Newsreel’s Post

🌊🛶💨"Whale whale whale, if it isn’t the end of another year filled with stunning news about the ocean and some of its most prolific inhabitants. If you were among the many people (like myself) who clung onto memes about supporting orcas’ hopeful overthrowing of humankind as a way to dull the seemingly endless amount of bad news, I’d like to offer an end-of-year gift to you all: a roundup of USA TODAY’s best whale stories." - USA TODAY🤙🏿⛓️🦈🐳🐬⛓️ #newsbreak #whaleeconomics #killerwhalebiology #usatoday #journalism #news #zoology #marinebiology #wildlifephotography #geauxtigers #geauxpilots #birdsup #biomedicalsciences #marinesciences #tourism #ecopreneur #aquapreneur #watereconomics https://lnkd.in/gj58W8mj

Via David Shiffman - From caves to seamounts: the hidden diversity of tetractinellid sponges from the Balearic Islands, with the description of eight new species - PeerJ: The sponge fauna of the Western Mediterranean stands as one of the most studied in the world. Yet sampling new habitats and a poorly studied region like the Balearic Islands highlights once again our limited knowledge of this group of animals. This work focused on demosponges of the order Tetractinellida collected in several research surveys (2016–2021) on a variety of ecosystems of the Balearic Islands, including shallow caves, seamounts and trawl fishing grounds, in a broad depth range (0–725 m). Tetractinellid material from the North Atlantic and more than twenty type specimens were also examined and, for some, re-described in this work. All species were barcoded with the traditional molecular markers COI (Folmer fragment) and 28S (C1-C2 or C1-D2 fragment). A total of 36 species were identified, mostly belonging to the family Geodiidae (15 species), thereby bringing the number of tetractinellids recorded in the Balearic Islands from 15 to 39. Eight species from this study are new: Stelletta mortarium sp. nov., Penares cavernensis sp. nov., Penares isabellae sp. nov., Geodia bibilonae sp. nov., Geodia microsphaera sp. nov. and Geodia matrix sp. nov. from the Balearic Islands; Geodia phlegraeioides sp. nov. and Caminus xavierae sp. nov. from the North East Atlantic. Stelletta dichoclada and Erylus corsicus are reported for the first time since their description in Corsica in 1983. Pachastrella ovisternata is documented for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, after comparisons of type material, we propose new synonymies: Geodia anceps as a junior synonym of Geodia geodina, Erylus cantabricus as a junior synonym of Erylus discophorus and Spongosorites maximus as a junior synonym of Characella pachastrelloides. https://lnkd.in/eic4QbyW

🐦🔍The hunt for the rarest bird in the world Calyptura cristata, or the Kinglet Calyptura, is one of the rarest birds in Brazil and the entire planet. It is a tiny bright yellow flycatcher, with a yellowish-green back and a brilliant orange crest. With a wingspan of just around 8 centimeters, it is comparable in size to a tennis ball. And that is almost all that is known about this mysterious passerine species. The Kinglet Calyptura was first described in the early 19th century, along with the majority of Brazil’s bird species. Foreigners weren’t allowed into the country until 1808, when the Portuguese court transferred to Rio de Janeiro, fleeing Napoleon’s invasion of Lisbon. After the ports opened up, scores of ornithologists and other biologists arrived and began collecting animal and plant specimens from this previously unknown land. There are scores of specimens of the Kinglet Calyptura in museums around the world, most of them identified as being collected in Rio de Janeiro during a 50-to-60-year period in the 1800s. 🔗Read more in the full article by Euan Marshall here 👇 https://lnkd.in/gMBUTA9S #Environment #AnimalExtinction #Preservation #EcoDiversity #BrazilianReport

New paper with Gabriela Cisterna and Andrea Sterren: "Tracking the Eurydesma Fauna transgression across southwestern Gondwana". The cold water Eurydesma Fauna bearing transgression has been identified in basins of South America and southern Africa. In western Karoo Basin of South Africa four phases of ice growth and decay have been proposed for the Dwyka Group on the basis of interstratified glaciogenic diamictites overlain by non-glaciogenic, ice rafted debris free mudstones. Each of these phases is assigned to deglaciation sequences, incomplete, third order sequences made up of a basal lowstand systems tract (LST) followed by a transgressive systems tract (TST) or exclusively by a thick TST. The correlation of these deglaciation sequences has been extended to the adjacent Aranos-Kalahari basin and to the Paraná Basin (Itararé Group) in South America. Recent radiometric ages have helped to refine the diachronous demise of the late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) and the age of the Eurydesma transgression. Tentative correlations with the glaciogenic section (Sauce Grande Formation) in the Ventana Fold belt (VFB) and Malvinas/Falkland Islands (Fitzroy Tillite Formation). This interbasinal correlation of deglaciation sequences and radiometric ages allowed to constrain the occurrence of this fauna in southwestern Gondwana to the Asselian.The postglacial nature of the Eurydesma Fauna transgression in South American basins, particularly in the VFB-Claromecó Basin of Argentina, is in contrast with its interglacial character in the Southern African basins. URL providing 50 days' free access to the article: https://lnkd.in/dARrf3tF

Today, people all over the world will be celebrating World Migratory Bird Day, a global campaign which aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them! Birds can be found everywhere: in cities and in the countryside; in parks and backyards, in forests and mountains, and in wetlands and along the shores. They connect all these habitats and they connect us, reminding us of our own connection to the planet, the environment, wildlife and each other. According to the Egyptian Ornithology Rarities Committee, 466 species of birds have been recorded in Egypt. Two thirds of these birds are migratory species and one third breed in the area. Learn more and download your FREE copy of "Birds of the Red Sea" guide book: https://lnkd.in/eNb6a-N The purpose of this guide is to support citizen science, providing you with directions on how to identify bird species using simple identification tools through the use of stunning photography. It will also be used to add further data submissions, mainly on the eBird platform.

