Category Archives: Nature

NEW SPECIES of frog is also the smallest-known vertebrate

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An unusual species of frog, Paedophryne amauensis, was discovered in Papua New Guinea during biodiversity surveys. In the video below, Chris Austin gives an interesting account of how the diminutive frog was discovered. More via National Geographic:

At an average of 7.7 millimeters long, the newfound Paedophryne amauensis is a hair smaller than the previous record holder, the Southeast Asian fish species Paedocypris progenetica, whose females measure about 7.9 millimeters.

During recent field surveys in southern Papua New Guinea, scientists found P. amauensis and another new species of tiny frog, Paedophryne swiftorum, which measures about 8.6 millimeters.

“I think it’s amazing that they’re continuing to find smaller and smaller frogs,” said Robin Moore, an amphibian expert with Conservation International, who was not involved in the study.


CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

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A black-marble jawfish (Stalix histrio) camouflages itself against a mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus). According to LiveScience, the behavior of these jawfishes is unique:

“All jawfish are really specialized for living in burrows,” said researcher Luiz Rocha, an ichthyologist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “They’re almost never found outside their burrows.”

If it is difficult to find the fish in the image above, then perhaps it is easier to find in this video:

See more animal camouflage here on The Conservation Report.

CAN YOU SEE ME? | ANIMAL CAMOUFLAGE

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This hidden, camouflaged animal is probably easy for most viewers to find, but the viper represents a newly-described species that was discovered during biodiversity surveys in a Tanzanian forest. However, the viper’s existence is already threatened due to the diminutive size of its remaining-forest habitat. It’s thought “that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours.” The vast majority of those forever-lost species are certainly unknown to science. More via National Geographic:

The “beautiful, heavy-bodied bush viper” sports black and yellow zigzag markings and yellow, hornlike scales above its olive-colored eyes, Tim Davenport, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s country director for Tanzania, said in an email.

But few would be envious of this green-eyed creature’s rare status. Its forest habitat, already smaller than about 40 square miles (a hundred square kilometers), is declining due to human development and other factors, said Davenport, whose group made the joint discovery with the Science Museum of Trento, Italy.

Considering this, Davenport suspects the snake—described December 6 in the journal Zootaxa—will be listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

See more animal camouflage here on The Conservation Report.

VIDEO PICKS

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Here are some interesting videos of nature, science, and other things that you might’ve missed over the past few weeks:

  1. Video: Oklahoma earthquake causes birds & bugs to take flight:More via the National Weather Service:

    An earthquake whose magnitude is initially set at 5.6 by the United States Geological Survey… occurred in central Oklahoma near Prague at 10:53 PM CDT, on Saturday evening, November 5th. This animation shows how some evidence of the earthquake was even seen by radar, as birds and bugs were detected taking flight to escape the shaking on the ground. Thanks to NWS Lubbock for first bringing this to our attention.

  2. Video: 1,500 year old sequoia falls, igniting debate:
  3. Video: A surfer is almost swallowed by a humpback whale:
  4. Video: A hole is blasted at the base of the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River, which allows the river to flow “unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years“:
  5. Video: Swarming birds over the River Shannon in Ireland:
  6. Video: When is a moth like a hummingbird?

    More via Science Friday with host Ira Flatow:

    A hawk moth (Manduca sexta) feeds by hovering in front of flowers and slurping nectar through a proboscis, basically a body-length straw. To understand how these moths keep such a precise position in the air, Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tried destabilizing moths in a variety of different ways and tracked their responses using high speed cameras.