BioBrevia: In Living Reef Colour

Giant Carpet Anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea), seen here with one of its typical symbiotic partners, the Common Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)

William Saville-Kent worked widely in Australian waters, but found his greatest scientific and artisitc interests in tropical coral reefs, particularly the Great Barrier, off the Queensland coast. The Giant Carpet Anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea), seen here with one of its typical symbiotic partners, the Common Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris), was originally named for Saville-Kent as Discosoma kenti, so it was only fitting that he devoted an entire plate to it in his groundbreaking 1893 book The Great Barrier Reef of Australia: its Products and Potentialities. The book was notable for being the first major scientific work to use photography for documenting nature. The black and white photographs are great, but it is his wonderful illustrations that really bring the book to life. Saville-Kent was the first to capture the truly breathtaking, the absolutely flabbergasting, and the singularly bizarre colour schemes of reef organisms. The colours of Saville-Kent's animals are no exageration, as anyone who has dived or snorkeled on a tropical reef knows, nature spared nothing when colouring the animals of the world's coral seas. Here's just a sampling of some of the beautifully detailed plates from The Great Barrier Reef:

BioBrevia: Microscopic Ménages à Trois

A new and startling discovery shows that hitherto undiscovered yeasts may be part of some lichens.

Photo: Mark Conboy

In a refreshingly good piece of science journalism from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Emily Chung reports on the shocking discovery that some Bryoria lichens contain yeast, in addition to their photobioant (an algae and/or cyanobacteria) and known fungal component. How this went unnoticed for more than century is almost unbelievable; so not surprisingly, not all lichenologists are completely convinced yet. The full paper was published in Science, but you'll have to pay to read it.

BioBrevia: Ancient Things Incredible

Some Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) colonies in the Rocky Mountains are thousands of years old.

Photo: Mark Conboy

Check out this fascinating Ted Talk by Rachel Sussman on some of the world's oldest, and incidentally, weirdest, organisms. From the otherworldly Welwitschia mirabilis whose two massive leaves are never shed, even after centuries of growth, to the ridiculously ancient actinobacteria that remain active even in the coldest conditions of the Siberia tundra, it will blow your mind to meet some of the oldest organisms we share our little blue planet with!

BioBrevia: Comprehending Cuckoos

A victim of brood parasitism, an Eurasian Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) feeds a Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) nestling. The decline of Common Cuckoo means that this behaviour is becoming less common across Europe.

Photo: Per Harald Olsen (Wikimedia Commons)

A new paper in Nature Communications, Population Decline is Linked to Migration Route in the Common Cuckoo, by Hewson et al shows that Common Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) take two different routes from Europe to their African wintering grounds during autumn migration. The researchers used satellite telemetry to track birds in virtually real time as they made their way south. The data showed that birds which took the shorter route experienced higher mortality rates than birds that took the longer route. This differential mortality correlated to population declines on the British breeding grounds. It's further evidence that effective conservation of migratory birds must take into account migration ecology as much as breeding and wintering site ecology.

BioBrevia: The Trout

Brown Trout (Salmo trutta)

Illustration: Knepp Timothy (Wikimedia Commons)

For your listening pleassure, Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet (a.k.a. Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667). This was the second of Schubert's works to be named after that venerable European fish, the Brown Trout (Salmo trutta). The first was the song Die Forelle (D. 550), German for The Trout, an allegorical piece warning young women away from the depredations of male suitors, framed as a struggle between angler and fish. The quintet's fourth movement is a series of variations on Die Forelle, thus the transference of the name between the two works. The kind of information that can nail a daily double on Jeopardy...

BioBrevia: Garbage Birds

White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)

Photo: Mark Conboy

Birders often use the term "garbage bird" to describe common, uninteresting birds. White Storks (Ciconia ciconia), not often thought of as garbage birds, are redefining themselves as such in some parts of their range. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's As It Happens reports on White Storks wintering at garbage dumps on the Iberian Peninsula.

BioBrevia: Climate Lessons from the Deep

A Stoplight Parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) crunches coral.

Photo: Sarah Larocque

Here's a newly posted TEDx talk by marine chemist Laura Robinson. She speaks on what fossilized corals can reveal about climate oscillations from Earth's past and how we might use that knowledge today in our own fight against climate change.

