Animal of the Decade -- marking 10 years of erratic animals of the week with one of the most terrifying animals ever

Hard to imagine that it's 10 years since I first emailed my friend Lucy on what must have been a busy day at work about an unusual animal I had been reading about on the internet, the solenodon. A few weeks later and a new species of macaque hit the news...and for the next 3 years animal of the week was a pretty regular feature, first Lucy forwarded it to a couple of friends, and then I started sending it to more and more people, who signed up their friends. It was a mailout then. At its peak over 250 people were on the mailing list—and only a few people got pissed off.

As time went on, the world changed. A blog seemed more sensible than a mailout. My MSc in evolutionary biology at the Natural History Museum seemed, ironically, to rob me of my fervour for disseminating animal info. And the pressures of freelance work, love, life, and generally being a louche gad-about got in the way. But I keep it up occasionally for some amusement—and I also do AOTW every once in a while.

Of the 230 odd posts, the most viewed AOTW is the starling from February 2013, which is pleasing as it was based on personal experience. The next most viewed was in defense of the shoebill. My personal favourite is probably the mountain beaver because it contains a pun referencing an art critic.



This week, as it's Hallowe'en, I thought I'd post this video of an animal featured on Wonders of the Monsoon, and excellent BBC series about the wildlife of countries affected by the monsoon. Mimobdella buettikofer (giant red leech), lives on Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Borneo, it's not a blood sucking leech, rather it feeds on the giant blue earthworms (Pheretima darnleiensis) that also live on Borneo's highest peak. There's not really a great deal to add to the video... so yeah, have a look, and sweet dreams.

Animal of the Week September 22, 2014 -- World Rhino Day: a primer

White winos

After almost 10 years of Animal of the Week (admittedly often not weekly), it's a bit of a surprise to me that I have never featured a rhino. So in one fell swoop, I'll do the whole lot, in honour of world rhino day!

What is a rhino?
Rhinoceroses are represented by five species alive today. They are odd-toed ungulates (hoofed mammals). Their closest living relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates—horses and tapirs. More distantly they are related to the even-toed ungulates including cows, camels, hippos, and whales (yes whales, but that's another story).

African rhinos

Black rhinos

Two species, the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) and black rhino (Diceros bicornis) are found in Africa. The largest of all rhinos, white rhinos are animals of grassland, with broad mouths designed for cropping grass at ground level (the 'white' in their names is a misinterpretation of the Afrikaans word for 'wide', in reference to their lips). The wide, square lip of white rhinos contrasts with the hooked lips of black rhinos designed for browsing shrubs, taller grasses, and low trees.

Indian rhino

Asian rhinos
Three species are found in Asia. The largest and most numerous Asian species is the Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), the smallest and hairiest of all the rhinos is the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), and the one in the middle, but the most endangered mammal species in the world is the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus).






I thought rhinos were all extinct now

A Javan rhino (seen better days)

The northern subspecies of the white rhino, the west African species of the black rhino, continental representatives of the Javan rhino...all gone. There are about 15 000 white rhinos left in southern and eastern Africa. They outnumber representatives of all other species put together: about 5000 each of the black and Indian rhinos, and just a couple of hundred Sumatran rhinos. As few as 40 Javan rhinos remain on the western tip of Java...the last remnant of a species that once had a range extending from Pakistan, to China, to Java. All species experienced massive declines in recent centuries as firearms and transport meant that poachers could capitalise on the east Asian penchant for rhino-horn in traditional 'medicine'.

Horn, what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing. Rhino horn is made of the same stuff as fingernails and hair...so any claims of medical benefit are utter bunk. If rhino horn was good for you in anyway, you could achieve an equal benefit from chewing on your fingernails...so it's certainly not good for your nerves.

A matter of style
In The Lancet style guide, there is a picture of a Sumatran rhino with the instruction that it should always be referred to as the hairiest of all the rhinos on first mention...it's been there for a decade now...perhaps it's older than animal of the week.

 

Animal of the Week September 17, 2014 -- Scotland decides

NB: some of the tenses and phrasing in the following need thoughtful amendment.

Amid the ongoing debates about Scottish independence, one thing not many people seem to care much about is that come Friday morning, if a Yes vote for a new country is returned, the UK will lose its only endemic vertebrate species: Loxia scotica (Scottish crossbill). No other mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian is found solely in the UK, and the Scottish crossbill is found only in the Caledonian forest, well north of the border.

Picture: RSPB.

As their name suggests, Scottish crossbills are Scottish and have crossed bills, in which the tips of the top and bottom curve to opposite sides. Crossbills use their peculiar beaks to extract seed from the cones conifers such as pines and larches. The red and the parrot crossbills can also be found in the UK (including England), but they are also found sur le continent.

