarus simmonis can reach a size of at least 5 inches (12,5 cm) which is twice the size of an average North American crayfish.

The researchers behind the paper in which Barbicambarus simmonis was described are Christopher Taylor from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Guenter Schuster from Eastern Kentucky University.

The first specimen was found by Tennessee Valley Authority scientist Jeffrey Simmons in 2010, and that is why the species bears his name. This specimen, as well as the specimen encountered by Taylor and Schuster, lived in Shoal Creek, a stream in southern Tennessee that ultimately drains into the Tennessee River. The creek has attracted the attention of researchers for at least half a century, which makes it reasonable to assume that Barbicambarus simmonis is either rare or very difficult to find.

You can find out more about Barbicambarus simmonis in the paper “Monotypic no more, a description of a new crayfish of the genus Barbicambarus Hobbs, 1969 (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the Tennessee River drainage using morphology and molecules”  published in the journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.

Barbicambarus simmonsi

Barbicambarus is a genus of freshwater crayfish that up until now had only one member: Barbicambarus cornutus. Barbicambarus cornutus is known only from the Barren River and Green River systems of Tennessee. The largest known specimens are 23 cm (9 inches) long, so this crayfish is even larger than Barbicambarus simmonis and one of the largest species of crayfish in North America*. It was scientifically described in 1884, but not seen again by scientists until the 1960s.

North America is rich in crayfish and also a comparatively well explored part of the world. Of the roughly 600 scientifically described species of crayfish, roughly 50% are native to North America. However, even though North America is such a well surveyed part of the world, new species are regularly described by scientists. The Pearl Map Turtle, Graptemys pearlensis, was for instance described in the summer of 2010. Just like Barbicambarus simmonis, this turtle is native to the southern part of the U.S. It lives in the Pearl River in Louisiana and Mississippi.

A researcher has commented that this past Wednesday his team has discovered that a local freshwater salmon species classified as extinct by the government about seven decades ago, still lives on in Lake Saiko.

Tetsuji Nakabo, Kyoto University professor, commented that he took a look at nine fish from the lake and discovered that they were strikingly similar – in fact the same as – the “kunimasu” or “black kokanee” species of salmon.

If this find is confirmed, it will be the very first time a fish species in Japan which has been classified as extinct has been found living still, the Environment Ministry explained. The ministry has commented it is going to do its best to verify the claims of Nakabo and review its classification of the salmon.

The salmon, a landlocked sockeye, had been seen earlier on only in Lake Tazwa, and was believed to have died off due to an inflow of toxic water sometime in the 1940’s.

However, Nakabo explained there are records which show the salmon’s eggs were taken to other lakes, including Lake Saiko and Lake Biwa, to help improve stocks about half a decade earlier than when they supposedly went extinct.

The species “likely propagated from the eggs from that time,” Nakabo explained.

This discovery came in February, after Nakabo asked fish expert Sakana-kun to show a likeness of the extinct fish.

Sakana-kun requested samples of “himemasu” – a fish similar to that of the “kunimasu” – and discovered they were very similar, and just possibly the same!

A brand new kind of large squid has been found by researchers while voyaging around on a research cruise in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.

This large squid, almost a meter long, belongs to the chiroteuthid family.

The squid which form a part of this family are long and thin, and have organs which produce light. The light producing organs help them attract their meals.

This large squid was discovered during an analysis of thousands of different samples which were brought in from the Seamounts cruise last year. The cruise is being led by a conservation group known as IUCN.

The project began a year ago when experts in the area of marine biology set out on a six week science expedition in the Indian Ocean.

The aim of the expedition was to shed some light on the mysterious seamounts – mountains under the water – located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, and to help manage marine resources and improve conservation plans in the area.

“For 10 days now 21 scientists armed with microscopes have been working through intimidating rows of jars containing fishes, squids, zooplankton and other interesting creatures,” explains a spokesperson of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, Alex Rogers.

“Many specimens look similar to each other and we have to use elaborate morphological features such as muscle orientation and gut length to differentiate between them.”

A new species of dolphin has been discovered with a short, spoon shaped nose, and a high bulbous forehead. This new “balloon head” dolphin has been identified from fossilized remains discovered in the North Sea.

