Archive for the ‘Zoology’ Category
Earthworms eat seeds and seedlings, scientists have found.
The discovery they eat live rather than just dead plants will change the way we think about earthworms, which had been thought to benefit plants by recycling soil nutrients.
Earthworms eat live rather than just dead plants
It may offer a way for gardeners and farmers to encourage more earthworms into their soil, for example.
But it also means invasive earthworms could be reducing populations of plants in once pristine soils.
Confirmation that earthworms feed on living plants is published in the journal Soil Biology and Biochemistry by Dr Nico Eisenhauer of the Georg-August-University Göttingen in Germany.
With colleagues, Dr Eisenhauer made the discovery studying the behaviour of Lumbricus terrestris, an anecic earthworm that inhabits soils around the world.
Originating in Europe, the worm occurs in grasslands, agricultural fields and forests and is invading soils across the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Previous studies have shown that some earthworms will swallow plant seeds, while others appear to collect seeds, burying them in their burrows.
Micro Moth (Ectoedemia heckfordi)
A 3mm long Moth, which was first found in 2004, has been recognised as a new species!
The micro-moth, which lives in Hembury Woods in Devon is believed to be unique to the UK and not found anywhere else in the world.
The tiny moth, with a wingspan of just 6mm, was first spotted in 2004 by amateur naturalist Bob Heckford.
In January this year (2010), the moth was officially recognised in the journal Zookeys as a new species, and named Ectoedemia heckfordi after its discoverer.
Source: BBC [link].
More info: Ectoedemia Heckfordi (Wikipedia).
Loch Ness Fish
The Loch Ness monster was believed to exist according to a 1930s declassified document.
In 1938, the chief constable of Inverness-shire raised concerns about protecting Nessie from hunters!
In a letter released by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), he wrote: “That there is some strange fish [creature] in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt.”
Interestingly he refers to it as a “strange fish“, and not a creature or monster.
But what is clear is at the time there was a real concern for the safety of the locals, tourists and the monster itself (if it exists!).
Transcript of the letter can be found below.
Gigantic Scorpion
A cast is being made of tracks left by a two-metre long ancient animal in north east Fife.
The tracks were made by a giant six-legged “sea scorpion” called Hibbertopterus as it crawled over damp sand about 330 million years ago.
It is the largest known walking trackway of a eurypterid or any invertebrate animal.
The tracks were discovered by Dr Martin Whyte from the University of Sheffield while he was out walking.
Scottish Natural Heritage, which is funding the project, described the find as unique and internationally important because the creature was gigantic.
The trackway, which is preserved in sandstone, consists of three rows of crescent shaped footprints on each side of a central groove.
A study of a 150 million year old dinosaur fossil has revealed it had multi-coloured feathers.
The research, published in the journal Science, compared the structures which determine colour in living bird feathers with those in the fossil.
“This would be a very striking animal if it was alive today,” said Yale University’s Professor Richard Prum, co-author of the report.
It is believed the colours would have helped the dinosaur attract a mate.
Anchiornis huxleyi is a four-winged dinosaur which lived in the late Jurassic Period in China. Researchers chose this particular fossil to work on because the feathers were so well preserved.
Source: BBC.
Sad news, a northern bottlenose whale (nicknamed Gilbert) that had been spotted along the south coast of England near Bournemouth, has been found washed up on the beach near Alum Chine.
The female whale had been delighting watchers every morning with tail flapping and water breaching, but experts had voiced their concerns as it was very unusual for such a whale to be found along the south coast.
There has been lots of whale sighting in the past, but they are usually spotted passing up or down the English Channel and very rarely stay in one place for long.
The dead whale was discovered around 9pm yesterday (21 September 2009) and is now being examined by conservationists to try to determine its cause of death.
One theory is that Gilbert became caught in a rope as a deep mark around her beak had been found and several cuts are clearly visible on its belly, which is believed to have been caused as she thrashed around in an attempt to free herself.
More info and photos of Gilbert can be found on the Bournemouth Echo website.
The elusive African Golden Cat
Three images of one of Africa’s most elusive cats has been caught on camera.
The African Golden Cat (Profelis aureate) was caught with a digital infrared camera trap, set up by Yale biologist Dr Gary Aronsen.
Cat info: Due to its extremely reclusive living style, not much is known about this cat’s behaviour.
The African Golden Cat is able to climb, but hunts primarily on the ground. Prey includes rodents, birds, small monkeys, the tree hyrax, small antelope species, such as the duiker, and even the Giant Forest Hog. These cats have also been known to take domestic poultry and livestock.
Source: BBC Earth News.
Image: © Gary Aronsen.
August was a fantastic month for Cryptoworld, with over 20,000 unique (new) visitors and almost 800,000 hits! Unfortunately hits aren’t really a true indication of the amount of visitors to a site, but it would be great if we can top the 1 million mark before the end of the year!
Anyway – the top stories for August are as follows – interestingly a couple of old stories have crept back into the top ten!
Scary Ants?
1) Scary! Ants form Global Mega-Colony
Very Scary: A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Read the whole start here >>>
2) Mermaid spotted in Israel
Israel was in the grips of mermaid fever in August after numerous sightings of the mythical sea creature off its coast.
Read the whole story here >>>
3) Orange balls of light seem over South London
Crowds of people gathered in Balham and Tooting (South London) to watch two sets of orange lights fly in formation across the night sky.
Still a very popular story – now with 75+ comments!!!
Read the whole story here >>>
The alleged Sewer Monster!
4) Very Weird Unknown life form found in Sewers! (Video)
Unsurprisingly, the Sewer monster is still in the top 10. What is it? The debate seems to still be ongoing.
Read more, watch the video and decide for yourselves >>>
5) Sewer Creature is REAL – but not what you’d expect!
One possible answer – Bloodworms (Tubifex tubifex) – what’s your thoughts?
Watch the video here >>>
6) Lights, Lanterns and UFOs!
Lots and lots of people are seeing strange lights all over the world. Here in the UK, there are new sightings on an almost daily basis – but what are they?
Read the full story and watch the video here >>>
The Bare-faced bulbul
7) Bald Songbird discovered in Laos
The latest strange creature to emerge from a rugged region of Laos is a bald songbird, dubbed the “bare-faced bulbul”.
Read the full story here >>>
8 ) 4 new Thylacine sightings in 3 months!
An old story from June 2006 has crept back up the charts – Four new sighting of the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) have been reported in the last three months on the outskirts of Portland, Southern Australia.
Read the whole story here >>>
Helensburgh Big Cat?
9) Big Cat captured on video in Helensburgh, Argyll?
An off-duty Ministry of Defence police dog handler has taken a video of what he claims is a panther-sized big cat.
Read the story (with photo) here >>>
10) Cannibal Frog found in Australia
The matchbox-sized green-stripe frog normally eats bugs – but this one swallowed a green tree frog.
Read the full story (with photo) here >>>
Piranha found in Devon river
The Environment Agency said its staff were amazed to find a dead piranha in the East Okement tributary of the River Torridge.
The piranha, which has razor-sharp teeth, is generally considered to be the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world.
The 35cm (14in) fish was spotted by Bob Collett, Dave Hoskin and Eddie Stevens during a sampling trip on the river.
Fish species which the team would commonly expect to find within the river include Salmon, Brown Trout and possibly other species such as Bullheads, Stone loach and Minnow.
‘What we actually discovered was something we would not expect to find in our wildest dreams. We could hardly believe our eyes,’ said Eddie Stevens, from the Environment Agency.
Source: Environment Agency
Mermaid or Dolphin?
Israel is in the grips of mermaid fever after numerous sightings of the mythical sea creature off its coast.
One town council is taking the reports so seriously that is is offering a $1m (£609,000) reward to anyone who can prove the existence of a mermaid in its waters.
Kiryat Yam municipality, near Haifa, says it has been told of dozens of sightings in the past few months. “Many people are telling us they are sure they’ve seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other,” said council spokesman Natti Zilberman.
The nautical nymph is only seen in the evening at sunset, according to media reports, drawing crowds of people with cameras hoping for a glimpse. “People say it is half girl, half fish, jumping like a dolphin. It does all kinds of tricks then disappears,” Mr Zilberman said.
Asked whether a dolphin or large fish could be a more rational explanation, he insisted: “They say it is a female figure, it looks like a young girl.”
The council denied its offer of a reward was a publicity stunt, but said it hoped to nurture the mermaid as something which could bring in more tourists.
Source: Sky News.
So, it’s probably just a dolphin, but the local council seem to think it’s a mermaid and plan on cashing in – why don’t they just set up dolphin spotting boat trips?