Hard to distinguish from related species, the best way to tell the crossbills apart is by their call—it was the recognition of the distinct vocalisations of Scottish crossbills (a metallic jip) that confirmed them as a distinct species as recently as 2006.

So, it's not just the currency, taxation, health systems, national identity, etc affected by the #indyref #scotlanddecides referendum, it's also whether the UK loses its only endemic species. Not that I really care either way: as long as an independent Scotland looks after its crossbills, as it has done so far, I'm good.

Happy voting everyone. I hope it all works out well whatever you decide. x

Animal of the Week September 9, 2014 -- a whole new...

Well, maybe it's a phylum, but the people who have described this week's animal of the week, two species in the new genus Dendrogramma (in the new family Dendrogrammatidae), aren't so bold as to create such a high level taxon. But if the suspicion that these organisms are most closely related to species thought to have gone extinct 540 million years ago is borne out, we'll have to change how we think about the history of life on earth...a bit.

They do look like mushrooms. © 2014 Just et al

The two species were found during examination of specimens connected from the deep sea continental slope of Australia in 1986, but have only now just been described fully in a paper published in PLoS One. Superficially they look like mushrooms, but the specimens available show they have a skin and a gut separated by jelly like material.

Unfortunately the preparation of the specimens in pure strong alcohol means that genetic material no longer exists for phylogenetic analysis. Later drying out and preparation with pure alcohol led to shrinkage and more changes in the physical structure, hampering further investigations. More specimens will be needed to see where these organisms hang on the tree of life. (Fortunately, I've got a birth certificate so while I have been prepared in copious amounts of alcohol [and possibly formalin in my most desperate moments] my position on the tree of life is well established.)

The researchers note similarities with the Ediacaran (or Vendian) fauna, ancient extinct organisms known from some of the oldest fossils that were thought to represent failed early experiments in the animal kingdom. If these new species are related to those animals, our understanding that they all died out will have to be rethought.

On divisions of life
A phylum is a group of organisms with a basic body plan that are distinct from other phylums. For example, humans are joined in the phylum Chordata with fish, frogs, birds, dinosaurs and sea squirts, all because at some point in their lifecycle they possess a tail with notochord backbone. Discovery of new species is remarkable enough, genera pretty special, families thoroughly exciting and any higher level distinction incredibly rare in this day and age...but who knows what else is out there.

Mnemonic for recalling the divisions of life
King Philip can only find green socks
Kingdom (eg, animal), phylum (eg, chordates), class (eg, mammals), order (eg, carnivores), family (eg, cats), genus (eg, big cats), species (eg, tiger)

Animal of the week Sept 2, 2014 -- Geeeecccckkkkkoooooosssss iiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn ssssssspppppppppaaaaaaaacccccccceeeeee

Luke J. Harmon - Harmon LJ—wikicommons

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and he pondered his place in the universe, one question dominated his thoughts: I wonder if geckos could breed in zero gravity. This week's animal has been all over the news this past couple of days, because finally it looked like we might have the answer to Neil's question. It's Phelsuma ornata (Mauritius ornate day gecko).

These small brightly coloured geckos originate on the tropical Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, they scurry around the treetops by daytime hunting insects and avoiding predators in the tropical sunshine.

Five geckos were blasted into space on my birthday, July 15, aboard the Russian Foton-M Satellite as part of an experiment to investigate the great mystery of whether geckos are able to reproduce under zero-gravity conditions.

The satellite returned to earth in the small hours of Tuesday morning. Unfathomable excitement turned to crushing disappointment when the satellite was recovered and the geckos hadn't reproduced at all. In fact, all five had died. Died some time ago, as they had started to desiccate and mummify. It's possible that the lizard died of cold...average daily celcius temperatures in Mauritius are in the mid 20s...in space, it's colder.

What a loss to science.

Animal of the week August 25, 2014 -- The rarest duck in the world

Still more common than animal of the week, this week's animal is maybe the rarest bird in the world. It's Aythya innotata (Madagascar pochard), a diving duck from Madagascar. Diving ducks, like pochards, scaups, and tufted ducks, obtain food by diving beneath the surface and picking food off the bottom of waterbodies; dabbling ducks, such as mallards and wigeon, glean food from the surface.

