Crocodile captured after attacking 12-year-old girl in Northern Territory, Australia.

A 12-year-old girl has escaped with minor injuries after being attacked by a Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, while collecting water plants for a Fish tank in a creek to the south of Darwin on Thursday 16 March 2023. The girl was treated at the Palmerston Regional Hospital in Darwin, before being discharged, while the Crocodile was captured in a trap set by park rangers and will be relocated. A spokesperson for the Northern Territory Crocodile Management Team has stated that the girl was extremely lucky not to have received more serious injuries as the Crocodile was about 2.2 m in length, large enough to inflict significant injuries on an adult Human. Water levels are currently high in the Northern Territory, due to the annual rainy season, and Crocodiles are able to enter many waterways which are to shallow to offer them good cover at other times of year. Rangers have removed about 70 Crocodiles from such waterways so far this year, compared to a total of 273 removed in 2022.

Crocodile captured in a creek to the south of Darwin after attacking a 12-year-old girl on Thursday 16 March 2023. Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security.

Crocodile attacks on Humans are relatively rare, but they are opportunistic ambush predators and will potentially attack anything going close to the water. Saltwater Crocodiles have a particularly poor reputation for such behaviour, being the largest species of Crocodile and notoriously aggressive. These Crocodiles are one of the few Crocodile species not considered vulnerable to extinction, being found from India to Australia  and inhabiting many areas that Humans shun, such as Mangrove forests and islands without fresh water.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.

Australian teenager hospitalised by Jellyfish sting.

An Australian teenager has been rushed to hospital after being stung by a Jellyfish on Sunday 20 September 2020. Indi Young, 13, from Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula of the Northern Territory, was kitesurfing on Melville Bay, when she was stung by what is believed to have been an Irukandji Jellyfish, Carukia barnesi, due to the severity of the reaction. She was taken to the Gove District Hospital suffering from a burning pain on the skin combined with severe chest pains, which is typical of Irukandji stings.

 

Indi Young, 13, of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory, being treated in hospital after being stung by a suspected Irukandji Jellyfish. Indi Young/ABC News.

The Irukandji Jellyfish is a form of Box Jellyfish, Cubozoa, found along the northern coast of Australia, which has both a particularly potent sting and a very small size, making it particularly dangerous to swimmers. The Jellyfish are typically about 5 mm across, though they can reach as much as 30 mm, with tentacles between 5 and 50 mm in length. The sting of these Jellyfish is particularly potent, and can cause muscle aches, back pain, nausea, headaches, chest and abdominal pains, sweating, high blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and in extreme cases death.

 

An Irukandji Jellyfish, Carukia barnesi. ABC.

Irukandji Jellyfish are found in the waters to the north of Australia all year round, and move south during the southern summer, making them a threat to bathers along the north Australian coast. The Jellyfish move further south in warmer years, and there are concerns that rising sea temperatures associated with global warming may lead to them moving further south in the future.

See also...

 

 

 

 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

 

Caridina biyiga: A new species of Freshwater Shrimp from Leichhardt Springs, in the Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory.

Freshwater Shrimps of the genus Caridina are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters across Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania. They are omnivores, able to consume a wide variety of foodstuffs, but often have very specific environmental tolerances, which results in a large number of species, most of which have very limited distributions. The genus was first reported in the Northern Territory in 1967, and the area is known to be home to a number of undescribed species.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 6 November 2019, John Short of BioAccess Australia, Timothy Page of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, and Christopher Humphrey of the Heritage, Reef and Marine Division of the Department of Environment & Energy, describe a new species of Caridina from the Leichhardt Springs hydrothermal system in the Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory.

Leichhardt Springs has two dominant outflows approximately 320 m apart, a north arm and a south arm, with a downstream confluence into the northern branch of Burdulba Creek. The heat source of Leichhardt Springs is presently undetermined although other thermal springs in the Alligator Rivers Region (including western Arnhem Land) are known to be associated with high heat-producing rocks in the basement of the crust. No other thermal springs are presently known from Kakadu National Park.

The thermal properties of Leichhardt Springs were investigated over a four to five-month period during the 2014 winter-spring dry season using two CTD-Diver multi-parameter dataloggers deployed on the north arm of Leichhardt Springs, one at the head of the spring and the other 160 m downstream. A third Diver was also deployed in Radon Springs, a non-thermal spring located approx. 6 km to the northeast on the large, outlying, sandstone formation above Leichhardt Springs (Fig. 1). Over the five-month period, water temperature at the head of the north arm spring was an invariant 30.2°C and 160 m downstream, almost constant and only slightly cooler, at 29.2–30.3°C. By comparison, Radon Springs showed a much higher temperature range, 22.1–29.3°C, thus 1–8°C cooler over the same period. A sampling trip to the south arm of Leichhardt Springs in June 2016 revealed thermal properties similar to the north arm.

