The squid, the mantle or main body of which measured two metres long, was found by a walker late on Tuesday on Ocean Beach, near Strahan, on the western coast of island state Tasmania. It’s a whopper,
Tasmanian Museum senior curator Genefor Walker-Smith told local media on Wednesday. The main mantle is about one metre across and its total length is about eight metres
Scientists at Seoul National University Korea are seeking to commercially clone dogs this year — the world’s first attempt to create canine clones for money. Senior researcher Kim Min-kyu at the Seoul-based University is spearheading the efforts based on his team’s expertise in cloning dogs. As per Mr. Kim early last month, they signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Customs Service to clone its drug-sniffing dogs. They have already obtained somatic cells of the expensive dogs and will attempt to clone them in July or August to get puppies late this year at the earliest — via Slashdot
A strange cephalopod has been found near Keahole Point on the big island of Hawaii. It appears to be a cross between an octopus and a squid, which is being called, you guessed it, an octosquid. The specimen, which has 8 arms, an octopus head and squid mantle, was brought up from a depth of 3000 feet by a pipeline operated by Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority
The giant pengiun fossil, which was discovered in Peru and is described today in detail by scientists reveals a creature that was over 1.5 metres tall and weighed as much as a person. The 36 million year old tropical bird’s intimidating appearance was topped off with powerful forearms, a chunky neck and a potentially vicious 18 centimetre long spear-like beak. The discovery of the giant penguin is also shaking up scientists’ understanding of penguin evolution. The finds indicate that penguins made the journey to equatorial regions much earlier in their evolutionary history than researchers had realised
A fragment of an exploding harpoon used by commercial whalers in the 1800s has been found in a whale caught off Alaska, suggesting the animal may be more than 100 years old. Local government officials say the fragment came from a bomb lance
, manufactured around 1880. Alaska’s Inupiat people found it lodged in a bowhead whale during a traditional subsistence hunt last month
Conservationists warn a purple fluorescent frog, one of 24 new species found in the South American highlands of Suriname, is threatened by illegal gold mining. Leeanne Alonso of Conservation International, which led the expedition that found the new species, says the discovery of so many species outside the insect realm is extraordinary and displays the need to survey distant regions. The two-tone frog, whose skin is covered with irregular fluorescent lavender loops on a background of aubergine, was discovered in 2006 as part of a survey of Suriname’s Nassau plateau. Scientists combing Suriname’s Nassau plateau and Lely Mountains found four other new frog species aside from the purple one, six species of fish, 12 dung beetles and a new ant species, the organisation said in a statement
At some point in the not-too-distant future, a moth may take flight in the hills of northern Pakistan, and flap towards a suspected terrorist training camp. But this will be no ordinary moth. Inside it will be a computer chip that was implanted when the creature was still a pupa, in the cocoon, meaning that the moth’s entire nervous system can be controlled remotely
Australia has backed a plan by St Vincent and the Grenadines to hunt humpbacks as part of its subsistence whaling quota. A consensus vote at the International Whaling Commission meeting has cleared the Caribbean nation to kill four whales a year over a five-year period. Mick McIntyre from the International Fund for Animal Welfare says he is disappointed Australia did not oppose the plan, given its opposition to Japan’s plans to add humpbacks to its scientific cull program
After years of negotiations, the Tasmanian Government has persuaded US entertainment company Warner Brothers to help raise funds for research into tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. The Government has long argued that Warner Brothers should help fund the research, because it has made millions of dollars from the cartoon character Taz Devil
A team of American and Irish researchers have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species. Their report that sharks can reproduce asexually through the process known as parthenogenesis is being published online today in the British journal Biology Letters. Researchers have observed parthenogenesis in certain species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and bony fishes, but the new finding suggests that vertebrates’ ability to reproduce without sex evolved much earlier than scientists had thought
Fungus growths have been found in many extreme environments, including the Chernobyl reactor walls. Some fungi have been found whose growth is enhanced by radiation
We were rudely awakened the other night by Olaf (the cat) depositing a slimy frog on our faces at 3am. Happily N had been watching a TV show about the care and feeding of frogs earlier that day, so she leapt out of bed, crafted a frog habitat out of an old pot and a cake net, then went back to sleep.
The next morning we went out to the local permaculture garden and released the frog. I’d just bought a new camera, so I snapped a photo of it before we sent it on its way. When I loaded it into The GIMP and zoomed in on the picture, I thought the camera’s JPEG compression was busted, because the frog’s skin looked weird and fractal. But when I looked at the rest of the photo (skin, fabric, etc) the compression was gorgeous, so guess frog skin is weirdly fractal for camouflage purposes.
See for yourself (the image below has been compressed again as the original is many a megabyte):
A new species of sea anemone has been found in the carcass of a whale that sunk to the ocean floor off the coast of Monterey, California, marking the first discovery of one of these filter-feeding marine animals living in a so-called whale fall. The anemone, called Anthosactis pearseae, is small, white and roughly cube-shaped. It’s about the size of a human molar and even looks like a tooth with small tentacles on one side
Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the dark waters around Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life. The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet, found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life
Japanese scientists say they have genetically engineered silkworms to produce a specific colour. The author of the study, Takashi Sakudoh of the University of Tokyo, says understanding the pigment transport system of silkworms could pave the way for genetic manipulation of the colour and pigment content of silk
. In nature, silkworm cocoon colours vary from white, yellow, straw, salmon, pink and green. The colours in the silk are from natural pigments absorbed when the silkworms eat mulberry leaves. The scientists have found that mutated insects produced a non-functional form of the carotenoid-binding protein, known to aid pigment uptake
It is pink and grey, 60cm long and one of the only two venomous lizards in the world. Yet the Gila Monster has proved an unlikely ally in the battle to control diabetes. Scientists have isolated a chemical in its saliva which is similar to a human hormone that helps regulate blood sugar
A pregnant cow being chased by police and firefighters caused more than $41,000 of damage on a three-hour rampage through the German city of Hanover. The cow, Uschi, escaped from a farm late on Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city. Pursued by the farmer, television camera crews and 30 police and firefighters, the Charolais cow lashed out at cars, benches, garden fences and whatever else got in her way during the five-kilometre chase. After more than three hours on the loose, Uschi was brought down by tranquilliser darts, without harming her unborn calf
The active compound in marijuana, THC, can slow the growth of lung tumours and reduce the spread of the cancer in mice, a preliminary study reveals. Human lung cancer tumours grew less than half as fast in mice that received moderate doses of the compound, the researchers reveal. They hope that drugs mimicking the apparent anti-cancer effects of tetrahydrocanabinol (THC) could one day help treat patients. The team strongly discourage people from self-medicating by smoking marijuana, noting that doing so could potentially encourage tumour growth
An anteater attacked a young zookeeper in Argentina, ripping open the woman’s abdomen and legs with its long claws and leaving her in critical condition. This female anteater apparently attacked her keeper at a Buenos Aires-area zoo to protect her offspring. The unusual attack damaged the zookeeper’s stomach, liver and lungs, Jose Potito, the director of the hospital where the woman was being treated, said
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