This critically endangered waterfowl was, for 15 years from 1991, thought to be extinct. It had vanished from its last known home on Lake Alaotra in central Madagascar, and surveys up to the early 2000s turned up a duck...or didn't. But in 2006, a small flock was found at Lake Matsaborimena in northern Madagascar. The Durrell Wildlife Trust, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and the Peregrine Fund, along with Madagascan partners set up conservation efforts including a breeding programme, now there are 25 birds in the wild and 80 in captivity.

Things are looking up, but the ducks will need a new home. The lake where those in the wild live now is a poor habitat for them, when chicks reach an age when they should start to be able to feed themselves they find the steep sided lake too deep to dive—up to 96% of chicks die before reaching adulthood.

So, the conservation groups are now scoping out possible new homes where they might reintroduce captive birds. But before they can they'll have to sort out the habitat, look into controlling introduced mammals and fish species that might eat the chicks, and engage with locals to make sure that farming practices and fishing techniques allow reintroduced birds to thrive.

On the EDGE list of all bird species, Madagascar pochards are number 568/9993. They aren't as high as former AOTW the giant ibis, because although they are fewer in number (100 vs 200) they are less evolutionarily distinct: other closely related species of diving ducks in the same genus are common and unthreatened, such as the common pochard (9825), canvas back (9826), and greater and lesser scaups (9829 and 98
30).

Animal of the Week May 7, 2014 -- look at her weiner

This week's animal of the week is Neotrogla, a whole genus of insects (at least four species but probably more—with 10 million species of animal out there, I've got to speed this thing up) in which the females have penis like appendages and the males have vagina like apparatus.

In almost all known animals with intromittent sexual organs, it's the male that does the insertion. But in the case of Neotrogla, Brazilian bark lice that live out their lives in lightless caves feeding on bat guano, the females have evolved the gynosome, an organ used to siphon sperm out of the males' phallosomes. If you are now wondering what defines a male and a female if not their sexual organs, it's actually the size of the sex cells—females produce fewer larger eggs, males produce many smaller sperm.

Girl's on top

In the list of things I find fascinating, sex is pretty high up there—thankfully, a lot of evolutionary biology is either directly or indirectly concerned with the study of sex. When it comes down to it, evolution is about reproduction: survival of the fittest is nothing if the fit genes don't get passed onto successive generations.

Why Neotrogla evolved this role-reversal is unknown. In the nutrient poor caves, the sperm might provide not only genetic material but also vital nutrients without which the females cannot reproduce, so creating competition for access to this resource which the unique arrangement somehow facilitates.

Of course, this also raises the question (although it's not one that keeps me awake at night) of why some male animals have penises? In some insects they are used to aid in competing with other males for delivering sperm: sometimes they are used to scrape out other males' offerings, and in extreme cases, they break off after mating and block any other male from inseminating a female. In mammals, size seems to correlate with the number of males competing for the attention of or access to females. The human penis is one of the oddest—larger in every dimension than those of our close relatives chimps, bonobos and gorillas, they also lack the baculum or penis bone that these species use to achieve erection and instead use blood pumped into spongy tissue. The human penis may not only serve a practical function, but also might be a visual sexual display.

A male penis is clearly an efficient mechanism of introducing sperm to eggs, but Neotrogla reminds us there is more than on way to achieve this, and excites my wholly theoretical interest in the subject.

Animal of the Week April 29, 2014 -- Birds on the EDGE

The EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct, Globally Endangered) initiative has done a lot to highlight the plight of some of the world's most interesting and most threatened species. Scientists identify the most threatened species with few close relatives—the extinction of which would mean the loss of unique evolutionary history.

http://www.arkive.org/giant-ibis/thaumatibis-gigantea/

A couple of weeks ago, the EDGE team identified 100 bird species that are conservation priorities. One or two of the species high on the list are familiar AOTWs: the kakapo and the spoonbilled sandpiper for example. But number one on the list Thaumatibis gigantea (giant ibis) deserves an its own entry.

Everyone loves an ibis. This prehistoric-looking family can be found on every continent in a various different sizes and colours, but their overall shape leggy and long-necked with a lengthy downcurved bill changes little. But while they may have an unmistakable look, the evolutionary divisions in the group are deep, and many species, such as the giant ibis, represent the only species in monotypic genera.

The giant ibis is the largest member of the family: over a metre in length and weighing 4 kg. The 200 or so remaining birds are found in remote Cambodia, having been driven to the brink of extinction by habitat loss and disturbance, climate change, and hunting. Sparsely distributed, they have possibly never been particularly numerous, but their range did once extend into Laos, Thaland, and Vietnam. And their restricted range means that the remaining birds are vulnerable to local disturbances.

