Showing posts with label reptiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reptiles. Show all posts

New Ground Dwellers Found in Northern Australia

A large country with a low population has a lot to offer in regard to potential scientific discoveries. There are many places which individuals have not visited in a long, long time. Look around and there may be a few surprises.

Cape York and Cape Melville are virtual "lost worlds". New animals have been discovered by a team exploring the mountainous areas. New reptiles have been discovered that have to be given official names: a gold-colored skink and a leaf-tailed gecko. A new yellow, brown-spotted frog was also found. Frogs are amphibians, not reptiles, because they change from tadpoles into frogs.

Being mountainous and relatively inaccessible northern parts of Australia are pristine regions just waiting for visits from scientists. Though it gets very hot, mountain rainforest regions stay wet all year round, so rare species can survive for thousands of years. More intensive searches are planned for the near future.
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 Environment by Ty Buchanan
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Dinosaurs Found in Australia - What is Fact?

Australia is a very old continent. It seems the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex lived here. A hip bone has been found that dates to 110 million years ago which is 40 million years before T.rex roamed elsewhere on earth. Until now it was believed that T.rex only lived on northern continents.

Many of the things stated as fact by scientists are indeed just matters of faith until they are "proven" otherwise. Scientists argue about when dinosaurs developed feathers and why. They claim that birds today are direct descendants from dinosaurs. This is like saying humans are descended from dinosaurs. Much evidence points to birds having a line of descent completely separate from dinosaurs.

The same rings true with the Hobbit people of Flores Island. Some scientists will not accept that people different from humans survived until 18,000 years ago alongside humans. Neanderthals lived until 50,000 years ago, so why not another type of human? Science is much like religion. What is just theory is put forth as fact. Ah, the dangers of religion - and science!
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Conservation
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Climate Change Could Make Timid Animals More Aggressive

Climate change can cause changes in behavior. As water becomes warmer so some species of fish become aggressive. Some fish are inherently timid while others are bold. In experiments on fish from the Australian Barrier reef, when water was slowly warmed normally timid fish became aggressive. Their rate of activity increased as well. Evolution has created fish that fit into a niche where survival depends on a fish being very careful about its surroundings. If they openly attack larger fish it could mean the smaller ones will be eaten.

It is possible that similar changes will occur with reptiles, amphibians, ectotherms and even mammals. If timid animals become bold then they could be killed off by predators or by humans using harvesting equipment trying to catch other animals for food. Only a very small increase in temperature led to the change.

In the tests, fish were bred in captivity then released into holding tanks where the water was slowly warmed. They had no chance to socialize with wild fish. When the water was cool the fish hid in plastic pipe. As the water heated up the fish ventured further from the protective pipe.

Certain assumptions can be made from this research. As the Arctic ice disappears, Polar bears wandering near small towns in Alaska, Canada and Northern Europe could become more brazen in their search for food from garbage cans and dump sites. They could kill humans more frequently in their anger. Similarly, rats living in these cold climes may not just die of shock when hit. They could turn on people and fight back.
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Conservation
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New Finds of Early Humans Do Not Change the Basic Theory

Darwin got it right. Well actually he may not have. Fossils of early humans do not alter basic scientific thought in relation to evolution, Finds do not show a linear development toward advanced Man. Evolution though does tend to predict what new discoveries show. Claims that a particular fossil find is a breakthrough are just not true.

New dinosaur fossils, however, tend to be groundbreaking with regular identification of new type of dinosaurs. Indeed, they seem to have roamed on every continent. The whole book on dinosaur evolution has not yet been written. Time will tell how clear an understanding of it we can get.  It seems evolution of dinosaurs is clearer than that of humans.

New research teams need to be formed to go to all parts of the world and seek answers to evolution of mammals and reptiles, if indeed dinosaurs were reptiles. Some specialists today even question this view.
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Conservation
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Reserves Are Not Working: Extinctions Continue

Australia's slaughter of wildlife continues despite warnings from CSIRO. Nearly half of Australian mammals will end their existence very soon. Zoologist Fred Ford said 11 extinctions have occurred in recent years in the south-eastern forests of Australia. The reserve system is not working. They are just for show. Plants are doing well because they are surviving outside and inside reserves. Nothing is being done to protect small native mammals.

