New species of Frog from Japan.

Japanese Wrinkled Frogs of the genus Rugosa (sometimes considered a subgenus of Rana or Glandirana) are widespread in Japan and east Asia, as well as Hawaii, where they were introduced in the nineteenth century. They are common at low altitudes (under ~300 m) and can survive in a variety of environments. The Frogs were originally all classified as members of a single species, Rana rugosa, but recent morphological and genetic studies have revealed considerable diversity within the group.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 7 December 2012, Kunio Sekiya of the Department of Environmental Science at Niigata University, Ikuo Miura of the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University and Mitsuaki Ogata of the Laboratory of Zoo Biology at the Preservation and Research Center in Yokohama describe a new species of Wrinkled Frog from Sado Island, off the north coast of Honshū.

The new species is named Rugosa susurra, from the Latin 'susurrus', meaning whispering, since its call was notable quieter than that of other Frogs in the same area. Rugosa susurra is a 33-45 mm greyish-to-khaki Frog with yellow and white markings in the underside. The females are larger than the males. It has elongated granules (warts) arranged in a linear pattern on its back, giving it a wrinkled appearance. The tadpoles are greyish-brown with white spots. The Frogs were found around rice-fields, ponds and small streams; they apparently do not move far from water. They mate from May to August, laying egg masses which are attached to submerged plants. Both adults and tadpoles hibernate by burying themselves in soft mud under water.

Rugosa susurra. (Top) Adult male. (Middle) Tadpole. (Bottom) Egg mass. Sekiya et al. (2012).

See also How Cow pats help the spread of the Invasive Cane Toad in northern Australia, Three new species of Frog from the Peruvian Andes, New species of Robber Frog from Panama, A cryptic species of Ground Frog from southern Chile and New Spadefoot Toad from southeastern Laos.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Eruption on Mount Copahue.

Mount Copahue is a composite volcano in central Chile, close to the border with Argentina. It comprises a chain of nine craters along a 2 km east-west line, with the most recent, still active, crater at the eastern end. This chain sits within the 400 000 to 600 000 year old, 6.5 by 8.5 km Trapa-Trapa Caldera, which in turn sits inside the older (more than 2.5 million years old), 15 by 20 km Caviahue Caldera. The active crater contains an acid lake, the Del Agrio, which is fed by acidic hot springs at its east end. The lake is noted for frequent fumerole (gas) emissions, and occasional explosive events.

The Del Agrio volcanic lake in the Copahue Crater. Mountain Forecast.com

On 22 December 2012 the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería recorded a sharp increase in seismic activity (tremors) around Copahue, followed by the production of an ash column rising 1.5 km above the summit and drifting to the southeast. On 23 December a number of explosions were observed, combined with incandescence (glowing) from the crater. This continued through 24 December, with a number of incandescent blocks being thrown out of the crater, then seemed to tail of on the 25th.

Ash coloulmn issuing from Copahue, seen from the Argentinian side of Lake Caviahue. AFP.

The volcanoes of Chile, and South America in general, are fuelled by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate, off the west coast of the continent. The subducting plate passes under South America as it sinks, and is partially melted by the friction and the heat of the Earth's interior. Some of the melted material then rises through the overlying South American Plate, fuelling the volcanoes dotted throughout the Andes.

See also Earthquake off the coast of Chiloé Island, Chile, Earthquake in eastern Chile, Chile struck by large Earthquake, Earthquake in Jujuy Province, NW Argentina and Volcanoes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

 

Dinosaur smuggler changes plea to guilty.

In May this year (2012), Florida-based fossil dealer Eric Prokopi sold a specimen of the Cretaceous Tyranosaurid, Tarbosaurus bataar, at an auction house in New York for slightly over US$1 million. Unfortunately for Prokopi, Tarbosaurus bataar is only known from two countries, Mongolia and China, both of which have fairly stringent laws on the exportation of Dinosaur fossils, and the sale came to the attention of a number of professional palaeontologists, who raised the matter with the authorities in New York, leading to a police investigation, which lead to the confiscation of the New York fossil and a number of other specimens, as well as Prokopi's arrest.

The Tarbosaur skull confiscated by Police in New York. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

At the time Prokopi was keen to present himself as an honest businessman being victimized by the heavy-handed state, but in October 2012 Prokopi was re-arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's special agents, during which event a truck arrived at his house carrying around 200 kg of additional fossils, suggesting that he might have been a larger player in the smuggling trade than he had been willing to admit.

