Cnemaspis vangoghi received its name thanks to its colorful appearance and combination of blue and yellow that resembles the motifs and patterns found in Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Starry Night.” The second species, Cnemapsis sathuragiriensis, was named after Sathuragiri Hills, the region it inhabits.

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A post shared by Thackeray Wildlife Foundation (@thackeraywildlifefoundation)

Thackeray Wildlife Foundation team found the two new gecko species while researching the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hot spot where scientists regularly discover new species, in April 2022. They were initially believed to be specimens of Cnemaspis galaxia, but DNA testing showed that it is a closely related but distinct species. The researchers shared their findings in a recent paper published in ZooKeys journal.

“These species live in low-elevation deciduous forests of Srivilliputhur, adding to the five known endemic vertebrates in the area. The geckos exhibit strong sexual dichromatism, are diurnal (active during the cooler parts of the day), and are commonly found on rocks, buildings, and occasionally trees,” Thackeray Wildlife Foundation shared in a social media post announcing the discovery.

The post Researchers Name New Gecko Species Found In India After Painter Vincent Van Gogh appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The two fish species were not likely to pair. They don’t live close to each other —the sturgeon is native to Russia and nearby regions while the paddlefish lives in the U.S., in the Mississippi River Valley. They don’t eat the same things; sturgeon is carnivorous and likes to eat small fish and crustaceans, while the paddlefish filters zooplankton from water. Both species are large and belong to freshwater fish. This still doesn’t explain how they got crossed to create a new type of fish.

It happened at the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Hungary where scientists have been working on breeding two species of fish. However, one of them accidentally gave paddlefish sperm to sturgeon eggs which lead to hundreds of baby hybrid fish with combined attributes of their parents. If you’re interesting to learn more about the new species they created this way, a study about it has been published in Genes recently.

“We never wanted to play around with hybridization,” the co-author of the study, Dr. Attila Mozsár, told The New York Times. “It was absolutely unintentional.”

The post Scientists Accidentally Made a New Fish Hybrid appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

“What is particularly striking is that it is erectile,” said Paul Oliver, a herpetologist at the Queensland Museum and Griffith University in Australia for National Geographic. “At times it sticks out quite straight, while at other times it droops downward. So, they are pretty elaborate structures that must have some purpose.”

Oliver suspects that such a unique nose could be the frog’s way to identify the species among 450 other frog species that live in the forests. “But the truth is, like so much in biology, we don’t really know,” he said.

The post Pinocchio, the Name of a New Frog Species With a Pointy Nose appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

Cnemaspis vangoghi received its name thanks to its colorful appearance and combination of blue and yellow that resembles the motifs and patterns found in Van Gogh’s masterpiece “Starry Night.” The second species, Cnemapsis sathuragiriensis, was named after Sathuragiri Hills, the region it inhabits.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thackeray Wildlife Foundation (@thackeraywildlifefoundation)

Thackeray Wildlife Foundation team found the two new gecko species while researching the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hot spot where scientists regularly discover new species, in April 2022. They were initially believed to be specimens of Cnemaspis galaxia, but DNA testing showed that it is a closely related but distinct species. The researchers shared their findings in a recent paper published in ZooKeys journal.

“These species live in low-elevation deciduous forests of Srivilliputhur, adding to the five known endemic vertebrates in the area. The geckos exhibit strong sexual dichromatism, are diurnal (active during the cooler parts of the day), and are commonly found on rocks, buildings, and occasionally trees,” Thackeray Wildlife Foundation shared in a social media post announcing the discovery.

The post Researchers Name New Gecko Species Found In India After Painter Vincent Van Gogh appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The two fish species were not likely to pair. They don’t live close to each other —the sturgeon is native to Russia and nearby regions while the paddlefish lives in the U.S., in the Mississippi River Valley. They don’t eat the same things; sturgeon is carnivorous and likes to eat small fish and crustaceans, while the paddlefish filters zooplankton from water. Both species are large and belong to freshwater fish. This still doesn’t explain how they got crossed to create a new type of fish.

It happened at the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Hungary where scientists have been working on breeding two species of fish. However, one of them accidentally gave paddlefish sperm to sturgeon eggs which lead to hundreds of baby hybrid fish with combined attributes of their parents. If you’re interesting to learn more about the new species they created this way, a study about it has been published in Genes recently.

“We never wanted to play around with hybridization,” the co-author of the study, Dr. Attila Mozsár, told The New York Times. “It was absolutely unintentional.”

The post Scientists Accidentally Made a New Fish Hybrid appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

“What is particularly striking is that it is erectile,” said Paul Oliver, a herpetologist at the Queensland Museum and Griffith University in Australia for National Geographic. “At times it sticks out quite straight, while at other times it droops downward. So, they are pretty elaborate structures that must have some purpose.”

Oliver suspects that such a unique nose could be the frog’s way to identify the species among 450 other frog species that live in the forests. “But the truth is, like so much in biology, we don’t really know,” he said.

The post Pinocchio, the Name of a New Frog Species With a Pointy Nose appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.