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A first-of-its-kind for habitat selection. Image courtesy of Miguel Vences Rejoice! There’s a new tiny chameleon on the block. Hailing from Madagascar, it joins other miniature chameleons in the Brookesia genus, subgenus Evoluticauda. At little bigger than the end of your forefinger, it was a remarkable spot in what’s presently a highly threatened habitat in Madagascar. The new-to-science species has been named Brookesia nofy after the forest it was found in, known as Ankanin’ny Nofy. Sitting at about sea level, it’s a littoral forest making this the first of the mini chameleons to be found in this kind of habitat....

When a pregnant woman had her blood sampled back in 1972, doctors discovered it was mysteriously missing a surface molecule found on all other known red blood cells at the time. After 50 years, this strange molecular absence finally led researchers from the UK and Israel to describe a new blood group system in humans. "It represents a huge achievement, and the culmination of a long team effort, to finally establish this new blood group system and be able to offer the best care to rare, but important, patients," UK National Health Service hematologist Louise Tilley says, after nearly 20...

By growing the mushroom’s mycelium into the robot’s hardware, researchers have engineered two types of robots that sense and respond to the environment by harnessing electrical signals made by the fungus. =================================================================== A wheeled bot rolls across the floor. A soft-bodied robotic star bends its five legs, moving with an awkward shuffle. Powered by conventional electricity via plug or battery, these simple robotic creations would be unremarkable, but what sets these two robots apart is that they are controlled by a living entity: a king oyster mushroom. By growing the mushroom’s mycelium, or rootlike threads, into the robot’s hardware, a...

Scientists have unearthed the remnants of more than 1,700 viruses from deep inside a glacier in western China. Most of these viruses are new to science. With this discovery, the number of ancient viruses recovered from glaciers has grown fiftyfold.The viruses, gathered from a 1,000-foot ice core taken from the sprawling Guliya Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau, date back 41,000 years and span three major shifts from cold to warm. Scientists say the viruses differed markedly between colder and warmer eras, noting that a distinct community of viruses formed during the most dramatic of these climatic shifts, at the end...

The central six-ton altar stone at Stonehenge may have come from more than 450 miles away, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature. Stonehenge is thought to have been erected in several phases between 3100 BCE and 1600 BCE, with the circle of large sarsen stones placed there between 2600 BCE and 2400 BCE by Neolithic and Bronze Age people. While larger local stones may have been moved by hundreds of individuals with ropes and log rollers, the Welsh bluestones could have been transported by sea using rafts. Related Articles Researchers begin excavating a site in...

Does the 'Nguoi Rung' roam the forests of Vietnam, or is it a legend?This is my strangest wildlife adventure yet. Through the years, I’ve searched for various rare animals—forest elephants in Borneo, tamaraw in the Philippines, lions in Africa, Komodo dragons in Indonesia. Today, we’re on the trail of an animal that probably doesn’t even exist. This is my first foray into the field of cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals. Bigfoot of North America, the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland, the Yeti of the Himalayas, and the Chupacabra of Mexico are among the world’s best-known cryptids. Most cryptids, like...

One of the new OSD species – a hydrothermal vent limpet, Lepetodrilus marianae. Credit: Chong Chen, Hiromi Kayama Watanabe, and Miwako Tsuda ================================================================================= Ocean biodiversity is under significant threat due to global changes, but new initiatives like the Ocean Species Discoveries, coordinated by the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, aim to rapidly describe and publish findings on marine species. This innovative approach reduces the usual decades-long delay in species description, directly contributing to the conservation efforts needed to protect vulnerable marine habitats and their undiscovered inhabitants. Accelerating Biodiversity Research Accelerating global change continues to threaten Earth’s vast biodiversity, including in the...

It looks like the original explanation for where Homo floresiensis came from was right all along. The Hobbit humerus fragment (left) from Mata Menge next to one from Liang Bua to scale, and the full collection of bones from the most complete Liang Bua Hobbit. Image Credit: Yousuke Kaifu ================================================================================ Three new fossils, including part of a humerus, have been found at Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores. They indicate that Homo floresiensis, popularly known as Hobbits, were descended from Homo erectus, and became small relatively soon after arriving on Flores. Indeed, it seems at least some Hobbits...

Game Camera image purported dogman, could it be bigfoot, skunkape or something entirely different?

P. maluti. (Cullen Clark) Planet Earth is home to possibly hundreds of species of magic mushroom that contain the hallucinogen, psilocybin. Systematic fieldwork surveys of the genus, Psilocybe, however, are "entirely lacking" for many regions of the world. Now, a new paper describes two species of magic mushroom in southern Africa that are wholly new to science. That brings the total number of reported Psilocybe mushrooms on the continent from just four to six. One of the species, called Psilocybe maluti, is the first scientifically documented magic mushroom with traditional, spiritual uses in Africa. P. maluti was originally photographed in...