Prokopi has now decided to enter a guilty plea and cooperate with the authorities in return for a reduced sentence; he has been charged with Conspiring to Smuggle Illegal Goods, Possessing Stolen Goods and Making False Statements to Customs Officials, and faces a potential prison sentence of 17 years in gaol and up to $250 000 in fines. 

As part of the plea bargain Pokopi has surrendered rights to the New York Dinosaur, as well as a second Tarbosaurus bataar specimen, two Hadrosaurs, two Oviraptors, a Microraptor and a variety of other objects. He has also agreed to cooperate with investigations into the theft and smuggling of Mongolian fossils.

See also Dinosaur skeleton vandalized in Alberta, Canada, Police seize Dinosaur from New York warehouse, LH PV18, a New Mini-Tyranosaur, or an Immature Tarbosaur? and Dinosaurs on Sciency thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Earthquake in Somerset.

On Sunday 30 December 2012, slightly before 3.00 pm GMT, the British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 1.3 Earthquake 7 km beneath the Somerset town of Highbridge, roughly 15 km south of Weston-super-Mare. This is far too small a quake to have caused any damage at the surface, and may not have even been felt.

The location of the 30 December Earthquake. Google Maps.

The cause of Earthquakes in the British Isles is often hard to determine, since there is no one simple explanation for most of them, most being the result of a combination of several different tectonic pressures. The UK is being pushed to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south. In addition there are lesser centers of geological expansion beneath the North Sea, the Rhine Valley and the Bay of Biscay, all of which exert some pressure on British Rocks. Finally there is glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the country was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice, which pushed the rocks of the lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone and the rocks are slowly rebounding, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process - though this is more of an issue in the north of the country, particularly on the west coast of Scotland, the most quake-prone part of the country.

Witness reports can help geologists to understand the processes going on in Earthquakes. If you felt this quake, or were in the area but did not, which is also useful information, then you can report it to the British Geological Survey here. 

See also Earthquake in Herefordshire, Earthquake in West Sussex, England, Earthquake off the Dorset Coast, Earthquake in Carmarthenshire and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Earthquake in Herefordshire.

On Saturday 29 December 2012, at 10.30 pm GMT, the British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 1.4 Earthquake at a depth of 14 km beneath southwest Herefordshire, roughly 15 km southwest of Hereford and 20 km west of Ross-on-Wye. This is far too small and too deep to have caused any damage or injuries, and may not have been felt at the surface at all.

The location of the 29 December 2012 Earthquake. Google Maps.

There is no overridingly obvious cause for most Earthquakes in the UK; the country is subject to tectonic pressures from a number of sources, and most quakes are thought to be a combination of more than one of these. Britain is being pushed to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean (along with the rest of Eurasia) and to the north by the impact of the African Plate into Europe from the south. There are also lesser areas of geological expansion beneath the North Sea, the Rhine Valley and the Bay of Biscay, all of which exert some pressure on UK rocks. Finally there is glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the UK was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice, which pushed the rocks of the British lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone, and the rocks are slowly springing back into place, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process, though this is more of an issue further to the north, particularly on the west coast of Scotland, the most quake-prone part of the country.

Witness reports can be important in helping geologists to understand the processes going on in Earthquakes. If you felt this quake (or were in the area but didn't, which is also useful information) you can report it to the British Geological Survey here.

See also Earthquake in Leicestershire, Earthquake off the Dorset Coast, Earthquake in Carmarthenshire, The Portsmouth Earthquake of 14 July 2011 and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

New species of Leafhopper from Brazil.

Leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) are small members of the True-bug order, Hemiptera, with hind legs modified for jumping. They feed on plants by draining the sap with modified mouthparts, leading many species to be regarded as agricultural pests. Immature leafhoppers (Nymphs) are similar to the adults, there is no metamorphosis on reaching maturity. The group are extremely successful, with over 20 000 described species, many of which are extremely widespread, and a fossil record dating back to the Early Cretaceous.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 15 November 2012, Adenomar Neves de Carvalho of the Instituto de Biodiversidade e Florestas at the Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, describes a new species of Leafhopper from the Roraima and Amazonas States of northern Brazil.

The new species is placed in the genus Paraportanus, which is widespread in Brazil and Peru, and given the specific name longispinus, meaning 'long-spines', a reference to the male reproductive organ. Paraportanus longispinus is a 5 mm yellow and brown Leafhopper.

Paraportanus longispinus, male specimen. Neves de Carvalho (2012).