Reserves are havens for introduced feral animals and invasive weeds. Rangers are not being trained to look after the endangered species. Money should be allocated more efficiently. With all the money put into reserves there must be more positive outcomes.

Native animal need to be researched and the data must be analyzed. Records should be kept to formulate action. An astounding 65 per cent of reptiles in Australia have been discovered in the last 35 years. The public has not been adequately informed of this.
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Conservation
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Reptiles Are at Greater Risk of Extinction

Though there are worries over extinction of all animals, it is reptiles who are in most danger. Some reptiles are pretty, but for the most part they are seen as ugly. Because of this they lose out on conservation funding. This is serious with one in five reptile species predicted to die out.

People are moving into previously pristine regions of the tropics to log valuable trees and to practice logging. The conclusion about endangered reptiles has been reached by 200 of the world's scientific experts. Funding is not enough. We need to change human behavior. This of course means changing human needs, which is more challenging.

Concentrating on saving turtles is good for them. Other reptiles, however, remain at risk. The living and reproductive systems of many reptiles is still unknown. Out of sight, out of mind leads to extinction. Reptiles tend to live in the toughest of environments. Such specialization does result in their demise when humans change the habitat.

Those who should know better have forgotten about reptile extinction. Threatened species are logged in the IUCN Red List. Only a third of endangered reptiles are on the list. In depth recording of reptiles tends to be regional and is not collated worldwide.
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Conservation
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Sauropods Had Hollow Bones in Their Skin

Long-necked dinosaurs had hollow bones in their skin according to fossils in Madagascar. The animal in question is the giant Rapetosaurus. Hollow bones are found in the skin of reptiles and a few mammals. These skin bones are called osteoderm.

Dinosaurs with hollow skin bones are Titanosaura, a Sauropod, Rapetosaurus, Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. It is believed that the bones stored mineral for hard times. Rapetosaurus, for example, had only a few bones spread throughout their skin, so the bones were not used for defence or to moderate temperature.

The fossils in Madagascar were of Rapetosaurus. What applies for Rapetosaurus can be used to evaluate the hollow bones of other dinosaurs. It cannot be ruled out that Titanosaura used the bones partially for defence but the main function of hollow bones was to store minerals.
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Paleontology
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Dinosaur Metabolism Was Faster Than Mammals

Dinosaur metabolism was not only higher than reptiles, their bodies ran at a faster rate than mammals. Analysis of tiny holes in their bones shows that they pumped a lot of blood through their bodies.

So scientists have been wrong for a long time claiming that dinosaurs were slow moving creatures who relied on the sun to get going each day. Tests across a wide range of dinosaurs, big and small, confirm they moved around with ease. Some scientists have accepted the hypothesis that dinosaurs were not reptiles.

It makes one wonder how many other things we are taught at schools are totally wrong. New evidence for upright walking of apes goes back more than four million years to an animal with feet designed to climb trees. Their hips are clearly designed for walking upright. And for decades we had been told a special foot design was necessary for bipedal walking.
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Science
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Climate Change Could Make Timid Animals More Aggressive

Climate change will cause changes in behavior. As water becomes warmer so some species of fish become aggressive. Some fish are inherently timid while others are bold. In experiments on fish from the Australian Barrier reef, when water was slowly warmed normally timid fish became aggressive. Their rate of activity increased as well. Evolution has created fish that fit into a niche where survival depends on a fish being very careful about its surroundings. If they openly attack larger fish it could mean the smaller ones will be eaten.

It is possible that similar changes will occur with reptiles, amphibians, ectotherms and even mammals. If timid animals become bold then they could be killed off by predators or by humans using harvesting equipment trying to catch other animals for food. Only a very small increase in temperature led to the change.

In the tests, fish were bred in captivity then released into holding tanks where the water was slowly warmed. They had no chance to socialize with wild fish. When the water was cool the fish hid in plastic pipe. As the water heated up the fish ventured further from the protective pipe.

Certain assumptions can be made from this research. As the Arctic ice disappears, Polar bears wandering near small towns in Alaska, Canada and Northern Europe could become more brazen in their search for food from garbage cans and dump sites. They could kill humans more frequently in their anger. Similarly, rats living in these cold climes may not just die of shock when hit. They could turn on people and fight back.
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