Animal Species Discovery; Plant Species Extinction

As reported on MSNBC, the newly-discovered fish has a long thin body like an eel, but it also has a full set of fins. Although the carnivore only measures about 6 inches (15 centimeters), it has a tail like the Pirarucu, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish. It also has up to 10 air chambers, compared with the usual two or three that fish use to hold their position underwater, leading the scientists to believe it can breathe at the surface. “As far as we know, it eats small shrimps and aquatic insects, it reproduces at the start of the rains, and has this extra breathing ability. … and it doesn’t just depend on oxygen that has been dissolved in the water,” Jansen Zuanon, head aquatic biology researcher at Brazil’s National Amazon Research Institute, told Reuters on Thursday. “It still doesn’t have a name. We have been calling it the mystery fish because it didn’t fit into any group. … It’s long-bodied with a mixture of characteristics which are quite different from any other Amazon fish group.”

Meanwhile, as reported on BBC, 53% of all cycads are threatened with extinction, compared with an average 12.5% for plants in general. Cycads are plants resembling palms found in Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas that first appeared in the fossil record about 300 million years ago. The recently published IUCN-The World Conservation Union report “Cycad Status Survey And Conservation Action Plan” says that today, demand for large cycads from landscapers means a high risk of mature plants being taken straight from the wild. In South Africa, efforts to combat this trade include individual plants being microchipped with a unique number which is entered on a national register to trace their movements. DNA techniques are also helping to trace the parentage of plants in trade.