Tag Archives: species

A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE suggests that there are 18,043 bird species in the world — nearly twice as many as previously thought. Toucan. Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar / CC BY-ND 2.0. Birds (class Aves) are traditionally thought of as a well-studied group, with more …

An international team of paleontologists has discovered that Limusaurus inextricabilis, a species of Jurassic dinosaur, lost its teeth in adolescence and did not grow another set as adults. Limusaurus inextricabilis is the only known reptile to lose its teeth and form a beak after birth. Image credit: Yu Chen. Limusaurus …

An international team of paleontologists, led by Carleton University researcher Bradley McFeeters, has added another ornithomimid dinosaur to the prehistoric catalog, and this one was found in the Canadian province of Alberta. An artistic life reconstruction of Rativates evadens in the paleoenvironment of the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. Image credit: …

Fossilized teeth from a newly identified species of extinct shark that lived 20 million years ago (early Miocene) were found in the mid-latitudinal zones along the Pacific (Japan, California, and Peru) and western Atlantic (North Carolina) coasts. Megalolamna paradoxodon lived in the same oceans megatoothed sharks inhabited. Image credit: Kenshu …

A new species of oviraptorid dinosaur has been discovered in southern China dating back approximately 69 million years to the latest Cretaceous period, says an international team of paleontologists. An artistic reconstruction, showing the last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in mud. Image credit: Zhao Chuang. The …

A new species of millipede, called Illacme tobini, has been discovered in a cave in Sequoia National Park, California. Illacme tobini. Scale bar – 1 mm. Image credit: P.E. Marek et al. The new species was identified and named by millipede taxonomist Dr. Paul Marek of Virginia Tech and his …

A new species of drywood termite has been described from tropical dry forests of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Proneotermes macondianus. Scale bars – 0.5 mm. Image credit: Casalla R. et al. Discovered by termitologists from Germany, the United States and Colombia, the new termite has been officially named Proneotermes macondianus. “The …

Researchers have described three new species in the previously monotypic bird genus Stiphrornis: two from West Africa and one from the Congo. Stiphrornis erythothorax, until now the only species in the genus Stiphrornis, by Joseph Smit, 1883, in the Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, vol. 7. The …

New research confirms that the hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), a medium-sized bird of prey found in parts of North America and Eurasia, is two different species of bird that are only distantly related. The northern harrier (Circus hudsonius). Image credit: Simon Richards. The study, led by Dr. Graham Etherington of …

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” William Morris once wrote. In the spirit of that quote, here’s a gift guide that’s got something for every major species of geek fandom. In fact, many of these are inexpensive enough …