Aliatypus californicus

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A new study highlights the excitement and tragedy of discovering two brand new species of fish in Brazil. A team of experts including Murilo Pastana,&nbsp;a researcher at the <a href="https://www.si.edu/">Smithsonian</a><a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/"> National Museum of Natural</a> History, described the new species of tiny Amazonian fish – one with striking red-orange fins and the other so small it is technically considered a miniature fish species. The scientists warn that these fish are in imminent danger of becoming <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pink-pigeons-need-a-genetic-rescue-to-survive-extinction/">extinct</a>, even as the scientific world becomes aware of their existence for the first time.&nbsp;



During 2015 and 2016, Pastana and his colleagues undertook expeditions into the Brazilian Amazon to search for undocumented fish species in the waterways of the Madeira River Basin which is, according to a 2019 estimate, the richest river basin in the world for fish biodiversity. The survey area, roughly 25 miles north of the Brazilian city of Apuí, is unfortunately almost top of the list of Brazilian municipalities with the highest rates of deforestation.&nbsp;



“We went to sample places that have never been visited by scientists,” Pastana said. “This area is really important because this is one of the frontiers where deforestation is moving north – the border between new cities and native forest.”



The researchers were able to access the previously unreachable streams, ponds and tributaries using the very same roads that have been created to facilitate logging activities. They camped along the AM-174 road and collected fish using nets, traps and other methods. All the specimens were photographed, cataloged and preserved for further study back at the Museum of Zoology, University of São Paulo.



“It was exciting to find new species,” said Pastana. “But in the field, we saw the forest on fire, logging trucks carrying out huge trees, and cleared patches turned into cattle pasture. This made us feel a lot of urgency to document these species and publish this paper as quickly as possible.”



Pastana is passionate about preserving the country’s biological heritage, and hopes that describing these new species, both belonging to the group of fish known colloquially as South American darters, will motivate the Brazilian government to protect and conserve them, as well as their precious habitat. He and his co-authors, Willian Ohara from the Federal University of Rondônia and Priscila Camelier from the Federal University of Bahia, said that ongoing deforestation in the region places these roughly inch-long fish in imminent danger of extinction. In particular, the more colorful of the two species,&nbsp;Poecilocharax callipterus, is at risk because its known range is limited to a single stream comprising roughly 1.5 square miles of habitat.



To the researchers, P. callipterus stood out immediately in the field as a new species. The fish has a distinctive dark spot just in front of its tail, as well as having bright red-orange fins.&nbsp; It inhabits the margins of what scientists call black water streams, so named because their waters are stained the color of coffee by tannins leached from fallen leaves. Males of the species have even more intense coloration and sport dorsal fins that can exceed half their body length, which averages just over an inch. Despite searching for this species in the surrounding area on the 2016 return trip, Pastana and his colleagues were only able to find&nbsp;P. callipterus&nbsp;in the single stream in which it was first discovered.



The second species, now named P. rhizophilus,&nbsp;was found among tangles of tree roots protruding from the banks of muddy streams. It has an amber yellow coloration, with males showing dark streaks on their dorsal and anal fins. It is so small that scientists consider it to be miniature, a designation given to fish species that are less than about an inch long as adults. Pastana explained that lab study revealed parts of the skeletons of these tiny fish are actually made of cartilage instead of bone.&nbsp;



Genetic investigations confirmed the evolutionary relationship of these two new closely related species and their relatives, bringing the total number of species in their small sub-family (Crenuchinae) to five. This is the first addition of a new species to the group in 57 years.



Species from the sub-family Crenuchinae are highly desired by hobby aquarium keepers and Pastana fears that the trade in exotic aquarium fish could pose another threat to the populations of these two previously unknown Amazonian species.&nbsp;&nbsp;



These fishes, said Pastana, are like works of art and “losing either of these species would be like losing priceless masterpieces.” Like masterworks from Monet or Picasso, each species is full of irreplaceable details that might bear some resemblance to other creatures on Earth but in concert are utterly unique. Extinction would cause all those details, wrought over millions of years of evolution, to be lost forever. “You’d lose everything about these species,” he said.