Apart from its thermal properties, the location of Leichhardt Springs relative to the Kakadu-Arnhem Land plateau and escarpment complex is also interesting. Other sandstone-formation springs in Kakadu National Park arise within small gorges and typically at the immediate base of escarpments. Leichhardt Springs is located approximately 900 m away from the western escarpment of an outlying sandstone formation and at a lower elevation.

Satellite imagery of Leichhardt Springs shows extensive rainforest vegetation along both arms associated with the permanent, spring-fed outflows. The head of the north arm outflows through a patch of small, abraded and bleached, sandstone cobbles. For at least 300 m downstream, the north arm is characterised by a sequence of pools with clean, quartzite sand substrate interspersed with swift-flowing runs and riffles of gravel and cobble. Riparian trees include Melaleuca spp. (Paperbarks), Carallia brachiata (Corkwood), Pandanus aquaticus (Pandan), Canarium australianum (Mango Bark), Syzygium spp.(Lillipillies), and the monsoon rainforest-specific species, Nauclea orientalis (Yellow Cheesewood), and Melicope elleryana (Pink Flowered Doughwood). The understorey comprises climbing Vines, Flagellaria indica (Whip Vine),  and Rhaphidophora australasica (Needle Berry), climbing Ferns, Stenochlaena palustris (Midin), groundstorey Ferns, Blechnum orientale (Oriental Blechnum) and the flowering shrub, Melastoma sp. (Melastomes). The macrophyte, Eleocharis sp. (Spikerush), is commonly interspersed amongst runs and riffles of the stream.

 Maps showing the location of the study area. Upper left, location of the general study area within Australia; upper right, detailed view of the study area showing the location of Leichhardt Springs; main lower map, broader view of the study area showing its location within Kakadu National Park and the Northern Territory. Short et al. (2019).

The new species is named Caridina biyiga, meaning meaning ‘different’ or ‘other’ in the indigenous Gundjeihmi language of the region, in reference to its unusual morphology compared to other species of Caridina. Although the general morphology of the new species is typical of Caridina, the arrangement of the limbs, fingertips of the chelae (claws) and fifth pereiopod dactylus (lower part of the fifth walking leg) are unusual for the genus. Caridina biyiga lacks an arthrobranch (gill) at the base of the first cheliped (claws) and has 8 pairs of branchiae (gills) rather than the full complement of 9 branchiae normally associated with Caridina. There is also a vestigial epipod (projection) on the first maxilliped (mouthpart).

Caridina biyiga, female. Scale bar is 0.2 mm. Short et al. (2019).

Caridina biyiga is a small, subcylindrical, rotund species for the genus. Maximum size of females 3.05 mm in length; males 2.15 mm in length); minimum size of breeding females 2.15 mm long. The species is translucent with rust brown chromatophores (colour cells). Chromatophores either small and widely spaced giving speckled appearance or forming large blotches, blotches tending to be grouped as transverse bands on abdomen and posterodorsal carapace, widely spaced on ventral carapace and pereiopods, closely spaced on anterodorsal carapace.

(A)–(B) Live colouration of Caridina biyiga (photos by Dave Wilson); (C) south arm of Leichhardt Springs, riffle near head of spring (photo by Michael Hammer); (D) aerial view of Leichhardt Springs (heavily vegetated area in foreground) (photo by Michael Hammer); (E) North arm of Leichhardt Springs, type locality of Caridina biyiga, riffle near head of spring (photo by Michael Hammer). Short et al. (2019).

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Collapsing wall buries miner in Northern Territory, Australia.

A miner at a manganese mine in Australia's Northern Territory was buried beneath a collapsing wall at about 2.40 pm local time on Saturday 24 August 2019. The incident happened at the  Bootu Creek Mine, operated by OM Manganese, a subsidiary of OM Holdings, about 110 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, but rescue workers have not yet been able to approach the site, due to concerns about the stability of the rock face. The victim has not yet been named, but is described as a 59-year-old man from Darwin.

The Bootu Creek Mine. OM Manganese.

The Bootu Creek Mine has been in operation since 2006. In 2011 the company was fined $150 000 for damaging a site sacred to the Kunapa people of Australia's Northern Territory by magistrates in Darwin. The site, known as Two Women Sitting Down, which sat on an outcrop less than 10 m from the mine pit. OM Manganese pleaded guilty to damaging the site but not guilty to desecration, but magistrates found the company guilty on both counts, fining it $120 000 of a possible $130 000 for the act of desecration and $30 000 of a potential $270 000 for the damage; a low fine was levied for damaging the site as the company pleaded guilty on this count.

