Paleontologists in Brazil have unveiled a new species of unenlagiine dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period. An artist’s reconstruction of two individuals of Ypupiara lopai foraging in an alluvial river, the setting of the Marilia Formation during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period. Image credit: …
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Paleontologists have described a new species of mosasaur based on two complete skulls and jaws found in Morocco. An artist’s impression of Pluridens serpentis. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin. Mosasaurs (family Mosasauridae) were specialized marine lizards that evolved and diversified during the Late Cretaceous epoch. Their diversity peaked in the Maastrichtian …
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A team of biologists from the United States, Canada, Panama and Taiwan has isolated a new species of cyanobacteria from a tropical hornwort plant found in Panama. The discovery, reported in a paper in the Current Biology, opens a new window to further illuminate the dawn of oxygenic photosynthesis. Anthocerotibacter …
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A team of biologists from Japan has discovered a new species of the genus Scolopendra living in the forests of the Ryukyu Archipelago and Taiwan. Scolopendra alcyona found underwater at the upper reach of Shirase River, Kume-jima Island. Image credit; H. Sato. Scolopendra is a genus of large tropical centipedes …
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Using a combination of MRI, micro-CT and minimally invasive gene analysis, a team of biologists from the Institut für Evolutionsbiologie und Ökologie at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität has discovered a new species of dumbo octopus — named Grimpoteuthis imperator — living in the northern part of the Emperor Seamounts, an undersea …
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Scientists have described a new species of the frog genus Brachycephalus from the forests of the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Brachycephalus rotenbergae. Image credit: Nunes et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244812. Brachycephalus is a genus of miniaturized frogs that live in the forest leaf litter and are most active during daylight. …
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A team of marine biologists from the United States, Spain and Taiwan has discovered a new species of the snapper genus Etelis living in Indo-West Pacific waters. Etelis boweni, caught in American Samoa. Image credit: NOAA Fisheries. Etelis is a small genus of massive bottom-dwelling fishes in the family Lutjanidae. …
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Fossiomanus sinensis and Jueconodon cheni, two distantly related species of mammaliamorphs that lived some 120 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch), were well adapted for fossorial (burrowing) life, and are the first ‘scratch-diggers’ known from the Jehol Biota, which is distributed mainly in western Liaoning Province and neighboring areas in …
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The two subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) — the Indus river dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) and the Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) — should each be recognized as distinct full species, according to a new study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The Indus …
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Arachnologists have discovered a new species of peacock spider (genus Maratus) in the vicinities of Mount McIntyre and Nangwarry in Australia. Maratus nemo. Image credit: Joseph Schubert. Maratus is a relatively large genus of jumping spiders found in Australia and China. Commonly referred to as peacock spiders, they have a …
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