See also Four new species of Leafhopper from Southern Africa, A new species of Leaf Bug from the Mangrove Forests of Singapore and Thailand, Two new species of True Bug from the Mesozoic of China and An Assassin Bug from the Palaeocene of Spitsbergen Island. 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Two new species of Ground Beetle from the Pyrenees.

Ground Beetles (Carabidae) are large carnivorous Beetles with destictive black or metalic elytra (wing-cases) that are sometimes fused, preventing flying. They have paired glands on their lower abdomens which produce noxious chemicals, used to defend the Beetles against predators (in one group of Carabids, the Bombadier Beetles,these secretions have evolved to react violently, even explosively, to one-another). The group has a fossil record dating back to the Triassic.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 28 August 2012, Arnaud Faille of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Charles Bourdeau of Rebigue in France and Javier Fresneda of the Museu de Ciències Naturals (Zoologia) in Barcelona describe two new species of Carabid Beetles from the Pyranees Mountains, on the border between France and Spain. Both new species are placed in the widespreas Eurasian genus Trechus.

The first new species described is named Trechus bouilloni, named in honour of Michel Bouillon, a caver who discovered Ground Beetle populations in the Pyranees. It is an elongate, round-sided, dark-brown Beetle, roughly 5 mm in length, found living on a scree slope beneath a limstone cliff on the northern slope of the plateau of the Sierra de Andía–Urbasa in the Navarra Region of Spain, on the south side of the Pyranees.

Trechus bouilloni. Faille et al. (2012).

The second new species described is named Trechus bruckoides, which implies a relationship with Trechus brucki, the new Beetle being a cryptic species formerly identified as members of that species, and identified by DNA analysis of museum specimens. Trechus bruckoides is an elongated, round-sided, dark-brown Beetle, similar in appearance to Trechus brucki. The species is known from a single species living in sinkholes on the limestone Esturou Platuae, in the Pyrénées Atlantiques department of France.

Trechus bruckoides. Faille et al. (2012).

See also Six new species of Jewel Beetle from Southeast Asia,  A Rove Beetle from the Late Triassic of Virginia, A new species of Blister Beetle from southeast Iran, Two new species of Semiaquatic Rove Beetle from China and New species of Flat Bark Beetle (Cucujidae) from the Calabria Region of Italy.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Six new species of Jewel Beetle from Southeast Asia.

Jewel Beetles (Buprestidae) are wood-boring Insects with distinctive bright, metallic elytra (wing-cases). They have been used to make traditional Beetle-wing jewelry in parts of Asia and are prized by insect collectors for their bright colouration, but despite this they are not considered to be threatened by man, in fact they are widely held to be serious economic pests, since some species are capable of killing large trees through their activity. Their colours are not caused by pigmentation, but rather by physical iridescence; the microscopic structure of the cuticle preferentially reflects light at specific frequencies; this creates bright, distinctive colours that serve as a warning to predators, the Beetles will swarm when threatened and can deliver a painful bite. This structural colouration allows the Beetles to be preserved in the fossil record with their pigments intact (rare with pigment-based colouration), with colours preserved in Beetles as old as the Jurassic.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 8 November 2012, Eduard Jendek of the Ottawa Plant Laboratory of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Maria Lourdes Chamorro of the Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Museum of Natural History, describe six new species of Jewel Beetle from Southeast Asia, discovered as part of a wider search for relatives of the Emerald Ash Borer, Agrilus planipennis, an Asian species that has proved to be a highly destructive invasive pest in North America.

The first new species is named Agrilus crepuscularis, from the Latin crepusculum, meaning twilight. It is a 10 mm, slender, wedge-shaped, purplish-green Beetle with large, protruding eyes. The species is described from a single male specimen discovered in the Endau Rompin State Park in Malaysia.

Agrilus crepuscularis in dorsal (top) and lateral (bottom) views. Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

The second new species is named Agrilus pseudolubopetri, meaning false-lubopetri, due to the male of the species' close resemblance to the males of the previously described Agrilus lubopetri. It is a 14-18 mm, slender, wedge-shaped, Beetle with large, non-protruding eyes. The males are greenish in colour, the females purple. The Beetles were found at a number of locations in Laos.

Agrilus pseudolubopetri, male (top) and female (bottom). Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

The third new species described is named Agrilus sapphirinus, due to its distinctive sapphire colouration. It is a 10.5 mm, slender, wedge-shaped Beetle with large, protruding eyes. The species is named from a single female specimen found in Louang Namtha Province in northern Laos.

Agrilus sapphirinus, in dorsal (top) and lateral (bottom) views. Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

The fourth new species is named Agrilus seramensis, after Seram Island in Indonesia, where the species was found living. The species is described from seven specimens, all female. It is a 8-11.5 mm, slender, wedge-shaped, green-and-yellow Beetle with large, protruding eyes.