The Platalearostrum hoekmani was given its name after Albert Hoekman, the Dutch fisherman who stumbled across the skull of the creature in 2008.

These newly discovered dolphins can be up to eighteen feet long, and roamed the world’s oceans some two to three million years ago.

The remains of the amazing creature and a model are part of a fascinating display at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam.

Researchers from the museum, Klaas Post and Erwin Kompanie have gone on record in the journal Deinsea as commenting that the North Sea is a very rich source of fossils in recent years, and has become even more prevalent as fishing has become more common there.

The increase in fishing activity has yielded thousand upon thousands of fossils – many which cannot even begun to be classified.

The only thing which is clear at the moment is that the bone discovered by Mr. Hoekman is that the creature belonging to it is within the same family of aquatic animals known as Delphinids – ocean dwelling dolphins which actually encompasses killer and pilot whales as well.

Anything more descriptive than that is somewhat left in the air.

Based on research, and comparisons of similar fossils, scientists still think that the new species discovered is closest to the pilot whale in the spectrum.

White Snailfish

A brand new kind of fish has just been found in one of the dark “lifeless” areas of the ocean. It was previously thought that the area was devoid of fish, researchers say.

This new kind of snailfish was discovered making its home at an amazing depth of 7 kilometers, in the Peru-Chile trench in the South East Pacific.

Large groups of cusk-eels and rather large scavengers were also found making themselves at home at these depths, which is a scientific first, researchers added.

The discoveries, in some of the deepest darkest recesses of our planet, were made by a group of marine biologists hailing from the University of Aberdeen, in conjunction with experts from Japan and New Zealand.

The team set out on a 21 day voyage, during which they made use of various deep-sea imaging equipment to snap photos of the murky depths, some 4500 meters to an astounding 8 kilometers within the trench.

This voyage was the seventh such voyage as part of HADEEP, a research project cooked up by the boys over at the University of Aberdeen’s Ocean Lab and the University of Tokyo’s Ocean Research Institute, along with the backing of New Zealand’s National institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The use of the updated technology really gave researchers the boost they needed to discover this amazing find. Who knows what will be dredged up next? Science has been stale for such a long time, especially when you talk about the oceans, so it’s good to see some new discoveries being made right under our noses.

Melanotaenia fasinensis location

Researchers have just discovered and described a new rainbow fish which hails from West Papua, Indonesia.

Ichthyologists, also known as fish scientists to us normal folk, Paradis, Pouyaud, Kadarusman and Sudarto are credited with the find and have dubbed the new kind of rainbow fish Melanotaenia fasinensis. They published this in a paper in the journal Cybium.

The new rainbow fish was found in the Fasin River, just about 25 clicks west of Lake Ayamaru on the West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula.

The little guy was found floating about in a 1 meter deep, 4.5 meter wide stream, surrounded by flush greenery.

This rainbow fish lives over a substrate of gravel, and makes its home amongst limestone boulders and debris of fallen branches from the forest.

The Fasin River also boasts a myriad of other species such as sleeper gobies, and different types of crayfish.

The Bird’s Head Peninsula in Indonesia is considered a hotspot when one is going about and trying to find rainbow fish. There are many different kinds of rainbow fish which also call the place home, and they all seem to live in harmony with one another.

It’s good to see that the scientific world has not given up on seeking new kinds of this beautiful fish. Not only are they pretty to look at, but they are key to the survival of all the species in that ecosystem.

Some people have been trying to catch them and sell them off as pets, however an ordinance is in place telling people to refrain from such a practice.

A brand new kind of filament barb has been discovered and described which is from India’s southern tip. This new discovery was released in the newest edition of the Journal of Threatened Taxa. This is really quite an astonishing discovery, and it leads one to wonder what other marvels may be hiding themselves away in the depths of the sea, far from the prying hands of us humans.

Puntius Rohani - Picture from report

Authors, TJ Indra, K Rema, and JD Marcus Knight have dubbed the new barb discovered Puntius rohani, after Rohan Pethiyagoda, an accomplished Ichthyologist, for his contributions on both Sri Lankan and Indian fish.

This new filament barb is distinguished by others of its species by the fact that this particular barb has a black club-shaped blotch by the caudal peduncle. It also seems to lack any other colors or patterns other than this blotch, and it also doesn’t have the black bands near the tip of its caudal fin lobes.