In several European countries, green feral parakeets have braved the colder European climate and managed to establish considerable colonies, especially in urban settings. The most common species is the ring-necked or rose-ringed parakeet, which has a population surpassing 30,000 animals in the UK! Although the exact origin of the colourful birds is unclear, there are several accounts of ring-necked parrots escaping captivity and then rapidly adapting to their new environment. Originally imported as pets from Asia and Africa en masse, these birds are listed as invasive species and cause harm to local bird species as well as agriculture. Populations of the ring-necked parakeet and other feral parrots such as the monk parakeet, which is more common in Spain, are predicted to increase as warmer temperatures open up new habitats. Have a look at the map of Europe with the numbers of their colonies! Source: The European Correspondent, Open Ornithology Journal #VisitEurope #NaturallyCurious

Did you know that the blue whale is the largest animal in the world? There is a lot of talk about this large marine mammal, but here are some facts that may surprise you!   The blue whale is the largest known animal living on Earth. It dominates the oceans with a length of 30 meters and a weight of up to 180 tons. Only its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant, and its heart as a car. It is also called the blue whale, sharing a family with other whales, such as the fin whale.   According to an article published by National Geographic, these cetaceans reach these large dimensions with a diet composed of plankton and krill, an animal similar to a tiny shrimp. At certain times of the year, an adult blue whale consumes about 3.5 tons of krill daily. Experts cite the increase in krill as the reason why these critically endangered whales have been seen again in Spanish waters, for example.   In mid-2023, archaeological research in Peru described the bones of another whale (Perucetus colossus), a new discovered species that could weigh between 93 and 370 tons. However, the remains found to date are scarce, so it is still very daring to dethrone the blue whale as the largest animal in history!   Source: National Geographic   #whales #cetaceans #oceans #marinemammals

👉 In this week’s “Bird is the Word,” let’s meet a widespread yet cryptic heron species - the Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) 🔎 🌃 The Black-crowned Night Heron has a wide range, found in wetlands on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. It is quite recognisable by its stocky build, short neck, red eyes, black back, and cap with long feathers on the neck. Although widespread, this is a cryptic species and not the easiest to see. Unlike most other herons, this one is mainly active at dusk and night, usually staying hidden during the day in trees or other dense vegetation. 🐟 They have a varied diet that mainly consists of small fish but also includes crustaceans, insects, and even small mammals. They often hunt by standing still at the water’s edge and striking swiftly at prey with their sharp bill. 📸 Today’s photo shows an adult Black-crowned Night Heron out in the open one late morning at the edge of a fish pond in a very bird-rich wetland area in Hortobágy, Hungary. During a seven-hour-long walk in this area in early May this year, over 100 species were recorded! #Ornithology #BlackcrownedNightHeron #Birdwatching #NaturePhotography #Biodiversity #Birdoftheweek

From the first record of botfly larvae parasitizing a swift, to the discovery of previously unrecorded migratory species through the illegal bird trade in Cuba, and an evaluation of Citizen Science programs in the Caribbean—Volume 36 of the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology (JCO) provides a wide-ranging collection of bird conservation research in the region! bit.ly/JCO-Roundup-V36 ⁠ In this volume you’ll find 16 research articles from The Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, St Eustatius, Lesser Antillean islands including Guadeloupe and Grenada, an annotated list of of the most important Caribbean ornithological articles that appeared elsewhere, and a book review of Birds of the Lesser Antilles. Links to individual articles and a voluminous (94 pages) Special Issue with Caribbean-themed conference contributions from the AOS-BC conference in San Juan in 2022, are provided in the blog! ⁠ The JCO has a 100% open-access publication policy, providing trilingual content and support for early-career researchers. In 2023, the journal welcomed four new Caribbean and international ornithologists to its Associate Editor team–some of whom you may already know! Head on over to our blog to learn more. ⁠ ⁠ From the JCO Team, THANK YOU to all of the authors and reviewers that contributed to a very successful VOLUME 36! ⁠ Photo: White-throated-Sparrow (Peter Hawrylyshyn ML248879141) #BirdsCaribbean #CaribbeanJournalOfOrnithology #JCO #CaribbeanBirds #CaribSeabirds #EndemicBirds #raptors #MigratoryBirds #ornithology #birds #conservation #ConservationResearch #ReerReviewed #Openaccess #OpenAccessJournal #publish #research #ScienceJournal #data #BirdBiology #BirdEcology #CitizenScience #IllegalWildlifeTrade #IllegalBirdTrade⁠