Tag Archives: discovered

Scientists working in Tanzania have discovered and named two new species of the mole-rat genus Fukomys. The research was published in the journal PeerJ. The Hanang mole-rat (Fukomys hanangensis). Image credit: Chris Faulkes. African mole-rats of the family Bathyergidae are burrowing rodents that occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with much of …

Three new species of the ant genus Sericomyrmex have been discovered in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Sericomyrmex radioheadi, worker. Image credit: A. Ješovnik T.R. Schultz, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.670.11839. The genus Sericomyrmex belongs to the fungus-farming ants (tribe Attini), a New World group of over 250 species, all of which …

With every new exoplanet discovery, we seem to get that much closer to finding evidence of extraterrestrial life. A new exoplanet identified in orbit of a nearby star could be the best place to look yet. Astronomers have confirmed a star 39 light-years away plays host to a planet that …

Researchers from Austria and the United States have identified a group of giant viruses — Klosneuviruses — that harbor components of many other viruses and proteins, and their analyses suggest that Klosneuviruses acquired the various components in an evolutionarily recent time frame, likely from, and as an adaptation to, their …

An international group of primatologists has discovered a new primate, Galagoides kumbirensis (Angolan dwarf galago), with features not been seen by science before. The Angolan dwarf galago (Galagoides kumbirensis) prefers moist, tall forest, primary, and secondary and semiarid baobab savannah-woodland. Image credit: Elena Bersacola. Galagos, also known as bushbabies, are …

Paleontologists have unveiled a remarkable new species of tyrannosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous epoch — a cousin of the fearsome predator Tyrannosaurus rex. Life reconstruction of the integument of Daspletosaurus horneri, based on the distribution of texture on the facial bones. The face in tyrannosaurs was covered by an …

A species of frog that is completely new to science has been discovered in the cloud forests of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian rainfrog (Pristimantis ecuadorensis), adult female. Image credit: J.M. Guayasamin et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172615. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, Professor Juan Guayasamin of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito …

A new species of tapaculo — called the Tatama tapaculo (Scytalopus alvarezlopezi) — has been discovered in the cloud forests of Colombia’s Western Andes. The Tatama tapaculo (Scytalopus alvarezlopezi) upon capture at Cerro Montezuma, Risaralda department, Colombia, April 2, 2015. Image credit: Julian Heavyside, doi: 10.1642/AUK-16-205.1. The Tatama tapaculo was …

Brazilian taxonomists have discovered and described three new species of the ‘bird-eating’ tarantula genus Avicularia from Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. Avicularia merianae, female. Image credit: H.-W. Auer. The description is published in a new issue of the journal ZooKeys, authored by Dr. Caroline Sayuri Fukushima and Dr. Rogério Bertani, researchers …

Earth came into being roughly 4.5 billion years ago, and a new discovery in Canada indicates life developed not long after. Scientists studying ancient rock formations in Quebec have identified microscopic structures in the rock that they believe are the fossilized remains of microorganisms that lived on Earth between 3.7 …