New “walking” shark species discovered

Perth, Australia based Biologist Dr. Gerald Allen and his colleagues recently discovered a new “walking” shark species off the coast of Ternate, one of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesian waters. Hemiscyllium Halmahera, are brown spotted fish that live on the ocean floor and use their pectoral and pelvic fins to push them along in a walking-like motion as they search for meals of small fish and invertebrates. Also known as bamboo sharks or longtail carpet sharks, they are relatively small reaching up to 28 inches in length. They are differentiated from similar looking sharks by their distinctive large horizontally elongated dark spots on their lower abdomen, a cluster of around 25 solid dark spots near their head.

source: Mark Erdmann and Weda Resort

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New mammal species discovered: a raccoon-sized critter with teddy bear looks

WASHINGTON –  Imagine a raccoon with a teddy bear face that is so cute it's hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did — until now.

Researchers announced Thursday a rare discovery of a new species of mammal called the olinguito. It belongs to a grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears.

The raccoon-sized critter leaps through the trees of mountainous forests of Ecuador and Colombia at night, according to a Smithsonian researcher who has spent the past decade tracking them.

SUMMARY

The olinguito lived in the National Zoo in Washington, mistaken for an olingo.

Olinguitos are smaller, have shorter tails, a rounder face, tinier ears and darker bushier fur.

Researchers guess there are thousands of olinguitos in the mountainous forest

But the adorable olinguito (oh-lihn-GEE'-toe) shouldn't have been too hard to find. One of them lived in the Smithsonian-run National Zoo in Washington for a year in a case of mistaken identity.

"It's been kind of hiding in plain sight for a long time" despite its extraordinary beauty, said Kristofer Helgen, the Smithsonian's curator of mammals.

The zoo's little critter, named Ringerl, was mistaken for a sister species, the olingo. Ringerl was shipped from zoo to zoo from 1967 to 1976: Louisville, Ky., Tucson, Ariz., Salt Lake City, Washington and New York City to try to get it to breed with other olingos.

It wouldn't.

"It turns out she wasn't fussy," Helgen said. "She wasn't the right species."

The discovery is described in a study in the journal ZooKey.

Helgen first figured olinguitos were different from olingos when he was looking at pelts and skeletons in a museum. He later led a team to South America in 2006.

"When we went to the field we found it in the very first night," said study co-author Roland Kays of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. "It was almost like it was waiting for us."

It's hard to figure how olingos and onlinguitos were confused for each other.

"How is it different? In almost every way that you can look at it," Helgen said.

'It looks kind of like a fuzzball ... a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat.'

- Kristofer Helgen, the Smithsonian's curator of mammals

Olinguitos are smaller, have shorter tails, a rounder face, tinier ears and darker bushier fur, he said.

"It looks kind of like a fuzzball ... kind of like a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat," Helgen said.

It eats fruit, weighs about 2 pounds and has one baby at a time. Helgen figures there are thousands of olinguitos in the mountainous forest, traveling through the trees at night so they are hard to see.

While new species are found regularly, usually they are tiny and not mammals, the warm-blooded advanced class of animals that have hair, live births and mammary glands in females.

Outside experts said this is not merely renaming something, but a genuine new species and a significant find, the type that hasn't happened for about 35 years.

"Most people believe there are no new species to discover, particularly of relatively large charismatic animals," said Case Western Reserve University anatomy professor Darin Croft. "This study demonstrates that this is clearly not the case."

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Scientists say newly discovered woolly mammoth blood boosts cloning prospects

A researcher studies a mammoth carcass found on an island in the Arctic Ocean. (Northeastern Federal Universit …A team of scientists says blood recovered from the preserved carcass of a woolly mammoth is reviving hopes that the extinct creature could one day be cloned back into existence.

"When we broke the ice beneath her stomach, the blood flowed out from there. It was very dark," said Semyon Grigoryev, a Russian scientist who led the expedition that found the mammoth, in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

And Grigoryev says the well-preserved state of the mammoth offers new potential for cloning the creature, either directly through its DNA or in conjunction with another closely related mammal, such as an elephant.

"This find gives us a really good chance of finding live cells, which can help us implement this project to clone a mammoth," he said.

In 2012, North-Eastern Federal University, where Grigoryev works as a professor, enlisted the aid of controversial Sooam Biotech Research Foundation researcher Hwang Woo-Suk. In 2005, Woo-Suk made history by creating the world’s first cloned dog, but much of his work was later called into question or discredited.

The website phys.org reports that a Russian expedition discovered the mammoth carcass while conducting research in April on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean. Its body is said to have been preserved for about 10,000 to 15,000 years, roughly the time the mammoth is believed to have gone extinct.

Interestingly, the scientists discovered only the lower half of the mammoth’s body. They believe it was submerged in water at the time of its death. After the water eventually froze, they believe that predators consumed the top half of the mammoth carcass.

In a gruesome but scientifically promising detail, Grigoryev claims that blood seeped from the carcass when his team made an incision in its body.

"This is the most astonishing case in my entire life. How was it possible for it to remain in liquid form? And the muscle tissue is also red, the color of fresh meat," Grigoryev said.

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' Most secret ' bunker of Mussolini, which was discovered under the historic Roman structure

A secret bunker meant to House Benito Mussolini was discovered in Rome (Wikicommons) workers in Rome I stumbled upon a top-secret bunker once belonging to the former fascist leader Benito Mussolini, hidden beneath the historic Palace Venice.

The discovery is the twelfth such bunkers as is said to have been the "most secret" of the former strongman's hideouts, according to the Italian magazine La Stampa.

And in what has become a tradition of sorts, the bunker soon will go on display for the public to tour and document, as was done with other recently discovered bunkers of Mussolini. City officials plan to install lighting, a touchscreen system and an air siren, meant to simulate the sounds of an imminent air raid.

The nine rooms hidden compound was reportedly unearthed by the Superintendent Anna Imposing city and the architect Carlo Serafini, who were busy inspecting a project of restoration of the 15th-century building that sits atop the bunker. The Venice Palace currently houses a National Museum and it was a historically significant structure for centuries, having been used by high-ranking members of the Catholic Church and other prominent figures over the years.

During their inspections, Seraphim and Imposing noticed a small wooden hatch, which led up to the bunker of almost 50 metres underground.

"When we saw the concrete, was all clear," Sahoo told the newspaper. "Is the twelfth bunker of Rome-last bunker of Mussolini".

Although the bunker was never finished, there are holes in the wall meant for electricity and indoor plumbing, Serafini says that the structure is so solid that would probably have kept under an assault by Allied forces.

"The walls rest on the foundations of an ancient tower and are almost two metres thick in some places," Sahoo told the newspaper. "It would probably be only designed for Mussolini himself and another person; more than likely mistress, Claretta Petacci. "

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