Agrilus seramensis, in dorsal (top) and lateral (bottom) views. Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

The fifth new species described is named Agrilus spineus, for the spines on the tips of its wing-cases. It is a 9 mm, robust, wedge-shaped green Beetle with large, protruding eyes, described from a single female specimen found in the Bako National Park in Sarawak State in Malaysian Borneo. 

Agrilus spineus, in dorsal (top) and lateral (bottom) views. Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

The final new species described is named Agrilus tomentipennis, meaning 'wooly-hairs on the wingcase'. It is a 14.0-14.3 mm robust, wedge-shaped yellow-green Beetle with large, protruding eyes. The species is named from three female specimens found at different locations in Xieng Khouang Province in Laos.

Agrilus tomentipennis, in dorsal view. Jendek & Chamorro (2012).

See also A Rove Beetle from the Late Triassic of Virginia, A new species of Blister Beetle from southeast Iran, Two new species of Semiaquatic Rove Beetle from China, New species of Flat Bark Beetle (Cucujidae) from the Calabria Region of Italy and New Ommatid Beetles from the Mesozoic of China.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Signs of malnutrition in a 1.5 million year old child's skull from the Olduvai Gorge.

The Olduvai Gorge is a ravine in the Great Rift Valley in northern Tanzania, which has produced numerous fossil and sub-fossil remains of early Humans and Hominins (anything more closely related to Humans than to Chimpanzees) dating from about 1.9 million years ago till around 17 000 years ago, and is considered to be one of the most important palaeoarchaeological sites known by those studying early Human evolution.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 2 October 2012, a team of scientists led by Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo of the Instituto de Evolución en África at the Museo de los Orígenes and the Department of Prehistory at Complutense University, both in Madrid, discuss the discovery of a partial skull of an infant in the Olduvai Gorge from about 1.5 million years ago, which shows signs of having died of a malnutrition related illness. Due to the fragmentary nature of the material it was not possible to tell the exact species of the individual.

Ectocranial (top right) and endocranial (top left) close-up views of the fossil, accompanied by magnifications of theporotic hyperostosis paleopathology as observed ectocranially (lower left) and edge-on at the diploic-table junction (lower right). Scale bars = 1 mm. Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (2012)

The skull fragments come from an infant with an estimated age of about two years, suffering from a condition called porotic hyperostosis, a pathology associated with anemia. In porotic hyperostosis there is extensive marrow overgrowth within the skull bones, leading the flat outer layers of the bone to become thin and soft.

Scurvy and rickets can cause similar thinning of the skull, but scurvy causes only thinning of the outer bones without modification of the marrow chambers, whereas rickets can cause some enlargement to the marrow chambers, but not to the extent seen in the Olduvai fossil. Inflammatory diseases and infections can cause similar damage, but typically show several layers of damage and regrowth as the body fights the infection.

Iron-deficiency anemia is known to cause porotic hyperostosis, but not to the severe extent seen in this individual. Instead Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. suggest the infant was suffering from B₁₂ (cobalamin) and B₉ (folic acid) vitamin deficiencies. This suggests that malnutrition set in while the infant was still breast-feeding, probably due to a deficiency of meat in the mother's diet (modern humans, with sophisticated agriculture and wide trading networks can survive happily on vegetarian or even vegan diets, but hunter-gatherers in most climates usually need to rely on meat to obtain their full vitamin complement for at least part of the year.

A series of scanned sections through the skull, revealing the extent of the pathology. Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. (2012)

See also Skull closure in the Taung Infant, The earliest evidence of fire use from million year old sediments in Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province? The canine teeth of Australopithecus anamensis, Another look at the Canteen Kopje Skull and A re-evaluation of the Iwo Eleru skull.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Earthquake beneath the eastern Black Sea.

On Sunday 23 December 2012, slightly after 5.30 pm local time (slightly after 1.30 pm GMT) the United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake 10 km beneath the eastern Black Sea, roughly 35 km off the coast of Georgia. This is a fairly large quake for the area, but this far offshore is unlikely to have caused any damage or casualties. The quake was felt in Georgia, Turkey and Russia.

The location of the 23 December Earthquake. Google Maps.

