Fish and Amphibians

PUBLISHED: 17:41 31 January 2020 | UPDATED: 17:48 31 January 2020 Daniel Moxon A bittern at Oulton Marshes. Picture: Ricky Cone. (c) copyright newzulu.com A special amphibious machine has been used in the Norfolk Broads to create a new wetland habitat for rare birds such as bitterns. The Truxor machine in action at How Hill National Nature Reserve. Picture: Martin Dade. The plant machine, known as a Truxor, was hired to clear reeds in otherwise inaccessible areas using its excavator attachment, in order to create new waterways for wildlife in the hope that bitterns will hunt there. The project, which took place at How Hill National Nature Reserve, in the heart of the Broads, was led by the Broads Authority, in partnership with RSPB, Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation, and funded by a water environment grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. How Hill National Nature Reserve. Picture: Broads Authority. Bitterns cross international b

RMIT ABC Fact Check Updated January 31, 2020 10:38:29 Photo: Ecology expert Chris Dickman says over a billion animals have been killed nationwide this bushfire season. (ABC Illawarra: Kelly Fuller) Related Story: Animal bushfires refugees likely to remain in care of volunteers for months Map: Australia The claim More than 1 billion animals are said to have died in Australia's bushfires so far this fire season. Chris Dickman, an ecology expert from the University of Sydney, initially suggested on January 3 that as many as 480 million animals were likely to have died in the NSW fires. Less than a week later, he updated that number to 800 million and projected "nationally" that more than 1 billion had died. "The 480 million estimate was made a couple of weeks ago, and the fires have now burnt over a large area of further country. That means over 800 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been affected by the fires. Australiawide, it's probably ov

By Pat Dray The Garden Spot Pat Dray Although the Earth is considered a “water planet,” with over 70 percent of the surface covered by the stuff, less than 1 percent of that water is considered available for human needs. The other 99 percent is in the oceans, frozen in glaciers and ice caps or in soil moisture. As our state has become more developed, residential usage has expanded significantly with a concurrent growth in the use of managed landscapes – in other words, lawns. Unfortunately, with expanded lawns comes expanded use of water for irrigation and chemicals for turf maintenance. According the EPA fact sheet “Outdoor Water Use in the United States,” approximately 30 percent of the available water is used for outdoors, the majority of which is for lawn irrigation. Understanding that lawn irrigation is a non-essential use of a limited resource should lead us to reducing usage through a few easy steps. First, if you are thinking about reseeding a lawn, be aware that no tu

Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, Tufts University, and the University of Vermont published a study detailing their creation of programmable, living nanobots built from frog DNA on Jan. 13. The robots, which are called “xenobots” after Xenopus laevis — an African clawed frog species whose cells were used in their creation — were designed using an “evolutionary algorithm” on a supercomputer. So far, the xenobots have been programmed to independently move and interact with each other, according to Douglas J. Blackiston, the study’s co-author and a scientist at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts. “The types of functions that we’ve seen are different types of motions. So, we can make them swim, or crawl, and walk, using articulated muscle tissue,” Blackiston said. “They can collect and aggregate particles, so we’ve been looking at possible applications for that, where they move around in an environment in groups.” Although the research is not the first of its kind in creating

By Pat Dray The Garden Spot Pat Dray Although the Earth is considered a “water planet,” with over 70 percent of the surface covered by the stuff, less than 1 percent of that water is considered available for human needs. The other 99 percent is in the oceans, frozen in glaciers and ice caps or in soil moisture. As our state has become more developed, residential usage has expanded significantly with a concurrent growth in the use of managed landscapes – in other words, lawns. Unfortunately, with expanded lawns comes expanded use of water for irrigation and chemicals for turf maintenance. According the EPA fact sheet “Outdoor Water Use in the United States,” approximately 30 percent of the available water is used for outdoors, the majority of which is for lawn irrigation. Understanding that lawn irrigation is a non-essential use of a limited resource should lead us to reducing usage through a few easy steps. First, if you are thinking about reseeding a lawn, be aware that no tu