The study is published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean">Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Deforestation threatens two new fish species with extinction

A new study highlights the excitement and tragedy of discovering...

A research team led by the non-governmental organization <a href="https://www.paralatierra.org/">Para la Tierra</a> has recently discovered a striking new snake <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-report-confirms-that-bird-species-are-steadily-declining/">species</a> belonging to the genus Phalotris, which comprises 15 semi-subterranean species distributed across central South America.&nbsp;The study was a collaboration with Guyra Paraguay and the Institute of Biological Investigations of Paraguay.



The species was named Phalotris shawnella in the honor of two children, Shawn Ariel Smith Fernández and Ella Bethany Atkinson, who were born in the same year&nbsp;as Para la Tierra. The children inspired the founders of this organization to start their initiative of conserving Paraguayan wildlife to help children inherit a better world.&nbsp;



A specimen of P. Shawnella was spotted by chance in 2014 at Rancho Laguna Blanca by Jean-Paul Brouard, a researcher at Para la Tierra, while he was digging a hole. The snake is non-venomous and can be distinguished from other related species in the Phalotris genus by its red head, yellow collar, a black lateral band, and orange ventral scales with irregular black spots.



Until now, only three specimens of P.shawnella were discovered in the Cerrado forests of the department of San Pedro in east Paraguay. The extreme rarity of this species led scientists to list it as “endangered,” according to the conservation categories set by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature&nbsp;</a>(IUCN). The famous tourist destination Laguna Blanca – the only place where specimens of P.Shawnella were spotted - is now declared an “Important Area for the Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles.”



“This demonstrates once again the need to protect the natural environment in this region of Paraguay,” wrote the study authors. “Laguna Blanca was designated as a Nature Reserve for a period of five years, but currently has no protection at all. The preservation of this site should be considered a national priority for conservation.”



“Additional field surveys are urgently required to improve our understanding of the ecological requirements of [this species] so that effective conservation measures can be implemented,” they concluded.



A full description of the new snake species can be found in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.61064">Zoosystematics and Evolution</a>.



Image Credit: Jean-Paul Brouard



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Beautiful new snake found in Paraguay

A research team led by the non-governmental organization Para la...

Reef mantas (Mobula alfredi) are among the largest and most iconic of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-marine-ichthyosaur-fossils-found-high-in-the-alps/">marine</a> species. They are widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and west Pacific Oceans, where they mostly frequent shallow waters along the coastal reefs of continents and oceanic islands. Because of their beauty and graceful behavior, these manta rays are hugely popular with divers and snorkelers, who travel from afar to places where the rays congregate, in order to view them underwater. 



The Komodo National Park in Indonesia is just such a place. Mantas are present all year round in the waters of this National Park, which is itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the famous Komodo dragons are protected. Dive tourists come to view the mantas, which grow up to 5m in length, as they feed in the shallow waters, visit ‘cleaning stations’ on the coral reefs to have parasites removed by small fish, or even display courtship ‘trains’ as part of their reproductive behavior.&nbsp;



Dr. Andrea Marshall, principal scientist and co-founder of the <a href="https://marinemegafauna.org/">Marine Megafauna Foundation</a> saw the potential to engage the public with data collection on these threatened and understudied marine animals and worked with software company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wildme.org/#/">WildMe</a>&nbsp;to develop an online wildlife database platform (MantaMatcher.org) to match and catalog manta rays in different populations around the world.



Scientists from the <a href="https://marinemegafauna.org/projects/microplastics-megafauna">Marine Megafauna Foundation</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.murdoch.edu.au/">Murdoch University</a>&nbsp;approached local dive operators to promote the development of a data bank of the manta rays in the waters of the Komodo National Park. They asked that visitors take photographs of the mantas they encountered, and then submit them to MantaMatcher.org for identification and analysis. In this way, the scientists hoped to monitor the movement patterns and demographics of the mantas in the area.&nbsp;



“People love manta rays – they are one of the most iconic animals in our oceans. The rise of the number of people engaging in SCUBA diving, snorkeling and the advent of affordable underwater cameras meant that photos and videos taken by the public during their holidays could be used to quickly and affordably scale data collection,” said Marshall, who was co-author of the study.