The Black Sea is largely upon the Eurasian Plate, as are Georgia and Russia. Turkey, however, lies on a separate plate, the Anatolian Plate. This is being pushed to the west by the northward movement of the Arabian Plate, which is in turn being pushed by the African Plate, further to the south. This creates as zone of faulting along the northern part of Turkey, the North Anatolian Fault Zone, as the two plates are pushed past one-another (transform faulting). This is not a simple process, as the two plates constantly stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, leading to Earthquakes, which can be some distance from the actual fault zone.

How the movement of the Arabian Plate causes movement on the North Anatolian Fault Zone. Université Montpellier 2.

This northward movement of the African and Arabian Plates also causes folding and uplift in the Caucasus Mountains, which separate Georgia from Russia. Again this is not a smooth process, with the rocks sticking together, then moving sharply as the pressure builds up enough to break them appart, which can also lead to Earthquakes in the region.

See also Two major Earthquakes in northeast Iran, leading to heavy death toll, Earthquake in eastern Turkey, Earthquake off the Turkish coast, Earthquake in northwest Azerbaijan and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A Jurassic Turtle bone-bed from the far northwest of China.

Turtles are aquatic reptiles with a shell that encases their body, and into which the head and limbs can be retracted at least partially. They have a fossil record that dates back to the Late Triassic, about 220 million years ago, and they have been an important part of many marine and freshwater ecosystems ever since. Their exact relationship to other reptiles is difficult to determine from morphological evidence since their bodies have become so heavily modified, but genetic studies suggest that they are a sister group to the Archosaurs (Crocodiles, Dinosaurs and Birds).

In a paper published in the journal Naturwissenschaften on 21 October 2012, a team of scientists led by Oliver Wings of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and the Department of Geosciences at Universität Tübingen, describe an extraordinary fossil bone-bed from the Turpan Basin of northern Xinjiang Province in the far northwest of China.

The location of the Turtle bone bed (above) and a photograph of the outcrop (bellow). Wings et al. (2012).

The outcrop is referred to by Wings et al. as 'Messa Chelonia'; it is roughly 25 km east of the city of Shanshan. Fossil turtles were exposed along a 30 m wide outcrop, located by the Sino-German Cooperation Project in 2008. A half meter square block was removed in 2009 and prepared in Shanshan; several more blocks were removed in 2011, but have not yet been worked on.

The deposit is believed to be late Middle Jurassic in age, making it about 165 million years old. All the Turtles present appear to belong to a single species, Annemys sp.. Wings et al. suggest that they died in a mass mortality event around pools in a drying river-bed during a prolonged drought, then were concentrated by a flash flood when the draught broke. 

(a) The material recovered from the Mesa Chelonia site in 2009, and partially prepared within its plaster and burlap case. (b) Schematic drawing of the Turtles within the block; some Turtles are shown which have been removed in the photograph. Wings et al. (2012).

Annemys sp. from the late Middle Jurassic Konzentratlagerstätte at Mesa Chelonia, Xinjiang Autonomous Province, China: (a) carapace and (b) plastron; (c) carapace (d) carapace and (e) plastron; (f) dorsal view and (g) ventral view of skull; (h) position of depicted fossils within the block recovered from the fossil rich inner zone of the Konzentratlagerstätte. Abbreviations: Abd abdominal scute, An anal scute, bo basioccipital, bps basisphenoid, co costal, epi epiplastron, ex exoccipital, Fe femoral scute, fpccc foramen posterius canalis caroticum cerebrale, fpcci foramen posterius canalis caroticum interni, fpccl foramen posterius canalis caroticum laterale, fpp foramen palatinum posterius, fr frontal, Hu humeral scute, hyo hyoplastron, hypo hypoplastron, ju jugal, Ma marginal scute, mx maxilla, na nasal, ne neural, nu nuchal, op opisthotic, pa parietal, pal palatine, Pec pectoral scute, per peripheral, pf prefrontal, Pl pleural scute, pmx premaxilla, po postorbital, pro prootic, pt pterygoid, qu quadrate, so supraoccipital, sq squamosal, V vertebral scute, vo vomer, xi xiphiplastron. Wings et al. (2012).

Wings et al. estimate that the bone bed covers an area of at least 20 m², and contains at least 720 Turtles, and may be as large as 236 m², with as many as 1800 Turtles.

See also The death of Lonesome George and the extinction of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, An Eucryptodiran Turtle from the Early Cretaceous of Spain, A new species of Giant Side-Necked Turtle from the Palaeocene of Columbia and Reptiles on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of Spotted Barb from the southern Western Ghats, India.