Published 12:00 am EST, Saturday, January 25, 2020 Students and staff at Marvelwood School in Kent are on a trip to Panama to conduct scientific research, community outreach, and international exploration. Above, Oliver Sanchez, second from right, participates in last year’s trip to Panama. less Students and staff at Marvelwood School in Kent are on a trip to Panama to conduct scientific research, community outreach, and international exploration. Above, Oliver Sanchez, second from right, participates ... more Photo: Courtesy Of Caitlin Lynch Photo: Courtesy Of Caitlin Lynch Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Students and staff at Marvelwood School in Kent are on a trip to Panama to conduct scientific research, community outreach, and international exploration. Above, Oliver Sanchez, second from right, participates in last year’s trip to Panama. less Students and staff at Marvelwood School in Kent are on a trip to Panama

A savage meat-eating dinosaur the size of a bus that slashed its prey to death has been recognised as a new species 30 years after its remains were dug up in Utah. Scientists uncovered remains of the meat-eating Allosaurus jimmadseni  – which roamed the North American flood plains 155 million years ago – back in 1990. A study of the bones of A. jimmadseni  has been published in PeerJ after seven painstaking years spent preparing the bones for analysis. The 4,000-pound beast reached lengths of up to 29 feet and, much like the Tyrannosaurs rex , it ran on two legs. However, studies of the new remains revealed that A.jimmadseni ’s longer arms would have made it an even better hunter than the notoriously blood-thirsty  T. rex . Allosaurus jimmadseni, a spectacular horned and crested dinosaur the size of a bus that slashed and ripped its prey to death, was been dug up in the Badlands of Utah ‘Recognising a new species of dinosaur in rocks that have been intensely investigated f

Some ancient ancestors of today's crocodiles were actually warm-blooded, according to a new study. Palaeontologists from the University of Edinburgh analysed the mineral make-up of fossil crocodile teeth from the extinct metriorhynchid family. They discovered at least one ancient crocodile ancestor from the metriorhynchid family that wasn't cold-blooded.  The results indicate that they could raise their body temperature to stay warm as temperatures fell, in the same way as modern-day birds and mammals. And it might have helped them thrive during a spell of global cooling around 150 million years ago at the end of the Jurassic period.  Skeleton of a metriorhynchid, an extinct family of aquatic crocodyliforms - crocodile ancestors WHAT ARE THE THREE GEOLOGIC ERAS?  The Mesozoic Era is a the name given to the period from 250 million to 65 million years ago. The era is divided into three major periods: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. The metriorhynchids lived d

With a fleet of plastic jellyfish and “smog” paintings of world leaders, the exhibit “Endangered: Exploring California’s Changing Ecosystems” offers an artists’ eye view of the natural world and the perils it faces. The exhibit, which opened earlier this month at the California Center For the Arts, featured a wide range of techniques, from pen-and-ink sketches and large-scale landscapes, to pop-art takes on ecological crisis. Along with traditional sculpture and painting were mixed media pieces that used the very materials threatening the environment to create artwork. “I really believe in the power of art to create awareness and spark change,” Guest Curator Danielle Deery said, adding that the endangered animals serve as metaphors for the risk to humans. In the “Endangered” exhibition , a darkly comic painting of Barbie at the Salton Sea shows the iconic doll lounging in a pink recliner at the blighted water body. Another piece displays paper milk cartons depicting endangered amphi

To his grandchildren, the garden simply seemed as if it had always been there. It marked the beginning of time known to them and its omnipresence gave the impression that it would continue to grow forever. For the broad-handed, heavy-eyebrowed and big-hearted grandfather, though, the garden was like a bookmark. Before the garden, there was time and space and infinite promise. After he’d broken ground, there was always family.  The grandchildren took it all for granted, but it wasn’t their fault. In fact, it was part of the grandfather’s intention all along. He’d remembered how the years had slipped away so fast when he and grandma had raised their own children. He remembered being tired. He was still tired. He remembered needing a nap. He still liked naps. He remembered the perpetual motion and the sudden jolting stop. It had left him watching at the window and wondering where all the years had gone once his children were all of a sudden grown and moving out on their own