BioBrevia: Good News from Black-faced Spoonbill Country

Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor)

Photo: Cp9asngf (Wikimedia Commons)

BirdLife International is reporting that a recent annual census of the globally endangered Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) was a record breaker! Counters from across East Asia counted a record-high 3,356 birds. A record-high count yes, but its a matter of perspective, of course. The global population of spoonbills is still dangerously small, and despite the count, the species has declined significantly in some of its traditionally important wintering sites, such as China's Mai Po Nature Reserve. Read more on the spoonbill and the census.

BioBrevia: Siberia

Baikal Seal (Pusa sibirica)

Photo: Per Harald Olsen (Wikimedia Commons)

Here's a fascinating documentary about the wildlife of Siberia, including the wondrous Lake Baikal, with its landlocked seals and sponge gardens. See it here.

BioBrevia: Around the World in 6,042 Birds

ʻIʻiwi (Drepanis coccinea)

Photo: Philina English

Last year was a record-breaking one in competitive birding. In late December, I reported on the new Big Day record set in Ecuador, but another, even more monumental record was broken in 2015. An astounding 6,042 species of birds were seen by Noah Strycker between January 1 and December 31 last year! That shattered the previous record by more than 1,500 species. You can read all about the year-long chase here.

BioBrevia: Serendipitous Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)

Photo: Mark Conboy

Entirely by accident, a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) was captured on a Montreal traffic camera, earlier this week. The footage was released today. Check out this short story and video from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

BioBrevia: Amazing Galapagos

Swallow-tailed Gulls (Creagrus furcatus)

Photo: Philina English

Here's a beautiful look at the wildlife of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, from irenaVision. A few of the archipelago's endemic species are shown, including Galapagos Tortoise (Geochelone nigra), Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus), Land Iguana (Conolophus subcristatus), Swallow-tailed Gull (Creagrus furcatus), the Galapagos subspecies of Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus galapagoensis) and California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus wollebaeki). Conspicuously absent, however, are the most historically important endemics, the mockingbirds and finches, which were so instrumental to Charles Darwin's early thoughts of natural selection. Enjoy.

BioBrevia: Introducing the Ninja Lanternshark

The newly described Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi)

Photo: From Vasquesz et al 2015

A new species of lanternshark, whimsically named the Ninja Lanternshark (Etmopterus benchleyi), has been described in a paper by Vasquez et al in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. Like the lanternsharks I've written about previously, the Ninja Lanternshark can glow, but it seems to have only a limited number of photophores.

BioBrevia: Smallest of the Small

This shot of a Buprestis striata is indeed macro, but the Nikon Small World

Photomicrography Competition takes it to a whole new level.

Photo: Mark Conboy

The winners of the 2015 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition have been announced. The winner was Ralph Grimm's shot of a pollen-laced European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) eye. Check out these stunning images. While you're at it, also check out the Small World in Motion Competition. The winner was Wim van Egmond's video of two ciliate protozoans: a Trachelius sp. depredating a Campanella sp.

BioBrevia: Going Deep

Lake Erie's east basin

Map: CHS/NOAA

I live on the north shore of Lake Erie. I watch its water levels rise and fall, its storms rage and subside. I boat hundreds of kilometres on its surface in the course of a year. I watch the migratory birds, butterflies and dragonflies swarm along Long Point every spring and fall. I swim on its wonderful sandy beaches. I'm intrigued by all aspects of Lake's Erie's natural history and geography. To that end, I've enjoyed this set of bathymetry maps from the Canadian Hydrographic Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  National Geophysical Data Center's Marine Geology and Geophysics Division, and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

BioBrevia: National Birds of the World

Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin)

Photo: Philina English

Canadian Geographic has put together a map showing some national birds from around the world. A surprising number of countries, including Canada, don't have officially recognized national birds, but are in the process of selecting one. Unfortunately, the map doesn't stick to the conventional names that most of us are used to. It has the United States' bird labelled as American bald eagle, which isn't a real species name; simply, Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is correct. Most birders will know Cuba's national bird, not as the tocororo, but as the Cuban Trogon (Priotelus temnurus), but only the former name is given. And there are no scientific names with which to cross-reference the other obscure local or colloquial names like cahow (Bermuda Petrel [Pterodroma cahow]) or Canje pheasant (Hoatzin [Opisthocomus hoazin]). It's an interesting map, nonetheless.