Spotted Barbs of the genus Puntius are small Cyprinid Fish (freshwater Fish related to Carp) from India and Southeast Asia. They are colourful and popular in the aquarium trade, but their taxonomy is complex and not completely understood, with many cryptic species (species that resemble one-another closely, but which are genetically distinct), which makes species highly vulnerable to extinction.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 March 2012, a team of scientists led by Marcus Knight of Chennai in Tamil Nadu State, India, describe a new species of Spotted Barb from the southern Western Ghats Mountains of India.

The new species is named Puntius nigripinnis, the Black Finned Spotted Barb, due to its distinctive black fins. It also lacks the distinctive Barbels (whiskers) usually associated with Barbs. The populations assigned to the new species are not new discoveries, they were previously described as belonging to the species Puntius ticto, a name given to Spotted Barbs in India in 1822 by Francis Hamilton, from which a number of cryptic species have been differentiated from 1875 onwards.

Puntius nigripinnis, male specimen. Knight et al. (2012).

The known distribution of Puntius nigripinnis. Knight et al. (2012).

See also A new species of tree-dwelling Fighting Fish from Thailand, A new species of Toothcarp from Iran, Two new species of Asian Sea Bass from South Asia, New species of Priapiumfish from the Mekong Delta and Boney Fish on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

An invasive Serpulid Worm in the La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.

The Serpulid Worm Ficopomatus uschakovi was first described from Sri Lanka in 1960. Like all Serpulid Worms is an encrusting, sessile Polychaete that secretes a tube of calcite (calcium carbonate) in which it dwells. Unlike most other Serpulids Ficopomatus uschakovi inhabits brackish waters in estuaries and lagoons rather than fully saline waters. It can form large, reef-like masses and rapidly dominates ecosystems where it is present, outcompeting other invertebrates such as Barnacles, Oysters and Mussels.

In the 1970s the species was found to be living along the West Coast of Africa, where colonies were reported to have first appeared in the 1950s. Since this time the species has been found in the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil and Venezuela. Because of its ability to modify ecosystems it is considered to be an invasive pest, associated with contamination by introduced with Shrimp farms; many invasive marine organisms are associated with ballast water and hull fouling of shipping, but since Ficopomatus uschakovi is not thought able to colonize fully marine waters this seems improbable for this species.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 5 November 2012, Rolando Bastida-Zavala and Socorro García-Madrigal of the Laboratorio de Sistemática de Invertebrados Marinos at the Universidad del Mar describe the discovery of colonies of Ficopomatus uschakovi in coastal lagoons in  La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas State, on the south coast of Mexico.

Ficopomatus uschakovi from La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve. (A) tubes

on mangrove roots. (B) Tubes on the shell of the gastropod Thaisella kiosquiformis. (C) Mangroves in the collecting site. (D) Tubes forming small aggregations. (E) Large, single tube. (F) Complete specimen in dorsal view. (G) Complete specimen with mass of sperm attached to the abdomen. (H) Operculum in dorsal view. (I) Operculum in aboral view. Bastida-Zavala & García-Madrigal (2012).

There are no Shrimp farms in La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, and the nearest port is at Puerto Chiapas, 70 km to the south. It is therefore unclear how the Worms reached the lagoons, suggesting that they have a means of dispersal that scientists are unaware of. At the moment the infestation appears limited in scope, with no reef-like structures observed. How the Worms will affect the reserve in the future remains unclear; Bastida-Zavala and García-Madrigal recommend that the situation should be monitored carefully.

(A) World-wide distribution of Ficopomatus uschakovi; circles represent previously described colonies, the triangle the new colonies described in this study. (B) Study area and the localities where specimens of Ficopomatus uschakovi were recollected. 1: Zacapulco; 2: Barra San Juan; 3: Las Garzas boat pier. Bastida-Zavala & García-Madrigal (2012).

See also The biology of pumice rafts, New species of carnivorous Leech from Taiwan, Blue Flatworms invade Menorca, Floating Japanese dock brings fears of invasive species to Oregon and Marine Invertebrates on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

The Southern Solstice.

The Southern Solstice occurs each year on 20/21 December, when the Sun is at its southernmost point in the sky. This is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is known as the Winter Solstice and the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is known as the Summer Solstice. At very high latitudes the sun may not rise (Northern Hemisphere) or set (Southern Hemisphere) for several weeks on either side of the Southern Solstice.

The solstices are entirely a product of variation in the Earth's rotation on its axis, which is at an angle of 23.5° to the plain of the Earth's orbit about the Sun. This means that in December the Earth's Southern Pole is tilted towards the Sun, while the Northern Pole is tilted away from it. This means that around the Southern Solstice the Southern Hemisphere is receiving radiation from the Sun over a longer part of the than the Northern, and at a steeper angle (so that it to pass through less atmosphere to reach the planet), creating the southern summer and northern winter.