Whereas various other ibis species live in close proximity to people (Herodotus wrote of streets in Alexandria crowded with the birds that would have the benefit of snaffling up pests and discarded waste, but counteracted this by fouling everywhere), the giant ibis avoids human contact, preferring to feed on earthworms, eels, crustaceans, and small amphibians far from human habitation.

Tawny bellied seedeater
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dariosanches/

The reason it has taken 2 weeks for me to get around to the AOTW is that the considerate EDGE people provided a list of nearly 9993 species with their positions on the list...which took me some time to wade through. The bird at the bottom of the list, the least EDGEy species? The rather dainty Sporophila hypoxantha (tawny bellied seedeater), a finch from south Africa with a wide range and many closely related species (30 species in the genus Sporophila compared with just one in the genus Thaumatibis).

Animal of the Week March 31, 2014 — How deep is your dive?

This week's animal of the week is a record-holding mammal, able to dive deeper or longer than any other. As reported in PLOS One, Ziphius curvirostris (Cuvier's beaked whale) can dive almost 3 km in depth remaining submerged for over 2 hours.

When George Cuvier first described this species, he thought it was an extinct species, but now they are known to be found around the world in all oceans except the high polar regions. The beaked whales are a widespread group of cetaceans, and despite there being quite a few species that are probably not uncommon, their open-ocean deep-diving habits mean they are poorly known—all but a few species having escaped the attention of the whaling industry, whence a lot of our knowledge of whales comes (not that that makes whaling a good thing). The northern bottlenose whale, one of which popped up the Thames to die back in early 2006, is also a species of beaked whale.

Beaked whales are named for their mouth, which notably protrudes from their head. They typically have only one pair of teeth and in many species these only erupt through the gums in the males—in older Cuvier's males these tusks protrude from the jaw, and combat between males are likely the cause of the parallel striations seen on the skin of many male whales. They hunt by sucking up squid and small fish on their forays into the deep ocean. To aid their impressive diving feats they have a very high proportion of myoglobin (the equivalent of haemoglobin that permeates muscle tissue), which keeps their muscle well oxygenated on deep dives, they are able to collapse the air cavities in their bodies on diving, and they have a very waxy blubber.

The previous record holder for mammal deep diving was an elephant seal that dove not quite as far for not quite as long—such is the nature of records. It's possible that other beaked whales and sperm whales dive even deeper, but until we know better, we salute you Cuvier's beaked whale. Great diving!

Animal of the Week March 16, 2014 -- first butterfly of the year

I'm a simple and predictable man. Just as I will let out a yelp of glee at the first bee of the season, the first sighting of a butterfly each year, usually a few weeks later, also elicits a broad grin. And that first butterfly is invariably this week's animal Gonepteryx rhamni (brimstone)—spotted this weekend in NW5.

The brimstone is somewhat unusual among UK butterfly species in that it hibernates as an adult, rather than migrating here from warmer climes, or overwintering as a pupa as many other butterflies do. This habit means it is often the first butterfly one sees in the year.

The brimstone is almost unmistakable. Other yellow butterflies, such as the rarer clouded yellows have substantial black markings on their wings and don't have the same, odd, geometrical wingshape of the brimstone.

The name brimstone obviously comes from their colour (related to sulphur, also known as brimstone, and yellow in colour). But oddly enough, one theory for the origin of the word butterfly is that it originated with the brimstone—ie, the butter-coloured fly.

However, a lot of other old words for butterfly in Germanic languages derive from a mediaeval belief that butterflies were witches in disguise that would steal unguarded milk, cream or butter; and this may be the true origin of the word. These words have been replaced with other terms related to Latin Papilio, but the German word for butterfly schmetterling is thought to derive from smetana, the Czech word for cream, and the belief that butterflies were milk-thieving witches.

Animal of the Week February 20, 2014 -- Holy carp!

When might a fish give you a black eye? When it's this week's animal of the week Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (silver carp), that's when.

This species made headlines this week when the US Government charged US Army Corps of Engineers to suggest ways in which they might prevent this invasive species from Asia reaching the Great Lakes, amid fears for the impact they and their close relative the bighead carp will have on these landmark ecosystems of the USA–Canada border.

Since their introduction to the southern Mississippi area of the USA three decades ago, they have made it all the way up the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois river systems. At points reaching phenomenal densities. Silver carp have a habit of leaping out of the water when spooked by loud noises such as boat engines, people have suffered broken noses, broken jaws, and broken vertebrae when hit by spooked fish. This video clip has no such outcomes but much good humour:

In Bath Illinois, the Redneck Fishing Tournament will  celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, in which people with nets catch the fish as they leap out of the water. The only rules: no fishing poles and do it at your own risk.

