This week, we will be talking about the classification of life. Why do we classify things? What purpose does it serve us? Well, could you imagine if there were no classifying systems in the world? What would it be like to step into a grocery store? Yikes! You would never find anything! Thankfully, Carolus Linnaeus developed a system so that we can organize all of the life that exists in the world. This system, created in the 1700's, is still used today.
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Go to the following website: Time.com
Read about one of the new species that was discovered in the past year and write a paragraph in your own words about the animal.
Post your paragraph in the comments section of this post.
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The Cape Melville shade skink is a golden colored lizard that eats insects. It is a skink species which adds to the 1,500 other skink species. The Cape Melville is different from most of the other skinks. For example, most skinks stay near the ground to hunt for their food but the Cape Melville jumps about on rocks and moss. Most skinks don’t jump around because it’s a very good way to get eaten by a predator. The Cape Melville has been around for around half a billion years so obviously jumping around works for them.
The Glow in the dark cockroach is a type of cockroach that was recently discovered. This cockroach glows a bright green which makes it very unique. it is almost the exact same as a regular cockroach in every other way. It uses its toxic light to keep away predators and protect itself.
An olinguito is a species closely related to raccoons. This new one is carnivorous unlike its cousins. Their pelts were in the Smithsonian mislabeled as common olinguito. They were also living ones in zoos in the 1960’s. They were suspicious because they wouldn't mate with the common ones. But in 2013 the Smithsonian said that they had found evidence that this was a new species.
Saltuarius eximius, Or leaf-tailed gecko, is a wonderful new discovery that is eight inches long, has a leaf-shaped tail, and is 510 million years old, and was just discovered this past year. It is From Australia, But originated on an old landmass that Australia used to be part of.
The Tigrina of Southern Brazil was discovered in 2013.it may seem the same as the one in Northern Brazil, but they are completly different species. Tigrina of South Brazil has the same features as the Tigrina of North Brazil.
Even though this record breaking big cat is extinct it still makes the top ten on the list of new species discovered this year. The Panthera Blythae is now the worlds oldest big cat, this cat was walking around the earth about 4.4 million years ago in Tibet (the previous record was 3.7 million years). The Panthera Blythae has a broad forehead and was compared to a snow leopard, but was much smaller and weighed about 50 pounds about the size of the clouded leopard. But even though it was small the investigators found signs that this little guy had a carnivorous appetite from signs of wear on its teeth. So like any other big cat it was meant to kill.
I think that the Cape Melville Shade skink is one of the most interesting things about this animal is that it performs the general actions that would get it killed, but was able to survive for half a billion years. It is recognized for its breathtaking golden color and unusual jumping tendencies.
Really short, but my internet is about to be shut off :(
The freshwater Arapaima is the new species I have choses to write on. There are not many of these species but they are now being farmed to increase the number of them. This is the favorite source of protein for local fisherman. Some people don’t want Arapaimas to be farmed until their aggressive behavior can be controlled or learned more about.
The glow in the Luchihormetica luckae is nasty but amazing. It glows in the dark and looks like a thing in a blanket. The cockroach is trying to imitate the toxic click beetle and is not very appealing. The eyes are made by pits in the animal’s skin filled with fluorescent bacteria. Yum!
The carnivorous olinguito is one of the newest species discovered in 2013. However, it might be difficult to tell apart from the other olinguitos. Carnivorous olinguitos are tree-dwellers that live in the Amazon forest that are related to the common Raccoon. The olinguito’s cuddly appearance and un-cuddly claws are recognizable from their cousin.
There are many new species discovered all the time, but one that is extremely interesting is not an animal. In fact, it is not even visible. It is a species a bacteria called Teriscoccus phoenicis. It is roughly a micrometer in diameter, as it is a very round bacterium. It deserves it’s own genus as well because it is so different. What makes it so special and interesting? It was discovered at NASA, in one of its clean rooms. A NASA clean room is where they assemble spacecrafts. It is called a clean room because it is kept completely sterile of all microbes so that terrestrial life doesn’t contaminate other planets. However these bacteria managed to survive. Since there was nothing much else to eat for them in such a sterile room, they can survive, and thrive, for long periods of time without any or little nutrients. This is one of the things that makes them so special. What makes them more unusual is that they have ONLY been found in such clean rooms. This especially interests NASA because these small organisms may be able to survive on a spacecraft, or even on some other planets.
The lythronax argestes was a dinosaur that appears to be related to the T-Rex, although there is little definitive proof. Existing 80,000,000 years prior to the T-Rex, paleontologists discovered the fossils in southern Utah. Weighing at slightly smaller than the T-Rex (but not that much smaller) with teeth the size of bananas the Lythronax Argestes was a prehistoric terror.
In tanzania a new species of panther was discovered and is 4.4 million years old. The panther is very light and has a smallish body but still you would not want to be near it. The panther has a big forehead that is quite similar to a leopard. The leopard has very sharp and large.
The glow in the dark cockroach is a animal the was just discovered recently.It looks like a beetle a little when you first look at it.It has bacteria around the eyes that means it has a lot of bacteria around the whole body.the glow in the dark cockroach is a very new kind of animal a glow in the dark animal has never been heard of before until now that the glow in the dark cockroach was discovered
Researchers in southwest Turkey, found a new type of scorpion. Its called the Euscorpius lycius. It’s just like any other scorpion, but it’s only about an inch across. So it can’t actually do much harm to us. Only to smaller animals.
The Sphyrna Gilbert AKA the Carolina Hammerhead.
The carolina hammerhead is very similar to the Scalloped hammerhead. It is measured 10 to 13 about 3 meters. It is not as aggressive as the scalloped, it was named the carolina hammerhead because that was the waters it was found in. There is no obvious physical differences between them.
Giant Amazon Freshwater Arapaima
This specie's animal family has only 5 species. The Giant Amazon Freshwater Arapaima. In the 19th century taxonomists had said there are 4 species of Arapaima. In 1860’s they then said that the earlier study’s were wrong and there is only 1 species of Arapaima later on a scientist discovered that there are indeed 4 species and in 2013 they found a fifth The Giant Amazon Freshwater Arapaima. Scientists warn not to farm these fish until behaviors and habits of this fish has been studied thoroughly
Apramina is a species of fish that apparently breaths air, although it has gills, as well as lungs, resurface for air because it usually live in water that doesn’t have much air. This fact makes it easier to catch them with harpoons when they resurface, and they’re so big they’re hard to miss the shot. This has made them hard to come by and they are becoming endangered. It usually averages to a size of 7. ft. (2.1 m) long. They are starting to become invasive in some places do to escapes of fish farming into local streams. At first four species were identified which were all very similar, but recently a 5th one has been discovered. This new species seems to share the slightly different traits of all the other 4 species of Apramina. They have really strong scales and are called: “The Tank Of The Amazon” by some. They are carnivores and kill their prey by using their strong jaw to smash their prey into their hard roof of their mouth, crushing their prey.
we classify things because it keeps us from mixing things up and helps us identify things for instance classifying that a beetle is a bug will keep us organized to know its a bug so we can keep its species going
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