Diagram showing the tilt of the Earth's access at the solstices and equinoxes. NASA.

The solstices are fairly noticeable astronomical events, and tied to the seasons which govern the life cycles of life on Earth, and they have been celebrated under different names by cultures across the globe, but most notably by those at higher latitudes, who are more profoundly affected by the changes of the seasons.

See also The Earth reaches its aphelion.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of Sea Cucumber from the Kermadec Islands.

Sea Cucumbers (Holothuroidea) are a class of Echinoderms that have become elongated and worm-like, effectively becoming secondarily bilaterally symmetrical. Like all Echinoderms they have a calcareous exoskeleton, but this is greatly reduced, typically only occurring as ossicles within the epidermis. The muscle structure of Sea Cucumbers is instead supported by a layer of modified collegen that can be stiffened or relaxed at will, allowing for a more flexible body than that of other Echinoderms. 

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 12 October 2012, Mark O'Loughlin of the Marine Biology Section at Museum Victoria and Didier Van den Spiegel of the Section invertebrés non-insects at the Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale in Tervuren, Belgium, describe a new species of Sea Cucumber from the Kermadec Islands; a New Zealand territory in the South Pacific, roughly half way between North Island and Tonga, discovered during the Kermadec Biodiscovery Expedition by RV Braveheart, which visited the islands from 9 to 29 of May 2011.

The new Cucumber is placed in the genus Chiridota and given the specific name kermadeca, meaning from the Kermadecs. It is a brown Sea Cucumber up to 20 mm in length and 5 mm in width, found on Stawell Shoal and at Boat Cove in the Kermadec Islands at depths of 10-24 m. It has 10 tentacles surrounding its mouth, rather than the 12 seen in other members of the genus Chiridota.

Chiridota kermadeca. O'Loughlin & Van den Spiegel (2012).

Dermal ossicles from Chiridota kermadeca. O'Loughlin & Van den Spiegel (2012).

See also Are the Vetulicolians Deuterostomes? A new species of Crinoid from the Southern Ocean, Pumice raft linked to Havre Seamount, not Monowai, Pumice raft suggests eruption from Mount Monowai and Marine Invertebrates on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Goblin Spiders from Cretaceous Amber.

Goblin Spiders (Oonopidae) are one of the most abundant groups of Spiders, with at least 600 and possibly over 1000 extant species described, though this is generally considered to be a poor representation of their diversity, since the Spiders are tiny (often under 1 mm) and at their most abundant in the tropics. Goblin Spiders have a fossil record that dates back to the Cretaceous, being quite common in amber, though not known from sedimentary rocks. Goblin Spiders have six eyes rather than the eight of most Spiders, though some species have lost additional eyes. The back pair of legs are modified for jumping.

In a paper published in the journal Palaeontology in January 2012, a team of scientists led by Erin Saupe of the Department of Geology & Paleontological Institute at the University of Kansas describe four new Goblin Spider specimens from Cretaceous Amber from France and Spain. All the Spiders are placed in the genus Orchestina, which is still extant. Only two specimens are assigned to species, the other two (probably) being females, which are hard to distinguish to species level in modern specimens.

The first new Spider described is named Orchestina gappi, after Ian Wesley Gapp, a student at the University of Kansas. Orchestina gappi is a 1 mm Goblin spider preserved in a piece of dark brown, opaque amber from the Font-de-Benon Quarry, 1 km east of Archingeay-Les Nouillers in the Charente-Maritime Department of France. The sediments from which the amber was recovered are uppermost Albian–lowermost Cenomanian in age, making the fossil roughly 100 million years old. The specimen is barely visible through the dark amber matrix, but was revealed by synchrotron imaging at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

Synchrotron images of Orchestina gappi. Scale bar is 1 mm. Saupe et al. (2012).

The second specimen is named Orchestina rabagensis, after the Rábago, the municipality in Cantabria, Spain where the fossil was found. Orchestina rabagensis is a 1.1 mm Goblin Spider preserved in light

yellow amber from the El Soplao Outcrop. It is early Albian in age, or about 110-113 million years old.

Orchestina ragagensis: (Top) Photograph and (Bottom) interpretive drawing. Stars indicate the locations of trichobothria, sensitive hairs capable of detecting air movements. Scale bars are 0.5 mm. Saupe et al. (2012).