See also...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Acanthophis cryptamydros: A new species of Death Adder from the Kimberly Region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Death Adders, Acanthophis spp., are Australian Snakes closely resembling the Old World Vipers, though they are Elapid Snakes more closely related to Cobras and Sea Snakes. The taxonomy of the group is poorly understood, with the genus currently divided into several widely distributed and highly variable species, a classification system thought unlikely to be accurate by Herpetologists (scientists that study Amphibians and Reptiles) specializing in the group.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 28 August 2015, Simon Maddock of the Department of Life Sciences at The Natural History Museum, the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment at University College London and the Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory at Bangor University, Ryan Ellis, Paul Doughty and Lawrence Smith of the Department of Terrestrial Zoology at the Western Australian Museum and Wolfgang Wüster, also of the Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Genetics Laboratory at Bangor University describe a new species of Death Adder from the Kimberly Region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The new species is named Acanthophis cryptamydros, meaning hidden and indistinct. The species is described from a population previously assigned to the Northern Death Adder, Acanthophis praelongus, but shown by a genetic survey to be a distinct species more closely related to the Desert Death Adder Acanthophis pyrrhus.

Acanthophis cryptamydros in life. Ryan Ellis in Maddock et al. (2015).

Acanthophis Pyrrhus is an orange brown Snake with darker bands averaging 503 mm in length for males and 549 mm in length for females. It was found living on the Kimberly region of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, between Wotjulum to the west and Kununurra in the east, as well as some offshore islands including Koolan, Bigge, Boongaree, Wulalam, and an unnamed island in Talbot Bay. It was found dwelling on or close to sandstone outcrops in open savannah woodland, and appears to eat a range of small vertebrates including Lizards, Frogs, Birds and Mammals. Other species of Death Adder have been shown to be susceptible to toxins produced by the introduced Cane Toad, Rhinella marina, and this species is presumed to also be at risk as the Toads continue to move west across the Kimberly region.

Habitat of Acanthophis cryptamydros at Theda Station in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Ryan Ellis in Maddock et al. (2015).

See also…

Experimental evidence suggests Burmese Pythons are responsible for the rapid decline of Mammals in the Everglades National Park.

Burmese Pythons, Python molurus bivittatus or Python bivittatus, are large predatory Snakes from Southeast Asia. They are thought to have been introduced to the Florida Everglades some decades...

 Subfossil Reptile remains from a garbage dump on Yoronjima Island.

Many small tropical and subtropical islands are thought to have impoverished faunas, due to extinctions of local animals caused by human activity, notably habitat modification and the introduction of exotic...

A new species of Blunt-headed Vine Snake from the Chocó region of northwest Ecuador.

Blunt-headed Vine Snakes (Imantodes) are medium sized (roughly meter length) Colubrid Snakes found from Mexico to Argentina. They are immediately recognizable due to their long thin bodies...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Philometrid Nematodes from Perciform Fish off the north Australian coast.

Philometrids are large Nematodes parasitizing Fish . They show a high degree of sexual dimorphism, with males typically only a few mm in length, while females may reach tens of centimetres. The females give birth to live young.

In a paper published in the journal Parasite on 6 February 2015, František Moravec of the Institute of Parasitology of the Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Diane Barton of Fisheries Research at the Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries of the Northern Territory and Aquatic Ecology & Management at the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University, describe two species of Philometrid Nematodes from Perciform Fish off the north Australian coast.

The first species is placed in the genus Philometra, and given the specific name protonibeae, in reference to its host species, the Blackspotted Croaker, Protonibea diacanthus. The males of this species reach 3.37–3.90 mm in length; no gravid (i.e. fully mature and pregnant) female was recovered intact, but the largest partial specimen was 427 mm (42.7 cm) in length. The nematodes were found within the ovaries of female Blackspotted Croakers caught at Camdem Sound in Western Australia and Fenton Patches and Ruby Island in the Northern Territory. About 25% of Fish examined were infected, and since the host species has a broad Indo-West Pacific distribution, it is likely that the parasite has a similar distribution.

