Animals

CHONDROCLADIA LYRA

Chondrocladia lyra is a meat-eating sea sponge shaped like a candelabra. It was spotted living two miles below the surface of California’s Monterey Bay and features branching limbs covered in velcro-like barbed hooks that help the sponge snare crustaceans as they are swept into its branches by deep-sea currents. 

”We were just amazed. No one had ever seen this animal with their own eyes before,” said Lonny Lundsten, an invertebrate biologist at the Monterey Bay Research Aquarium Institute. 

The team believes the harp sponge evolved this elaborate, candelabra-like structure to increase the surface area it exposes to currents so it can capture more prey.

COASTAL SKINK

Discovered by researchers at Australian National University, the 6cm long Ctenotus ora, or the Coastal Plains Skink, only lives in the dunes along the Swan Coastal Plain between Dunsborough and Mandurah, south of Perth. 

Unfortunately, this exact area is already being developed for new residential housing, meaning that our relationship with this fascinating lizard could be quite short-lived. The species specializes in sand dunes, so it lacks the ability to move and adapt to a new habitat.

TWO-HEADED LAMB BORN IN GHANA

Unless someone is pulling the wool over the eyes of Internet users around the world, a two-headed lamb was born Monday afternoon near Tarkwa, Ghana.

 The double-domed black and white lambwas born next to Sackious Ventures, a spare parts and general goods dealer’s shop, according to MyJoyOnline. The animal is reportedly completely normal in all other respects. Little other information is known about the lamb, but one person who is doubly interested in the two-headed creature is Todd Ray, star of the AMC TV series, "Freakshow." Ray has the largest collection of two-headed animals in the world, according toGuinness World Records, including a two-headed goat, a two-headed chicken andtwo living two-headed six-legged bearded dragons.

 Ray, who displays his collection at the Venice Beach Freakshow in Los Angeles, doesn't know if the animal is still alive, but hopes the owners play close attention to the animal's heads to see if one is more dominant.

 

Bonaire banded box jellyfish

Tamoya ohboya, also known as the Bonaire banded box jellyfish, is a species of box jellyfish formally described in 2011. In order to name the newly discovered species, the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science organized an online competition, which was won by the high school marine biology teacher Lisa Peck, who explained her winning entry saying: "I bet ‘Oh Boy’ is the first thing said when a biologist or layman encounters the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. It is the first species of the genus Tamoya to be discovered in over 100 years. The International Institute for Species Exploration included it in a list of Top Ten New Species in 2011. The species was discovered in the waters of the Dutch Caribbean islands (then part of the Netherlands Antilles). 

There have been roughly 50 confirmed sightings since 1989, approximately 45 of which took place in the waters of Bonaire and the rest off the shores of Mexico, St Lucia, Honduras and St Vincent. The most closely related species of Tamoya ohboya live in the waters of Brazil and the south-eastern United States of America. It is characterized by a deep stomach, densely spread cnidocysts and banded tentacles whose color ranges from reddish-orange to dark brown. Tamoya ohboya is hard to collect due to its fast swimming and ungregarious nature. Its ecology is still relatively unknown, but it is presumed that it is a daylight predator whose prey includes small crustaceans and fish.

Blobfish

The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, it is rarely seen by humans.

Blobfish are found at depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. The relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front it.

The blobfish is currently facing extinction due to deep-sea fishing or bottom trawling.

Alpaca

The Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated species of South American camelid developed from the wild alpacas. It resembles a sheep in appearance, but is larger and has a long erect neck as well as coming in many colors, whereas sheep are generally bred to be white and black. 

Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of Ecuador, southern Peru, northern Bolivia, and northern Chile at an altitude of 3500 to 5000 meters above sea-level, throughout the year. Alpacas are considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike them are not used as beasts of burden but are valued only for their fiber. Alpacas only have fleece fibers, not woolen fibers, used for making knitted and woven items much as sheeps wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks and coats in other parts of the world. The fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 22 as classified in America.

