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...

The ability to detect threatening stimuli and initiate an escape response is critical for survival and under stringent evolutionary pressure. To detect predators, fish use a number of sensory systems including olfaction (smell) and vision, which contribute to the activation of arousal systems. Surprisingly, little is known about the neural mechanisms through which ecological perturbation shapes the evolution of escape response. When startled, do all fish respond the same way? A few fish, like Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, have evolved in unique environments without any predators. To determine how this lack of predation impacts escape responses that are highly stereotyped across fish species, researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College explored the tiny A. mexicanus to determine if there are evolved difference in the species. A. mexicanus exist as surface fish that inhabit rivers in Mexico and S...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain The ability to detect threatening stimuli and initiate an escape response is critical for survival and under stringent evolutionary pressure. To detect predators, fish use a number of sensory systems including olfaction (smell) and vision, which contribute to the activation of arousal systems. Surprisingly, little is known about the neural mechanisms through which ecological perturbation shapes the evolution of escape response. When startled, do all fish respond the same way? A few fish, like Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, have evolved in unique environments without any predators. To determine how this lack of predation impacts escape responses that are highly stereotyped across fish species , researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College explored the tiny A. mexicanus to determine if there are evolved difference in the species. A. mexicanus exist as surface fish th...

[embedded content] Europe's alpine lakes are often very clear, very cold, and very deep. Many weird and wonderful creatures have evolved to bear the conditions, including very scary eagles, and lots of weird fish and amphibians. Originally titled Kühle Schönheiten: Alpenseen [Cool Places: Alpine Lakes] by Sigurd Tesche. Image: YouTube / Free High-Quality Documentaries https://ift.tt/3of9vMf

The majority of protected landscapes (81 percent) across the European Union have a poor or bad conservation status, and many of them continue to decline despite targets aimed at protecting them, a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) revealed on Monday (19 October). In the 2013-2018 State of Nature in the EU report , grasslands, dunes, as well as bog, mire and fen habitats show notable deteriorating trends due to changes in land and sea use, over-exploitation and unsustainable management practices. Meanwhile, only a quarter of species have a 'good' conservation status - with forests, mammals, and birds being among the top beneficiaries of the conservation measures applied during the last decade. Nearly half (47 percent) of the bird species in the EU have 'good' status, but this represents a decline of five percent since the previous 2008-2012 reporting period - with some bird groups, such as falcons and harriers, still facing many threats. But fish ar...

Biodiversity is in critical decline across Europe and the world, experts say, raising the alarm about the devastating impact this will have on the global economy. 55% of global GDP, equal to $41.7 trillion, is dependent on high-functioning biodiversity and ecosystem services, according to a report published in September by Swiss Re , the Swiss reinsurance company. However, a fifth of the world’s countries are at risk of ecosystem collapse, the report adds, saying twenty countries around the globe are approaching a biodiversity “tipping point” where essential “services” like food provision risk being disrupted. And the problem is not limited to places like Brazil which are known for their high rates of deforestation, it also concerns Europe. Belgium and Spain were listed among the countries with a high risk to biodiversity and ecosystem services, alongside Australia, Israel, India and South Africa. Biodiversity is in rapid decline across Europe. The State of Nature report report p...

Until recently, it was something of an urban myth amongst Whistler’s environmental types and nature lovers that there are goldfish and koi—both invasive species—in Alta Lake and other local water bodies. “We had heard rumours for a few years that people had seen the occasional orange fish, and we never really got any photo evidence or confirmation of the species ID,” said Clare Greenberg, executive director of the Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council (SSISC). “Until, I think it was two years ago, one of the Whistler municipal staff members personally observed them [in Alta Lake].” This summer, numerous sightings of both fish (which can be hard to tell apart from a distance, Greenberg says) have been reported to the SSISC, prompting the organization to put together a fact sheet about the pesky invasives: ssisc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Goldfish-Factsheet-2020.pdf. The fish have been spotted in Alta Lake, Jordan Creek (between Alpha and Nita lakes) and even One Mile Lake in Pembe...

MANOUSH ZOMORODI, HOST: And Mary Louise's hearing loss is actually pretty common. JIM HUDSPETH: In our society, about 10% of the populace - that's 30 million people - have significant hearing problems. By the time that we're on the order of 70 years old, about a quarter of us have significant hearing loss. And by 80, it's more than half. ZOMORODI: This is Jim Hudspeth. HUDSPETH: I'm a professor at Rockefeller University in New York City, and I'm a neuroscience researcher. So I work particularly on hearing. ZOMORODI: And Jim says to understand why hearing loss is so common, we need to understand how the ear works. HUDSPETH: Oh, yeah. So here we go. Sound is, of course, a vibration in the air, and that's really obvious when a jet plane, for example, rattles a window. (SOUNDBITE OF WINDOW RATTLING) HUDSPETH: There's energy or power flowing through the air. Sound energy hits the eardrum. It moves three little bones in the middle ear. And finally, it...

LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...

Scientists have discovered at least 364 new species of animals and 253 new species of plants from India in 2019. While these 364 animal species were unknown to humans, another 116 species of animals, which were earlier found elsewhere in the world but not recorded from India previously, have also been found in the last one year. The list of discoveries, published in the form of two books by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and Botanical Survey India, both of which have their headquarters in Kolkata, were released by Union minister of state for forest and environment Babul Supriyo on Friday. “Out of the 364 new species that have been discovered, four are fossil species. Another four sub-species have been discovered. The maximum numbers of species that have been discovered are of insects. The list also includes reptiles, fish and amphibians among others,” said Kailash Chandra, director of the ZSI. Also read: ‘Horror on street’ - UP man cuts off wife’s head, walks with it to poli...

During dry weather, two little streams in Hollin Hills trickle gently downhill, shaded by a thick canopy of oak, hickory, beech and tulip trees. Heavy rain can quickly turn those trickles to torrents, though. As a result, portions of both streams have eroded badly over the years. In places, steep gullies 12 feet deep or more have been carved into the ground by runoff from roofs and pavement in this neighborhood of glassy contemporary homes just south of Alexandria, VA. Hollin Hills residents Barbara Southworth and Marc Shapiro flank a massive white oak, which botanist Rod Simmons estimates to be about 200 years old. Nearly 80 large trees are in line to be cut down for restoration projects on a pair of streams flowing through their neighborhood parks. Dave Harp Now, Fairfax County is preparing to embark on a $3.6 million project to re-engineer the channels of both streams. Many Hollin Hills residents welcome it, fearing that someone could be hurt falling into the gullies....