Individual mantas can be identified by the unique patterns of dark marks on their ventral surface and so the photos could be used to track individuals and monitor their movements. The project ran for 5 years, between 2013 and 2018, during which time &nbsp; 3,941 sightings were submitted by citizen scientists and 1,085 different reef mantas were identified. The photographs, along with time and location information, were used to construct siting histories of individual manta rays, which could then be analyzed with statistical movement models.&nbsp;



The results, published today in the open-access scientific journal <a href="https://peerj.com/">PeerJ</a>, indicate that some manta rays moved mostly within the area of the Park, whereas others traveled as far as the Nusa Penida MPA (more than 450 km to the west). Interestingly, most of the mantas had favorite spots that they inhabited within the Park.&nbsp;



“I found it very interesting how some manta rays appear to prefer spending their time in some sites more than others, even when sites are 5 km apart, which are short distances for manta rays,” said study lead author Dr. Elitza Germanov. “This means that manta rays which prefer sites where fishing activities continue to occur or that are more popular with tourism will endure greater impacts.”&nbsp;



Mantas in the Komodo NP are threatened by two major factors. Although fishing activities have been prohibited in many coastal areas within Komodo NP since 1984, illegal operators and the movements of mantas out of the Park and into heavily fished waters, have continued to take their toll. About 5% of Komodo’s manta rays have permanent injuries that are likely the result of encounters with fishing gear.&nbsp;



In addition, tourism activity in the Komodo NP continues to increase. During the study period the researchers recorded a 34 percent increase in the number of tourist boats visiting manta ray sites.&nbsp; The associated disturbance from divers and snorkelers can have a negative impact on manta rays and their habitats. In 2019, the Komodo National Park Authority introduced limits on the number of boats and people that visit one of the most famous manta sites.&nbsp;



“This study shows that the places where tourists commonly observe manta rays are important for the animals to feed, clean and mate. This means that the Komodo National Park should create measures to limit the disturbance at these sites,” said Mr. Ande Kefi, an employee of the Komodo National Park involved with this study. “I hope that this study will encourage tourism operators to understand the need for the regulations already imposed and increase compliance,” he adds.&nbsp;



The authors of the study also recommend limiting the number of tourist boats allowed at one time at all manta ray aggregation sites, and enforcing codes of conduct for divers that ensure minimum impact from tourism. In this way they hope that Komodo’s large ray aggregations will be protected into the future. The study also highlights that marine protected areas that are large enough to host important manta ray habitats are a beneficial tool for manta ray conservation.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Secrets of manta ray behavior revealed

Reef mantas (Mobula alfredi) are among the largest and most...

Our planet’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-oceans-are-on-track-for-a-catastrophic-extinction-event/">oceans</a> are home to some of the most diverse and complex ecosystems. However, warming temperatures are causing increasingly more marine organisms, including corals, to die out. A new study led by <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> (OSU) has advocated the use of mesoscale sanctuaries – areas that can stretch for thousands of miles, often across national boundaries – to protect the over 6,000 coral species populating the oceans.



“Coral reefs are an essential ecosystem on our planet,” said study co-author Andrea Grottoli, a professor of Earth Sciences at OSU. Although they occupy less than 0.1 percent of the surface area in the Earth’s oceans, over 30 percent of all aquatic creatures depend on them.&nbsp;



Reef ecosystems are really important for humans too, explained Grottolli, “in that they provide protection to coastlines from erosion and storms, and they’re essential for certain services like tourism and other parts of the economy.”&nbsp;



Due to rising sea temperatures, reefs all over the world are experiencing higher rates of bleaching – a phenomenon during which corals’ skeletons become visible, turning them into a faded, ghostly white. Although bleached corals are not yet dead, mass bleaching events are an indicator of an ecosystem’s declining health, and often lead to mass mortality across marine species.



Yet, even if the global population of coral dwindles, the genetic diversity of coral species helps ensure that at least some of them may be able to adapt and recover.&nbsp;



While longer-term measures to mitigate climate change include curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the study suggests that, in the meanwhile, broad transdisciplinary approaches to creating both local and large-scale ocean sanctuaries that trespass national boundaries are urgently needed.&nbsp;



“Global warming is the No. 1 threat to coral reefs right now,“ Professor Grottoli warned. “So when we think about coral reef conservation, we can't limit ourselves to arbitrary geographic boundaries.”