The actual report is really quite riveting, and tells a great deal more about the new filament barb, other differences, discovery, and notations.

If you would like to hear more on this subject, you will need to refer to the paper itself: Devi, KR, TJ Indra and JDM Knight (2010) Puntius rohani (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), a new species of barb in the Puntius filamentosus group from the southern Western Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(9): 1121-1129. Read the papper (pdf)

Paulo & the new Catfish species. Picture by :Nature conservancy

An amazonian catfish, which also happens to be armored, has been discovered and it doesn’t eat the usual thing… Nope, this one eats wood. This interesting catfish will eat wood from logs floating around, or if it gets particularly hungry, even the excrement of its neighboring catfish.

This amazing new species of armored catfish was discovered by Paulo Petry, of Nature Conservancy. Paulo, along with some colleagues, reeled in these interesting catfish a few weeks back when on a scientific expedition to the Fitzgerald Arch. The Fitzgerald arch is one of the most out of the way places in the Peruvian Amazon, and is busting at the seams with different kinds of life, but it is also facing imminent dangers from development projects.

The catfish may not win any beauty pageants, however as Petry has commented “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have scientist friends who do work on the blobfish, and they think it’s beautiful!”

The largest of these unique creatures reeled in was roughly 65 centimeters, while the other two captured were only about half that size. They were reeled in at the confluence of the Purus and Curanja rivers.

An interesting question is just why this particular catfish is armored. Although, as Petry explains, finding armored catfish in South America isn’t so unusual. “There are 35 different families of catfish on Earth. Armored catfish are unique to South America. They’re the most diverse group of catfish in South America — probably close to 800 species. They’re a fairly evolved, and a very specialized group within catfish.”

However, what is even more astounding is that this particular catfish eats wood. While it is true that there are some variety of fish will dig their way into logs, however finding a fish which actually makes a meal of the substance is a rare find. There are a very small group of catfish which share this wood eating characteristic. Once this catfish mows down on some seemingly non-nutritious wood, it converts the wood cellulose into a different form of sugar, which it then uses.

Apparently, wood eating catfish wouldn’t be as surprising to us if the people who shipped them off to aquariums didn’t half starve them on the way there. “That’s one of the biggest issues when people bring these fish into the aquarium trade — they let them starve for very long times for shipping, the protozoan in their belly dies, and then they can’t digest wood. If you put another fish from the same group that is in good condition in the tank with them, the starving fish will eat the feces of the healthy fish to reinoculate itself with the protozoan, and then it will be able to eat wood and survive.” Petry went on to explain.

Well there you have it… Wood eating catfish are amongst us. Who knows what other unique and interesting creatures we will find?

Researchers have described a brand new kind of clownfish, which belongs in the skunk clown group.

Douglas Fenner, Joshua Drew, and Gerald Allen, described this new clownfish as Amphiprion pacificus in their report which was recently published in Aqua, the International Journal of Ichthyology.

Amphiprion pacificus is now being described by scientists who took a look at four specimens which were roughly 4 to 5 centimeters long, and were caught in the western Pacific Ocean, between Tonga and Wallis Island.

However, it should be noted that this “new” fish was also photographed by divers on the coral reefs in Samao and Fiji.

This new species which has been described is almost identical to Amphiprion akallopisos, which makes its home in the Indian Ocean.

Both species of fish have a slightly pinkish brown body and a white stripe along their backs.

Despite the fact that they are almost identical in appearance, genetic testing has suggeste that Amphiprion pacificus is more closely related to Amphiprion sandaracinos, an anemonefish which lives in the Western Australia and indo-Malayan region of the world.

The authors were quoted as saying: “Aside from genetic differences A. sandaracinos differs from A. pacificus in having a uniform orange colouration and the white forehead stripe extends onto the upper lip.

“There also appears to be modal differences in the number of soft dorsal and anal rays (usually 19 versus 18 and 13 versus 12 respectively for A. pacificus and A. sandaracinos).”

If you are interested in learning more about this new discovery, feel free to check out: Allen GR, Drew J and D Fenner (2010) – Amphiprion pacificus, a new species of anemonefish (Pomacentridae) from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Wallis Island, pp. 129-138. Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, Volume 16, Issue 3 – 15 July 2010.