A rare species of a type of threadsnake, measuring only 10 centimeters in length, was discovered recently in the Caribbean island of Barbados by Blair Hedges, evolutionary biologist at the Pennsylvania State University and researcher, also known for discovering the world's smallest species of frogs and lizards. The area inhabited by the snake is actually a small forest on the eastern side of the island."Habitat destruction is a major threat to biodiversity throughout the world. The Caribbean is particularly vulnerable because it contains an unusually high percentage of endangered species and, because these animals live on islands, they... [read more >>] Squids and their relatives, cuttlefish and octopuses, have the most complex eyes in the invertebrate world, closely resembling in structure the eyes of vertebrates. On top of that, the eyes of these animals are relatively large compared to their size. These things considered, it's no wonder that the examination that started last week, of the largest colossal squid ever caught (and largest invertebrate ever captured) has revealed the largest eye on Earth. The 1,089-pound (490 kg), 26-ft (8.6 m) long colossal squid had been captured accidentally in February 2007 by a New Zealand fishing crew off the coast of Antarctica (in the northern R... [read more >>] The length of a day is not affected only by tides and winds. Underground forces are prolonging our days by milliseconds, as revealed by a new research published in the journal "Science." Phenomena from the mineral layer at the core-mantle boundary, 1,615 mi (2,600 km) deep, appear to impact the Earth's spinning speed. "The length of a day
is changing due to the interaction between the mantle and the core in the very deep Earth. This is basically because the bottom of the mantle has very high electrical conductivity," said co-author Kei Hirose, a geoscientist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, in Japan. The Japanese team made a lab... [read more >>] The killer whale, or orca, is one of those animals with an unmistakable color pattern that cannot fool even an uninitiated person. But now, researchers have taken pictures of a white killer whale near the Aleutian Islands (western Alaska). The beast of the myths turned into reality."I had heard about this whale, but we had never been able to find it. It was quite neat to find it," said Holly Fearnbach, a biologist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, in Seattle, who took pictures of the rare mammal.The animal was detected in February 2008, while a team aboard the Oscar Dyson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research s... [read more >>] Blue whales may have 2,4 m (8 feet) long penises, but that's relatively short: it is like a human having a 10 cm penis, as the blue whale can reach 33 m (100 feet) body length. But barnacles, small crustaceans looking like small shells fixed on rocks or man made structures (or sometimes even on whales!) with a muscular stalk or not are better known for other reasons: Gooseneck barnacle, for example, is one of the most expensive seafoods.Barnacles are hermaphroditic and alternate male and female roles over time. But how to mate with you neighbor when you're stuck on the place? Simple: by developing the longest penis in the animal k... [read more >>] Cobras are famous for their hood display, but some African species also because... they spit venom, like the black necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis) or ringed necked spitting cobras (Hemachatus hemachatus). They target the eyes and can spit with precision to a distance of 1.8 m (6 ft), but the venom can go even 4 m (13 ft) away. These cobras can launch up to 12 successive shots, at a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres, due to the instantaneous contraction of the muscles surrounding the venom glands. The venom harms only if it touches the eyes, and if it is not rapidly removed, it can cause blindness. Now, in Kenya, scientists have discovere... [read more >>] Yeti, also called the "abominable snowman", represents the most fascinating legend of the Himalaya. Stories tell about a huge ape-like creature, bipedal (walking on two feet), with small ears and long red hair. And the stories do not originate from the territory of Himalaya, but they also come from the mountains of southwestern China. Moreover, unlike Big Foot or Chupacabra, Yeti has a palaeontological record: Gigantopithecus, the largest ape ever, which lived 5 million to 100,000 years ago in about the same areas: it was 3 m (10 ft) tall and weighed 300-500 kg (660 to 1100 pounds) (matching the descriptions of Yeti). It had a gorilla-lik... [read more >>] On June 30, 1908, the biggest space impact that Earth suffered in modern times, known as the Tunguska event, took place in a remote Siberian area, destroying more than 2,000 sq km (770 square mi) of forest near the Tunguska River (central Siberia). The ball of fire that could have been a comet or asteroid, blasted about 6 mi (10 km) off the ground in the atmosphere with a power similar to 1,000 Hiroshima bomb explosions (20 millions tones of TNT), so brightly and powerfully that it was seen even on the London sky. For a century, many teams have been attempting to find the culprit object, combing the site, but none could discover any fragme... [read more >>] Diamonds may be a woman's dream but this one would break her neck if put on a necklace: it has the size of two fists, 7,000 carats and doubles what was till now the world's largest known diamond, the Cullinan or "Great Star of Africa", found in South Africa in 1905.The new one has been found by a small mining company also in South Africa in an unknown location, but check is still required. Security is tightened around the stone.The stone was stored in Johannesburg, where it would remain "until we calm down and decide what we are going to do", said Brett Jolly, a spokesman for the mining firm Two Point Five Construction. By now, ne... [read more >>] This looks like another Congolese myth: huge jungle apes that kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. The legends speak about a legendary creature, a type of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.But how to investigate this in the middle of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Getting to the area means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, not to mention the impenetrable forest. Still, a few researchers have managed to study the animals. The creatures which were found were not yeti or a chimp/gorilla hybrid, but the reality proved even more fascinati... [read more >>] | 
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