The first unnamed specimen is a 1.11 mm female(?) Goblin Spider preserved in clear orange amber from the San Just Outcrop at Teruel in Spain. It is Middle Albian in age, or about 105 million years old.

Orchestina sp. from the San Just Outcrop. (Top) Photograph, scale bar is 0.5 mm. (Bottom) Synchrotron images, scale bar is 1 mm. Saupe et al. (2012).

The second unnamed specimen is a female over 1 mm in length from embedded in a piece of clear, dark orange amber, slightly clouded by organic debris. The specimen was found at the Peñacerrada Outcrop in Burgos, Spain. It is early Albian in age, or about 110-113 million years old.

Orchestina sp. from the Peñacerrada Outcrop. (Top) photograph, (Bottom) interpretive drawing. Stars indicate known trichobothria. C = crack, B = bubble. Scale bars represent 0.5 mm. Saupe et al. (2012).

See also Nine new species of tree-dwelling Tarantulas from Brazil, Nine new species of cave-dwelling huntsman spider from Laos and New species of Cave Spider from Oregon.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Earthquake in West Sussex, England.

On Friday 14 December 2012, slightly after 11 pm GMT, the British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 3.0 Earthquake at a depth of 9 km beneath West Sussex, England, roughly 13 km north of Chichester. This is too small to have caused any damage or casualties, but is exceptionally large for southern England and was felt as far away as Hindhead in Surry and Hove in East Sussex. 

The location of the 14 December Earthquake. Google Maps.

The precise cause of Earthquakes in southern England is unclear. Britain is being pushed to the east (along with the rest of Eurasia) by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south. There are also lesser areas of spreading beneath the North Sea, the Rhine Valley and the Bay of Biscay, all of which exert pressure on British rocks. However it is seldom possible to say that any one of these factors is the cause of a particular quake, and most are probably the result of a number of different influences.

Britain is also subject to quakes caused by glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the country was covered by a thick layer of snow and ice, which pushed the rocks of the lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone, and the rocks are slowly springing back into place, causing the occasional Earthquake in the process. However this is more of an influence in the north and west of the country, where quakes are correspondingly more common, and it is unclear to what extent this effects Sussex or the southern English coast.

Chichester has been troubled by Earthquakes in the past; in 1833-4, which resulted in the loss of one life; one of only three Earthquake-related deaths in England since 1800.

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events. If you felt this quake, or live in the area but did not (which is also useful information), then you can inform the BGS here.

See also Monmouth Beach, Lyme, closed due to danger of landslips, Woman killed by rockfall on Dorset Beach, An Earthquake off the coast of Margate, 8 April 2012, The Portsmouth Earthquake of 14 July 2011 and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new Long-tailed Bird from the Early Cretaceous of China.

Discovered in the 1860s, Archaeopteryx had a unique combination of features, including a long, feathery tail, that marked it out as distinctive, intermediate between a Dinosaur and a Bird, which sealed Archaeopteryx's status as the First Bird. While it remained unique in this way for a lone time, recent years have seen a number of new specimens of Long-tailed Birds, suggesting this was a distinct group of animals that survived from the mid-Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous, though it is not completely clear that these are all closely related as some may in fact be small, feathery Dinosaurs.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica on 14 November 2012, Xia Wang of the School of Biology and Environmental Science at University College Dublin, Gareth Dyke of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton and Pascal Godefroit of the Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique, describe a new Long-tailed Bird specimen from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation at Yizhou Fossil and Geology Park in western Liaoning, China. 

The new specimen appears to be intermediate between two previously described species, Jeholornis prima and Jixiangornis orientalis, leading Wang et al. to conclude that the two species may in fact be different growth stages of the same animal, which therefore should be referred to as Jeholornis prima, since this was the first name used.

The new Long-tailed Bird specimen from Lioaning Province. Abbreviations: ad, alular digit; co, coracoid; cv, cervical vertebra; de, dentary; dv, dorsal vertebra; fe, femur; fi, fibula; fu, furcula; hu, humerus; is, ischium; j, jugal; la, lacrimal; ma, maxilla; mc, metacarpus; n, nasal; pm, premaxilla; pu, pubis; q, quadrate; ra, radius; sc, scapula; st, sternum; ta, tail; ti, tibiotarsus; tm, tarsometatarsus; ul, ulna; un, unguals. Wang et al. (2012).

A fossil Bird from the Eocene of Guangdong Province China, Ritual use of raptor claws by Neanderthals, 90 000 - 40 000 years ago, New Penguins from the Oligocene of New Zealand, Fossil Owls from the La Brea Tar Pits and Birds on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.