Amphibians and Reptiles are disappearing

The European Adder (from Wikipedia)

The Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) Trust have released a worrying report naming the species that are becoming rarer in the UK. The population of adders which are native to this country is declining rapidly and the populations of slow worms, common lizards, grass snakes,common toads, common frogs and great crested newts are also becoming more rare. Some of the endangered species already have high levels of protection but this does not apply to some of the species that are considered more common. The plight of the adder is one which must be looked at. While this species was once very common in the UK, it is now one of the rarest widespread reptiles and is in need of serious conservation attention.

The only good news given by the report is of the palmate newt which is actually increasing its range and becoming more common.This is thought to indicate changes in the quality of Britain's ponds as palmate newts prefer acidic pools which are now common from acid rain fall and agricultural run off which are major problems associated with pollution. However the main problem which is thought to be effecting the populations of amphibians and reptiles is habitat fragmentation.

A Decade Long Marine Census Comes To An End

Yeti Crab - Census of Marine Life

The Census of Marine Life which started in 2000 has finally been completed. It is estimated that during the census 20,000 new species have been discovered, bringing the number of known species to nearly 250,000. The decade long project cost £413m and aimed to find out what lived, lives and will live in the oceans. It involved more than 540 expeditions with over 2,700 researchers and used many new types of technology. Fish were tagged and seals were fitted with monitors to record when they dived. Acoustic systems were used to measure fish populations.

Dr Ian Poiner, the chairman of the project’s scientific steering committee, told the BBC “All surface life depends on life inside and beneath the oceans”. This is literally true because we know that life evolved from the oceans and the very first life forms were aquatic organisms. Back then the atmosphere did not have everything they needed to survive but the water did. It was a while before the air contained the nutrients that were needed but eventually life began to evolve on earth. It is thought that there could still be many undiscovered species in the oceans and there could be at least a million of them in total.

Many wonderful species have been discovered during this census, including a Jurassic Shrimp that has thought to have been extinct for at least 50 million years and a crab which has been named the Yeti Crab (see the picture at the top of this post). However, it wasn’t just large organisms that Dr Poiner’s project looked for. The census included trying to tell tiny microbes apart using genetic sequencing. If you thought that a million organisms was a lot then you will be surprised at how many different types of microbes are thought to be in the water – one billion. Hopefully the Census of Marine Life will serve as a base for us to build on to try and preserve marine life.

Source - MSN News

A New Species of Giant Elephant Shrew?

An elephant shrew in an undated photo released September 21, 2010.
Credit: REUTERS/Zoological Society of London/ Handout

Researchers in a remote Kenyan forest, the Boni-Dodori forest, think they may have discovered a new species of Giant Elephant Shrew (Macroscelidea). Further genetic analysis will be carried out by the Zoological Society of London and the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) to determine whether this is actually a new species or whether it is a new variety of a current species.

Interestingly, the Giant Elephant Shrew is more closely related to elephants than shrews. Unlike many small mammals, these Shrews are only active during the day. They use their long snout to search under leaf litter where their food source, invertebrates, can be found and eaten with their extremely long tongue. It is the long snout that originally gave the Elephant Shrew their name.

Scientists launch many expeditions a year to research biodiversity around the world and this is especially needed now that forests take up a much smaller area of the world than they did 40 years ago. This is particularly dangerous as loss of habitats can cause animals to become endangered and even extinct, especially if they are not as widespread as some animals. The Giant Elephant Shrew are among the list of endangered animals and the discovery of a new species is a very significant discovery. Elephant Shrews tend to be more adapted to areas where water and food is available all year round, such as coastal forests, and destruction of the forests can be drastically dangerous for the survival of these species.

References:

The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K2SX20100922

Thanks to fellow zoologist Nicola for pointing this story out to me!