Don't be so blue, buddy. Image credit: J. Barker / AWC The aptly named magnificent tree frog is typically green with a yellow belly, so you can imagine the surprise when scientists stumbled across a member of the species with blue skin. The shocking blue frog is an incredibly rare discovery, most likely caused by a rare genetic mutation that affects the production of yellow pigments. It was recently photographed by a team from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) while exploring the Charnley River-Artesian Range Wildlife Sanctuary along the Kimberley coast of north-western Australia. “It was after dark when we...

PBS NewsHour Here is the transcript JUDY WOODRUFF: Scientists working in Greenland have identified the oldest samples of DNA ever found on Earth. By analyzing this two-million-year-old genetic material, they have revealed how Northern Greenland was once a wildly different environment than the cold polar region it is today, one teeming with ancient wildlife and plants, including some that scientists thought had never lived so far north. William Brangham is back now to explore this with one of the researchers who made this discovery. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For more on this remarkable discovery, I’m joined by one of the lead scientists...

Surfers at Santa Cruz’s Cowell Beach are used to sharing the ocean with wildlife. On occasion, they’ve been chased by aggressive otters, and white shark numbers are on the rise in an adjacent cove. On the morning of June 24, though, a far more enigmatic and elusive creature made an appearance, and gave the surfers a bit of a scare. In a photo captured by Santa Cruz resident Eric Mendelson from a nearby bluff, the creature’s dorsal fin is sticking out of the water, looking decidedly shark-like. But in another remarkable photo, Mendelson captured the animal’s bizarrely shaped head and...

Scientists have found that wild chimpanzees use plants with healing properties to treat themselves. They conducted their research in Uganda’s forests, carefully observing injured or sick animals to determine if they were using plants as medicine. When they noticed an injured chimp eating a specific plant, they collected samples for analysis. They discovered that many of these plants have properties that fight bacteria. The researchers, who shared their discoveries in the journal PLOS One, believe that studying chimpanzees could lead to the development of additional medications. Dr. Elodie Freymann, the lead researcher from the University of Oxford, highlighted the challenge...

The idea of a giant virus lurking on a vast ice sheet might sound like the plot to the latest science fiction blockbuster. Giant viruses were first discovered in 1981, when researchers found them in the ocean. These viruses had specialised in infecting green algae in the sea. Later, giant viruses were found in soil on land and even in humans. But it's become a reality, after researchers discovered giant viruses while exploring the Greenland ice sheet. Before you panic that the viruses could spark the next pandemic, there's good news. Scientists from Aarhus University say the viruses could actually...

The Ayeyarwady pit viper, a new species discovered in Myanmar by Dr. Chan Kin Onn, illustrates the complexities of species differentiation in pit vipers. This species, which displays traits of both the redtail and mangrove pit vipers, was initially thought to be a hybrid but was confirmed as distinct through genomic analysis. Credit: Wolfgang Wüster Finding and describing new species can be a tricky endeavor. Scientists typically look for distinctive characters that can differentiate one species from another. However, variation is a continuum that is not always easy to quantify. At one extreme, multiple species can look alike even though...

...but, heck, it's Saturday night. Has anyone here been interested in Bigfoot/Sasquatch, or seen one, or know someone who claims to have seen one?

Aardwolves — the "weird cousin" of the hyena world that has peg teeth and only eats insects — are an evolutionary mystery, stemming from a ghost lineage that scientists haven't been able to figure out. Aardwolves, which translates as "earth wolves" in Afrikaans, are the smallest of the four hyena species. (Image credit: pjmalsbury via Getty Images) Name: Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) Where it lives: Savannah and grasslands in eastern and southern Africa What it eats: Termites and ants Why it's awesome: Unlike their meat-eating relatives, these solitary, nocturnal little hyenas survive on a diet almost entirely made up of termites....

On September 7, 1936, the last known thylacine, often referred to as the Tasmanian tiger, is believed to have died in captivity in Hobart, Tasmania. Since then, the species, long presumed extinct, has taken on a near-mythical status. The thylacine still captures the public’s imagination, having earned its place as a modern symbol of both loss, and also possibilities. The creature’s unmistakable striped appearance has also helped propel it to its current position as a pop cultural icon and a constant reminder of humanity’s more destructive side. Yet what is perhaps the most intriguing about the thylacine is that, for...

The creature's shape is striking, as it has not been connected with any known animal. Residents of Totoras in the province of Santa Fe report that a creature is wandering the streets and has even slain two dogs. The photograph, taken and night and somewhat blurry, has already made the rounds of social media to warn against the possible danger. An audio broadcast expains that the beast squared ofrf against a Pitbull and a German Shepherd who lost the encounter and died. The creature subsequently vanished. ... Dentro Irime Cydar noticed that the image matches that of a character appearing...