Philometra protonibeae, left: (A) Anterior end of gravid female, lateral view. (B) Cephalic end of gravid female, apical view. (C) Caudal end of male, apical view. (D) Anterior end of male, lateral view. (E) Anterior end of gravid female (another specimen), lateral view. (F) Larva from uterus, lateral view. (G) Posterior end of gravid female, lateral view. (H) Anterior end of nongravid female, lateral view. (I, J) Posterior end of male, ventral and lateral views. (K, L) Distal end of gubernaculum, dorsal and lateral views. (M) Distal end of spicule, lateral view. (N) Caudal end of gravid female, lateral view. (O) Posterior end of nongravid female, lateral view. Right: (A, B) cephalic end of subgravid female, subapical and apical views. (C) Caudal end of male with protruded spicules and gubernaculum, lateral view. (D) Protruded distal ends of spicule and gubernaculum, lateral view. (E) Distal end of gubernaculum, dorsal view (arrow indicates elevated triangular structure). (F) Caudal end of male, apical view (arrow indicates phasmid). Abbreviations: a, group of four flat caudal papillae; s, spicule. Moravec & Barton (2015).

The second species is also placed within the genus Philometra, but is not assigned to a species as only the females were discovered, and female members of this genus can be very hard to distinguish. Nevertheless it is thought that this is a new species, as it is the first member of the genus described from the John’s Snapper, Lutjanus johnii, and species of Philometra tend to be host specific. The species was found infecting the ovaries of female Fish caught at Bynoe Harbour, Lee Point and Nicol Island, all in the Northern Territory; 45.5% of inspected Fish were infected. One complete gravid female was recovered, this being yellowish in colour and 47 mm in length, as was a subgravid female, 32 mm in length, and two nongravid females, 11.97 and 2.49 mm in length.

Philometra sp. from Lutjanus johnii. (A) Anterior end of largest gravid female, lateral view. (B, C) Posterior end of smaller gravid female, lateral and dorsoventral views. (D) Larva from uterus, lateral view. Moravec & Barton (2015).

See also…

A new species of Capillariid Nematode from New Caledonia.

Capillariid Nematodes are parasitic worms infecting a variety of different Vertebrate hosts. The group is split into 22 genera, of which nine are parasites of Fish. Members of the genus Capillaria cause infections in...

Two new species of Pinworms from Sulawesi Soft-furred Rats.

Pinworms, Oxyuridae, are parasitic Nematodes infecting the digestive tracts of Mammals. They have short life cycles, typically undergoing several generations in a year, with eggs being released in the host’s faecal matter to infect new hosts. Some species of Pinworm appear to be quite cosmopolitan, infecting...

A parasitic Heterakid Nematode from Sulawesi.

Parasitic Nematodes of the superfamily Heterakoidea are typified by having three lips, an esophagus with a valved bulb, thick shelled eggs and a pre-anal sucker on the males. They are typically parasites of the digestive tracts of small vertebrates, which do not require an intermediate host (i.e. the species only needs to infect one species of hosts, rather than...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of Phasmid Gecko from the Arnhem Plateau in Northern Territory, Australia.

Phasmid Geckos are small climbing Geckos of the genus Strophurus found across much of northern Australia, where they inhabit stands of Spinifex Grass (clump-forming grasses of the genus Triodia). They get their name from their resemblance to Stick Insects (Phasmids), being elongate, slow moving Lizards with camouflaging colouration, though the term is colloquial and is not applied to all members of the genus, which is defined by the presence of defensive glands that secrete a viscous fluid distasteful to predators.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 22 October 2014, PaulOliver of the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, MuseumVictoria and the Research School of Biology at the Australian NationalUniversity and Tom Parkin of the Museum & Art Gallery of the NorthernTerritory describe a new species of Phasmid Gecko from the Arnhem Plateau in the Top End of the Northern Territory.

The new species is named Strophurus horneri, in honour of Paul Horner of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, one of the scientists who helped collect the first specimens of the species. These are small slender Geckos, reaching less than 40 mm in total length. They are very pale in colour, being yellowish with distinct longitudinal stripes (stripes running along the body).

Strophurus horneriin life, at Yirrkakak on the northern edge of the Arnhem Plateau. RichGlor in Oliver & Parkin (2014).

Strophurus horneri was found to be living on the northern and western fringes of the Arnhem Plateau, a 32 000 km² sandstone block rising 100-400 m above sea-level with a distinct climate and flora and fauna compared to the surrounding landscape.

Habitat of Strophurus horneri at Namarragon Gorge, Kakadu National Park. Stuart Young in Oliver & Parkin (2014).

See also…

Four new species of Forest Gecko from West and Central Africa.

The application of genetic studies to populations of widespread animals and plants in recent years has revealed that many widespread ‘species’ are in fact made up of several different cryptic species, which...

Three new species of Gecko from central Australia.

As with many other groups, studies of Australian Geckos have, in recent years, revealed the presence of many cryptic species; populations which resemble other species yet are genetically distinct and incapable of breeding with them. In 2013 Mark Sistrom of the...