Silver carp are excellent filter-feeders, with specially designed gills that enable them to extract all but the tiniest particles from water. They can filter out particles 4 micrometres in diameter, have no need for stomachs because the particles they eat are so small, and they might never actually stop feeding. For this reason, they were introduced to the USA to help control algae in water treatment plants and catfish farms.

They can grow to a metre in length and reach 40 kg, and this ability to turn such tiny yet abundant food into so much body mass makes them ideal for farming, and they are the most farmed fish in the world. If you find that unbelievable because you've never seen a silver carp farm, but have fond childhood memories of trips to trout farms? That's because you've not grown up in China where most of the silver-carp farming happens.

Their habit of leaping out of the water

Previous introduced species AOTWs include the  snakehead and the harlequin ladybird.

Animal of the Week February 15 -- What the pangolin?!

How the hell have I been on AOTW for almost 10 years without once having a species of pangolin as feature?

It's World Pangolin Day, so I am going to make amends, and animal of the week is (picked somewhat at random from the eight extant species of pangolin) Manis gigantea (giant pangolin).

Known as scaly anteaters, pangolins do superficially resemble the bastard child of an anteater and pine cone, but
they are closely related to neither. In the tree of mammalian life, pangolins are somewhat out on a limb. They are most closely related to carnivores (cats, dogs, seals, weasels, etc), but have been on their own evolutionary path since the demise of the dinosaurs or thereabouts.

Pangolins, like anteaters, lack teeth, have cylindrical legs with strong claws, and have very long sticky tongues designed to extract ants and termites from their mounds. But this similarity is convergent evolution—it's one of the best ways to get at an abundant food source, so evolution has shaped several animals that way. When threatened by predators, pangolins curl up into a ball, protecting their heads and soft undersides with their hard scales.

The largest of all the pangolins, giant pangolins can weigh in excess of 30 kg and reach almost a metre and a half in length. Giant pangolins live from west Africa, through the Congo, to Uganda.

Some people hunt giant pangolins for bushmeat, and with habitat destruction, their numbers are in decline. Although the African pangolins fare slightly better than their Asian cousins. Their scales are highly prized in Chinese medicine and in parts of southeast Asia their flesh is considered a delicacy. The Asian pangolins are in a rapid decline, are some of the most trafficked animals, and may be destined for extinction before long. And as with the rhinos, also hunted to the brink for Asian medicine and ornament markets, once the Asian species go, traders will turn to Africa.

Animal of the Week Feb 4, 2014 -- extinction taketh away, but evolution (and scientists) giveth

It was with some joy that I recently read of a newly discovered species of river dolphin, Inia araguaiaensis (Araguaian river dolphin or Araguaian boto).

A close relative of former AOTW the Amazon boto, scientists taking a close look at the dolphins living in the Aruguaia–Tocantins river system noticed that they were a bit smaller than their relatives in the Amazon and had different jaw morphology. Some genetic studies revealed that the two populations had been separated for more than 2 million years and were likely different enough to be recognised as different species.

Animal of the Week isn't always (some would say "ever") a barrel of laughs. While I've made a lot of posts about new species described and discovered, I've had occasion to note a couple of extinctions along the way. The baiji is perhaps the most memorable no-longer species to feature as AOTW—this freshwater dolphin, erstwhile inhabitant of China's Yangtse river is thought to have gone extinct around 2006—the only species of whale or dolphin to be declared extinct in modern times, probably not the last.

River dolphins are not all c
losely related and are not confined to freshwater habitats. The true river dolphins (the botos, the plata dolphin, the baiji, and the south Asian river dolphin) are thought to represent a primitive group of species that once was also widely spread in marine habitats before the more modern dolphins arose and usurped them. The tucuxi lives in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, but is more closely related to marine dolphins than to the river dolphins.

While there's some debate about whether the Araguaian boto is sufficiently different from the Amazon boto to be a completely separate species, but hey, give them another 2 million years and they will be.

Animal of the Week, January 13, 2014 -- swallow

This week's animal of the week is not a swallow, been there, done that.

But rather, a fish that swallows swallows. Researchers reporting in the Journal of Fish Biology have for the first time recorded video footage of this week's animal Hydrocynus vittatus (African tiger fish) leaping out of the water and catching one of the acrobatic birds as they skim the surface of a South African lake.

Not really a great deal to add to the video . The first video of the footage I saw lacked the banjo music, but I love banjos, and the highlighted video helps show where to look. Fish such as pike are known to take slow moving or stationary birds—all those coot chicks and ducklings that are there one day and gone the next. But this is the first fish known to catch birds in flight.

Well done that fish.