BioBrevia: X-rayted Natural History

X-ray and schematic illustrations of the critically endangered Montserrat Galliwasp (Diploglossus montisserrati) and shell fragments of its prey, a freshwater snail (Omalonyx matheroni).

Imagery: Bohaton et al 2015 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0)

A new paper in Royal Society Open Science by Bochaton et al, X-ray Microtomography Provides First Data About the Feeding Behaviour of an Endangered Lizard, the Montserrat Galliwasp (Diploglossus montisserrati), is certainly a novel investigation of lizard diets. The Montserrat Galliwasp is one of the rarest reptiles on Earth, so rare that decades pass between observations of it in the wild, and it has only found its way into museum collections twice. This is an interesting article; here's the abstract:

Reporting the diet of recently extinct or very rare taxa, only known by a few museum specimens, is challenging. This study uses X-ray microtomography, a non-destructive investigation method, to obtain the first data about feeding behaviours in the Montserrat galliwasp (Diploglossus montisserrati) by scanning one of the two specimens known to date. The scans revealed the occurrence of shell fragments of a freshwater snail (Omalonyx matheroni) in the digestive tract of the specimen. This data combined with morphological evidence shows the occurrence of a durophagous feeding habit and a possible tendency of association with freshwater environments. This information could be crucial to save this critically endangered lizard endemic on Montserrat island. (Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0).

BioBrevia: New Clawed Frogs from Africa

New and "resurrected" species of clawed frogs.

Photos: From Evans et al 2015. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Here's a new article in PLOS ONE, by Evans et al., with the descriptive title: Genetics, Morphology, Advertisement Calls, and Historical Records Distinguish Six New Polyploid Species of African Clawed Frog (Xenopus, Pipidae) from West and Central Africa. This paper deals much more with the nuances of genetics and systematics than the natural history of the frogs themselves. It is a great illustration of just how complex the diagnoses of species can be. Here's the abstract:

African clawed frogs, genus Xenopus, are extraordinary among vertebrates in the diversity of their polyploid species and the high number of independent polyploidization events that occurred during their diversification. Here we update current understanding of the evolutionary history of this group and describe six new species from west and central sub-Saharan Africa, including four tetraploids and two dodecaploids. We provide information on molecular variation, morphology, karyotypes, vocalizations, and estimated geographic ranges, which support the distinctiveness of these new species. We resurrect Xenopus calcaratus from synonymy of Xenopus tropicalis and refer populations from Bioko Island and coastal Cameroon (near Mt. Cameroon) to this species. To facilitate comparisons to the new species, we also provide comments on the type specimens, morphology, and distributions of X. epitropicalis, X. tropicalis, and X. fraseri. This includes significantly restricted application of the names X. fraseri and X. epitropicalis, the first of which we argue is known definitively only from type specimens and possibly one other specimen. Inferring the evolutionary histories of these new species allows refinement of species groups within Xenopus and leads to our recognition of two subgenera (Xenopus and Silurana) and three species groups within the subgenus Xenopus (amieti, laevis, and muelleri species groups). (Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0).

BioBrevia: New Birding Record

Rufous Motmot (Baryphthengus martii)

Photo: Philina English

A team of birders in Ecuador has established a new world record: they've seen 431 species of birds in 24 hours, that's more than any other team has managed in a single day! George Paul has put together a nice article about this record (with more to come) and the history of the Global Big Day on the American Birding Association blog.

BioBrevia: Ancient Aesthetics

Han Shan

Illustration: Yan Hui

Ever since I discovered Gary Snyder's and Bill Porter's (aka Red Cloud) translations of the hermit-poet Han Shan's esoteric works, I've had a fascination with the natural imagery and aesthetics of ancient Chinese poetry. Or, at least the English translations of it. Here's a short a piece from Orion that won't be lost on fans of this remarkable art form.