Two-headed shark found in Gulf of Mexico

Experts say the discovery of a two-headed shark is likely the first ever. The sea creature was found when a fisherman working in the Gulf of Mexico cut into the uterus of an adult shark. The shark has two hearts and two stomachs but only one tail. Wierd, isn´t it? Take a look at the video above.

The Jumping Spider

This creepy kind of spider is nevertheless very common in west North America, Mexico and south Canada.

These spiders can reach around 1 cm height and also may bite as any other spider, despite being a bit painful, its bite isn´t deadly at all. So, don´t worry if unfortunately you are bitten by one of these tiny little devils which are not too rare to spot in gardens and habited homes.

Jumping Spiders feed on bugs like flies and mosquitos and as opposed to most of spiders, the jumping spider does not weave any spider web.
So, what about its name? It isn´t named The Jumping Spider because there was no name left in the world. The most special thing about this spider is its jumping skill. This tiny eight legged kangaroo can jump over 50 times its height which is really useful to hunt its targets.
We hope you  learnt about this special and appealing bug and don´t forget to leave a comment about your thoughts.

Dendrolagus or tree kangaroo

This tree kangaroo as it is commonly known is the Diprotodontia Family, Australian marsupials are not known for a large number of species but by the diversity of the members of their species, such as Koala or different types kangaroos.But let Dendrolagus or tree kangaroo. By its common name is easy to identify where they live or what their natural habitat: the trees. They have become accustomed to living in the trees and spend most of their lives in them, trample the ground only to change tree (if they can not do jumping, as they can jump from tree to tree up to 15 meters ).

Animals are typical of Australia, particularly in Queensland, which is one of the states of Australia, which is northeast of it.The tree kangaroo can weigh between 4 and 13 kg and body length between 600 and 950 mm. Animals very clumsy on the ground by his great tail, which makes them slouching forward when riding, but the trees are very agile. The Dendrolagus feed on anything that can provide a tree, from leaves, fruits, seeds.

The Mayalo or Asian Tapir

Its scientific name is that of Tapirus indicus, the family is a mammal Tapiridae families and is an exception because it is the only tapir who does not live in America, the other tapirs live in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other countries of Central and South American habitat being Asia.
More specifically we find the Malayan tapir throughout Malaysia, hence its name. In the jungles of Sumatra (part of Indonesia), Burma and Thailand.

The physical differences with the other tapir are clear and easy to identify. Half of his body is white the other is dark, usually gray or black. Sometimes we find them with spots, stripes, sometimes with larger spots, but always with that mixture of colors.

A rare fish, the basking shark

Curious name not reflective of its spectacular appearance, and we are talking about the second largest fish in the world, almost nothing.

The basking shark is a fish completely harmless to humans despite their size and look so menacing. They have come to see species more than 12 meters and with more than 9 tons, which were highly sought by anglers for its high amount of meat and oil. Although I must say that the average size of these sharks pilgrims is about 6-7 meters.

What to know about the pilgrim sharks?

Fish that feed on plankton, small fish and invertebrates. You could say that the basking shark is a "fish person" as it moves very slowly and just opens his mouth and goes capturing everything going his way.

Some basking shark trivia:

- Formerly when this fish skeletons found were believed to prehistoric animals, particularly snakes turtles.
- It is a semi protected fish. In many countries trading their meat or products isnot allowed.
- The fish shark is a great attraction for tourists and divers, to be a spectacular animal very quiet and slow is ideal to watch in their natural environment.
- The shark tooth they think they are "mere trimming" although it says they can be part of the procession of seduction or even be related to the fry and feeding and care.

Insect with crocodile head and turtle body

If, as you hear. This happened several years ago in Paraguay, in Itapúa, where they discovered a rare animal with crocodile head and body of butterfly, a rare and unique specimen of which only a few have been known cases since.

It is evident that this news despite being old can not be ignored for fans and lovers of rare animals. Specifically we are talking about an insect

This strange animal was found by Mrs. Mary Lewis, which freaked him on sight (Who would not be scared to see a crocodile-headed bug flying around our room?) But managed to capture him and put him in a boat.


there will be more news in this section. thanks