Fish and Amphibians

A bizarre looking crustacean appeared in Central Park on Wednesday morning. The creature was spotted by The Pool around 103rd Street close to Central Park West, and can be seen in the video below, taken by @erutisworks . The Pool is known for wildlife sightings of “birds, fish and amphibians,” as the Central Park Conservancy website states, but we’re not sure what to make of this. We’ve reached out to the Central Park Conservancy to see if they can tell us what this thing is, and why it’s in the park. And if anyone reading this thinks they have an answer, please leave it in the comments! Could this little guy rise to fame like the Mandarin Duck ?  Get the Upper West Side newsletter:  Related Posts Filter by Post type Category Sort by Title Relevance Sharing is caring! https://ift.tt/38y4pVJ

Aaron Henning, a fisheries biologist with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, takes a water sample from a tributary to the Susquehanna River in New York. Scientists will analyze the water for DNA to determine the presence of invasive round goby and northern snakeheads.  Luanne Steffy A new search tool involving not much more than filling a container of water is revolutionizing how scientists detect and keep track of threatened and invasive creatures in the vast waters draining into the Chesapeake Bay. Some have likened environmental DNA, or eDNA for short, to a kind of forensic science for wildlife conservation. It involves analyzing the unique DNA codes shed into the water by an organism’s skin, feces, blood, mucus, sperm and other biological material. By doing so, wildlife managers and scientists can verify the existence of elusive fish, amphibians and reptiles — without an army of staff bearing nets, fishing poles, electrofishing rods or permits. It also does...

How unique is the platypus? Let us count the ways: It is one of the only mammals which lays eggs, it is venomous, it senses prey using electrolocation, and - as scientists have just discovered - it glows green under ultraviolet light. Biofluorescence - when light is absorbed and then emitted at a different wavelength - is exceptionally rare in mammals although it occurs in many kinds of reptiles, fish and amphibians. Before the platypus discovery, published recently in the journal Mammalia, this bizarre trait had only been seen in flying squirrels and opossums. Image: Platypus milk could save lives. Pic: Laura Romin and Larry Dalton. The platypus belongs to a group of mammals called monotremes, which lay eggs from which their young hatch, although as all mammals do - these young are then nursed with milk. Monotremes are "an ancient mammalian lineage with a long independent evolutionary history" according to the researchers from Northland College in the US, which i...