A New Year and New Zoological Musings

The Etendeka round-eared sengi, a new species of elephant shrew which posed a surprise to mammalogists in 2014. (Source)

With the occurrence of this New Year's Day, yet another year of my writing on this blog has transpired. I hope to deliver fresh material throughout this coming year, with an increased focus on non-cryptozoological topics. I feel that time constraints and my own personal favoritism for the study of unverified animal species have caused me to neglect other zoological matters and even miss opportunities to write on recent discoveries. Also, I have since come to a significant turning point of sorts in regard to my views on this controversial field and its more popular mystery animal elements.

Discovery of New Tapir Species Confirms Native Testimony

Photographs of the newly discovered Kabomani tapir (Image Source is here)

The discovery of the largest new terrestrial mammal species since the Vu Quang Ox (found in 1992) was just announced this past Monday. This breaking finding involved a new species of tapir being discovered in Brazil and Colombia by a team of scientists which had been investigating reports of the animal by local indigenous tribes since ten years ago. The description of the previously unknown perissodactyl named Tapirus kabomani, or the Kabomani tapir, has been published in the Journal of Mammology with the lead author being paleontologist Mario Cozzuol. The Kabomani tapir is regularly hunted by the Karitiana tribe and lives in open grasslands and rainforests. In comparison to its closest relative, the Brazilian tapir, the Kabomani tapir weighs around 110 kilograms and has darker hair, shorter legs, a distinctly-shaped skull, and a less prominent crest. Genetic research conducted by the authors shows that the Kabomani tapir and Brazilian tapir separated around 300,000 years ago, and it has been hypothesized that the species may have evolved during dry periods of the Pleistocene which were associated with forest fragmentation. While the discovery of this new member of the modern megafauna is exciting in itself, details of how the discovery of this animal came to be make it even more compelling.

New Primitive, Knobby-Skulled Pareiasaur Discovered

A new Permian era (266-252 million years ago) reptile has recently been discovered in northern Niger, suggesting that an isolated desert on the supercontinent Pangea had a unique fauna of its own. The newly discovered animal was a pareiasaur, a form of herbivorous reptile common to Permian ecosystems. This animal had a body which was about the size of a cow's, with bony scutes called osteoderms on its back. The feature which especially made this reptile unique were the large, bony knobs which adorned its head; the largest of any known pareiasaur. These large cranial knobs were likely covered in skin, similar to those of giraffes. Due to this strange feature, the new pareiasaur genus was named Bunostegos, meaning "knobby [skull] roof." Even more intriguing is a discovery made through analysis of the specimen, which revealed that the pareiasaur was part of a primitive lineage isolated in the region for millions of years. It appears that several Permian reptiles, amphibians, and plants were isolated in this centrally located desert of the Pangea supercontinent due to its unique hyper-arid conditions which discouraged other species from entering. Due to this isolation in such a harsh climate, the animals living in the region possessed novel adaptations and anatomical features which are evident in their fossilized remains; thus helping us gain a better idea of what some of the truly bizarre fauna during the Permian period was like. To read more about this intriguing discovery, go to this link: Pareiasaur: Bumpy beast was a desert dweller

New Specimen Revolutionizes Icthyosaur Paleobiology

A life restoration of Malawania by Bob Nicholls and C. M. Kosemen.

The fossils of a new species of icthyosaur, a fast swimming and likely warm blooded species of dolphin-shaped marine reptile, found in Iraq have changed the view of paleontologists on these peculiar animals. Prior to this discovery, it was generally thought that a series of extinction events during the Jurassic period had caused this group to eventually die out and lessen in diversity. However, the partial skeleton of this new species named Malawania anachronus supports the existence of a previously unknown lineage of Cretaceous ichthyosaurs. An extremely interesting detail of this discovery is that Malawania appears to be a member of an icthyosaur lineage which was thought to have gone extinct during the Jurassic period, making it an ancient example of a 'living fossil'. The typical textbook definition of a 'living fossil' is an organism that has remained essentially unchanged from earlier geologic times and whose close relatives are usually extinct. Thus, the discovery of Malawania as an archaic relict of a lineage of Jurassic icthyosaurs demonstrates that these marine reptiles were likely still diverse during the early Cretaceous, which further adds to the importance of this amazing discovery. To read more about this intriguing fossil discovery, click the link below:
Fossil saved from mule track revolutionizes understanding of ancient dolphin-like marine reptile
Also read this article by paleozoologist Dr. Darren Naish, who was a coauthor on the paper which detailed the discovery of this bizarre reptile. It delves even further into the events which lead up to this discovery and why it is so important:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/05/14/malawania-from-iraq/

Bizarre Bat Requires Creation of New Genus

Scientists have recently made an exciting and unique discovery after returning from South Sudan. They returned with a specimen of a bat with a striking pelt, which was found to be identical to a specimen found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1939. The bat species was originally placed in the genus Glauconycteris. However, closer analysis of the new specimen revealed that this bat's unique physical and skeletal anatomy requires the creation of an entirely new genus to classify it. These findings point to the idea that the age of zoological discovery is far from over and that new and unique animals may not only remain hidden in deep wilderness, but in the cabinets of our specimen collections! Please read more about this amazing mammalian discovery here: Striped like a badger: New genus of bat identified in South Sudan

Recent News in Zoology: Of Giant Squid and Vietnamese Salamanders

I've been very busy lately, and I was hoping to do a non-cryptozoological article this week. I've decided to share this article by anthropologist and cryptozoological researcher Dale Drinnon, where he shared some recent zoological discoveries. The first news that Mr. Drinnon shared is about the diversity of the giant squid species known as Architeuthis. Through the growing advancements in genetic analyses, we have been finding that animals which were thought to be one species are actually genetically different. However, it has been discovered that Architeuthis (which is a globally ranging species) from diverse locations vary little in their mitochondrial DNA.

The other zoological discovery which has been shared on the Frontiers of Zoology website, is the exciting discovery of a new species of Vietnamese salamander. It was originally thought to have been a specimen of the known Vietnamese crocodile newt, but further morphological and genetic analysis showed otherwise. The new species has been named Ziegler's crocodile newt, with the scientific name of Tylototriton ziegleri.

Please read this article by Dale Drinnon to learn more about these exciting zoological discoveries.
Frontiers of Zoology: Recent News in Zoology