The Kandyan House Gecko; not extinct after all.

In 1853 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (1819-1860) of the Ceylon Medical Service published...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Three new species of Gecko from central Australia.

As with many other groups, studies of Australian Geckos have, in recent years, revealed the presence of many cryptic species; populations which resemble other species yet are genetically distinct and incapable of breeding with them. In 2013 Mark Sistrom of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide and Mark Hutchinson and Stephan Donellan of the South Australian Museum and the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity at the University of Adelaide published a paper in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, in which they identified five clades (groups of organisms sharing common ancestry) of Geckos of the genus Gehyra from the arid zone of central Australia which they tentatively identified as new species.

In a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on 9 June 2013, Mark Hutchinson, Mark Sistrom, now at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, Stephan Donellan and Rhonda Hutchinson of the Department of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in North Adelaide and the Department of Genetics at the University of Adelaide formally describe three of these clades as new species, based upon further studies of these Lizards.

The first new species described is named Gehyra versicolor, meaning ‘variable in colour’. The species comprises populations in South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria previously assigned to the species Gehyra variegata, a species name that is now restricted to populations in South Australia and Western Australia, with a small overlap in South Australia where populations of both species occur. Both species are highly variable, and cannot be distinguished from one-another physically. However the species are genetically distinct, and can be told apart by karyotype (the gross morphology of the chromosomes) without full genetic screening.

Gehyra variegata. (A) Adult female from a rocky microhabitat from Fraser Range, Western Australia, showing a complex reticulate pattern, with strongly contrasting dark markings strongly margined with white. (B) Adult female from an arboreal microhabitat from Maralinga South Australia, showing a less well-developed pattern with weaker pale margins. Hutchinson et al. (2014).

Gehyra versicolor; (B) and (C) adult females from arboreal microhabitats at New Year’s Gift Bore, 9.6 km southewest of Bopeechee, South Australia, showing strong and weak pattern variants typical of both inter- and intra-population variation for this species. (D) Adult male from Witchelina Station, South Australia, with speckled patterning sometimes seen in rock dwelling populations. Hutchinson et al. (2014).

Karyotypes which of (A) Gehyra variegata from the Maralinga area, South Australia. (C) Gehyra versicolor from Yudnamutana Bore, Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Hutchinson et al. (2014).

Map showing the documented occurrence of Gehyra variegata (dark grey) and Gehyra versicolor (light grey). Hutchinson et al. (2014).

The second new species described is named Gehyra moritzi, in honour of Craig Moritz of the Australian National University in Canberra, and University of California, Berkeley, in recognition of his work on the genetics of Australian Geckos. The species comprises populations of Geckos in the rocky mountains of north-central Northern Territory, from Devils Marbles in the north to the James Range in the south and west to King’s Canyon, that were identified as a probable separate species by Moritz in the 1970s. The species can be identified by karyotype or scale count, but is not otherwise distinguishable.

Gehyra moritzi. (B) Adult male from Corroboree Rock, Northern Territory, showing a strongly contrasting variant of the colour pattern. (C) Adult female from Emily Gap, Northern Territory, showing a weakly contrasting variant of the colour pattern. (D) Adult male from 2 km south of Devils Marbles, Northern Territory, with a pattern of light and dark markings that are smaller relative to the pattern in specimens from the MacDonnell Ranges as exemplified by specimen (B). Hutchinson et al. (2014).

The final new species described is named Gehyra pulingka, meaning ‘of the rocks’ or ‘of the rocky hills’ in Pitjantjatjara, a language spoken in the area where it lives. The species comprises populations of Geckos from northern South Australia, eastern Western Australia and southern Northern Territories formerly assigned to the species Gehyra montium, and distinguishable by karyotype and scale count.

Gehyra pulingka (B) adult female from Umuwa, South Australia, showing a variant of the species’ colour pattern with dense patterning of dark and light markings. (C) Adult male from Kutjurntari Waterhole, Western Australia, showing a sparse patterning of larger, more widely scattered light and dark markings. Hutchinson et al. (2014).

See also…

 The Kandyan House Gecko; not extinct after all.

In 1853 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Frederick Kelaart (1819-1860) of the Ceylon Medical Service...

 Velvet Geckos and Broad-headed Snakes; understanding the population structure of a favored prey item in order to help protect an endangered predator.

Broad-headed Snakes (Hoplocephalus bungaroides)...

 A new Bent-toed Gecko from Western Australia.

Bent-toed Geckos are widespread across South-East Asia, the Malay Archipelago and as far south as Victoria State, Australia. They are smallish Geckos noted for an outward...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.