Moreover, education is a highly important tool in the efforts to protect coral reefs. “People who understand coral reefs, and who understand the value of coral reefs, are much more likely to do something to help protect them,” Professor Grottoli concluded. “If you don’t know anything about coral, and you’ve never seen one, how can you have any empathy or feel any connection to that ecosystem?”&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16192">Global Change Biology</a>. In addition, a list of individual actions individuals can take to protect these endangered ecosystems can be found <a href="http://coralreefs.org/pledge-4-reefs/">here</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Large-scale ocean sanctuaries needed to protect corals

Our planet’s oceans are home to some of the most...

There are 16 species of beaked whales in the genus Mesoplodon, making this the largest cetacean genus. The habits of most of these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invasive-species-are-transforming-coastal-estuaries/">species</a> are largely unknown because the whales are shy, slow-moving and difficult to observe. In fact, some types of beaked whales are only known from dead specimens that have washed ashore.&nbsp;



Mesoplodont whales represent one of the least studied mammalian groups, as evidenced by the fact that three new species have been identified in the past 30 years. The most recent of those species, Ramari’s beaked whale (M. eueu), was described to science just last year.&nbsp;



The beaked whales all tend to have spindle-shaped bodies and small dorsal fins, making the species difficult to tell apart in the field. Also, since they often occur in the same areas and forage at similar depths, they are thought to compete with one another for the same prey items – deep sea squid and small fish. Closely related species usually show different foraging strategies, reflecting the evolutionary drive to optimize foraging performance and minimize interspecific competition. However, this does not seem to be the case amongst this group of closely related beaked whales.&nbsp;



Individuals from some species have been fitted with biologgers, attached to their backs with suction-cups, and the data recorded by these devices has given a glimpse into the underwater lives of these whales. Typically, beaked whales have a low-energy lifestyle. They swim slowly and perform extreme deep dives using an energy-conserving swim-style. They hunt for prey in the ocean depths and can remain underwater for up to an hour.&nbsp;



Sowerby’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens), described in 1804, was the first of these small cetacean species to be identified. But because the species is retiring, seldom observed and lives in open ocean areas, little is known about its behavior. Until recently, individuals from this species had not been fitted with biologgers. However, after years of effort, scientists have now been able to attach the tracking devices to two of these whales and the data has revealed some surprises.&nbsp;



The international team of biologists, led by Fleur Visser of the <a href="https://www.uva.nl/en">University of Amsterdam</a> (UvA) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), received data from the biologging tags that revealed the diving, movement and echolocation strategies of these whales. The results, published recently in the&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/225/9/jeb243728/275372/Sowerby-s-beaked-whale-biosonar-and-movement">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>, showed that Sowerby’s beaked whales actually move around and hunt much faster than other, related species.&nbsp;



When the researchers compared the biologger data for the two Sowerby’s beaked whales with that from the closely related Blainville’s beaked whale, they found that the Sowerby’s whales consistently swam faster, performed shorter deep dives, and echolocated at a faster rate, with higher frequency clicks. Although they hunt at a similar depth (between 800 and 1300 meters), the Sowerby’s whales clearly employ a different hunting strategy from the other beaked whales.&nbsp;



This first record of a ‘fast’ beaked whale suggests that Mesoplodont whales exploit a broader diversity of deep-sea niches than previously thought. The deep-sea is a rich and diverse hunting ground for marine mammal predators, that have clearly developed a wider range of specialized strategies to be able to exploit it than was previously known.&nbsp;



The marked deviation of Sowerby’s beaked whales from the typically slower behavior of other beaked whales also has potential implications for their response to man-made sounds, which appear to be strongly behaviorally-driven in other species.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Some beaked whales live a "faster" lifestyle than expected

There are 16 species of beaked whales in the genus...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> has found that, although conservation of sea turtles along most of Africa’s east coast has significantly progressed in recent decades, tens of thousands of turtles are still dying each year. This can be largely attributed to human activity, including illegal take and consumption of turtles (especially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/african-network-helps-protect-green-turtle-populations/">green turtles</a>), bycatch, or loss of nesting and foraging habitats.



“Turtles face many threats along the African east coast, from egg to adult,” said study lead author Casper Van De Geer, a PhD student in Conservation Science at the University of Exeter. 



“Our aim was to bring together everything that is currently known about these turtles, and to identify opportunities to better protect them in this rapidly developing region. We found that there's still a lot we don't know about these turtle populations, like how many there actually are or where they spend most of their time and migrate to.”



By using clutches of eggs laid as a measure of population, Van De Geer and his colleagues have found that some turtle species have recovered quite well in some places, such as the loggerhead turtles in South Africa and Mozambique. Unfortunately, other species, including leatherback and hawksbill turtles, have not responded well to conservation efforts.



While there is good legislation in place to protect turtles, and stakeholder groups are actively participating in conservation activities, greater collaboration with local populations is urgently needed to increase awareness and boost conservation efforts.&nbsp;



“Local knowledge was key to this research, just as it is vital to turtle conservation,” explained Van De Geer. “Conservation work is most effective when it is supported by the local stakeholders and this is achieved through genuine engagement and cultural sensitivity.”



“There are great examples of this along the African east coast where people are trained and employed as rangers or monitors in the area where they grew up, and the use of community theatre or musical performances to inform people about the marine world and conservation. Ultimately, it’s the people who live in a place who have the knowledge and motivation to protect it,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3354/esr01180">Endangered Species Research</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Thousands of sea turtles still dying on the east African coast

A new study led by the University of Exeter has...

Megalodon, or Otodus megalodon, is a famously gigantic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/whale-sharks-face-an-uncertain-future-due-to-ship-strikes/">shark</a> that became extinct by the end of the Pliocene around 2.6 million years ago. Common are images of someone holding the jaws of the feared great white shark and being dwarfed within reconstructed O. megalodon jaws.&nbsp;



Now, researchers from <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a> and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have found something odd. Megalodon teeth are large enough that one can cover the palm of an adult’s hand. The scientists have found one of these giant teeth oddly deformed and they wondered what caused this.&nbsp;



The tooth appeared split. The paleontologists wondered if genetics, a disease or damage to the tooth bud might have caused the tooth to grow in this strange split fashion and so they decided to investigate.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We don’t have a lot of data on double tooth pathologies in ancient shark species,” said Harrison Miller, a former NC State undergraduate student. “So this was an opportunity to fill in those gaps - and perhaps learn more about the sharks in the process.”



The researchers compared the pathological megalodon tooth with two teeth from a modern bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) with the same problem. The teeth were CT scanned so that the internal anatomy could be examined.&nbsp;



The experts determined that the teeth were either incompletely split from or joined to each other during development, but no cause could be identified.



“Sharks have cartilaginous skeletons, not boney skeletons, so preservation of their jaws is rare in the fossil record, and usually, we only find the individual isolated teeth. Additionally, sharks have different mechanisms for tooth development – they have continuous tooth replacement, so you can’t look at what is happening in the rest of the jaw to rule out fusion or gemination," explained study co-author Haviv Avrahami.



It is possible that this particular shark took a bite of a stingray or other painfully sharp prey and damaged its tooth.&nbsp;



“With O. megalodon in particular, the current understanding is that they fed mostly on whales,” Avrahami said. “But we know that tooth deformities in modern sharks can be caused by something sharp piercing the conveyor belt of developing teeth inside the mouth. Based on what we see in modern sharks, the injury was most likely caused by chomping down on a spiny fish or taking a nasty stab from a stingray barb.”



There are, in fact, stingrays that lived in the same area at the same time that the scientists think could have caused a shark a bad toothache.



“When we think of predator-prey encounters, we tend to reserve our sympathy for the prey, but the life of a predator, even a gigantic megatooth shark, was no cakewalk either," said Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://peerj.com/">PeerJ</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What caused a giant megalodon tooth to split?

Megalodon, or Otodus megalodon, is a famously gigantic shark that...

Aliatypus californicus

Taxonomic tree: