Here is a selection of the fascinating new species found in the region by scientists in 2011, as described in a new WWF report, Extra Terrestrial. They include a devilish bat (which is, of course, a mammal, a blind fish and a stunning viper (both shown lower down on this page), and some are already on the endangered list. We’ll start with some frogs.
There are also some fish, reptiles and amphibians whose future is more certain.
A stunning yin-yang frog (Leptobrachium leucops), one of five new amphibian species discovered in the region. These measure between 3.8 and 4.5cm and are known only at elevations of 1,558 to 1,900 metres above sea level in wet evergreen and cloud forest habitats. Its striking black and white eyes are unique in the genus.
A sweet singing frog, called Gracixalus quangi. While most male frogs attract females with repetitive croaks, Quang’s tree frog spins a new tune each time. No two calls are the same, and each individual mixes clicks, whistles and chirps in a unique order. It was discovered in the high-altitude forests of northern Vietnam
The Theloderma palliatum [right], a species of frog discovered in Vietnam.
[Left] A horned crab from Surinam.
[Right] Safety note: Never go swimming alone!
[Left] The Maldives are among some of the most beautiful but low lying islands in the world. With the sea level rise associated with climate change, they could well not be here in a couple of generation’s time. The Maldives are composed of 1,192 small islands with stunning coral reefs strung out like pearls across the Indian Ocean, 435 miles south-west of Sri Lanka. Two hundred of the islands are inhabited and over 90% of the islands’ GDP comes from tourism.
[Right] Something ugly photographed by Tom Daley
[Left] Sleeping Chameleon (or chamæleon if you prefer)
Crocodiles’ and alligators’ snouts are more touch-sensitive than human fingertips, a new study shows. Alligators have 4,000 tiny, raised black spots on their heads, along their jaws, inside their mouths, and between their teeth. Crocodiles have about 9,000. Scientists have known about these bumps – called integumentary sensory organs – for more than 100 years, but until now their purpose was a mystery
[Left] A Copper-striped Blue-tailed Skink, which is now officially extinct, though nobody told this one.
[Right] Two-legged lizard (Jarujinia bipedalis). This extraordinary two-legged skink was discovered in Suan Pung district, Ratchaburi province in central Thailand. It is the first skink (and only the second species of terrestrial reptile in the world) to have forelimbs but no hind limb.
[Right] A vibrant, iridescent blue skink, the Larutia nubisilvicola
[Left] Pygmy python (Python kyaiktiyo). This 1.5 metre-long python was found in a small dry streambed in the Kyaiktiyo wildlife sanctuary in Burma. Its mountainous habitat, straddling the Thai-Burmese border, is known as the Dawna-Tenasserim landscape and is one of the highest priority conservation areas in the world for tigers and Asian elephants. Given the high value of pythons on the international pet market, and the beauty and rarity of this new species, Python kyaiktiyo is very likely to be at immediate risk
A new species of snake called the ruby-eyed green pit viper (Trimeresurus rubeus) has been discovered in forests near Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam’s Cat Tien national park is a stronghold for the Trimeresurus rubeus, which inhabits a rather small geographic range
Twice a year in the Gulf of Mexico rays migrate. About 10 thousand stingrays (or cownose rays) swim from the Yucatan Peninsula to Florida in the spring and back in the autumn.
Cownose rays are known for these long migrations in large schools. They are strong swimmers, able to cover long distances. In the Atlantic Ocean, their migration is northward in the late spring and southward in the late fall. The population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates in schools of as many as 10,000 rays, clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan in Mexico.
Cownose rays aren’t threatened. There is concern in Chesapeake Bay that an increase in the number of these rays is harming the already declining oyster population. One proposed solution is to allow commercial fishing for the rays, but it’s difficult and expensive to catch and process these rays. Cownose rays mature relatively late and have few offspring. Even though they have caused problems for the oyster fishery, cownose rays are an important part of the ecosystem.
As this ray swims through the ocean, its wingtips often break the surface, resembling the dorsal fin of a shark, which sometimes causes undue alarm for swimmers and divers. Occasionally, they jump out of the water and land with a loud smack, a behaviour thought to be a territorial display.
Cownose rays have a unique feature — long, pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads. A crease in the lobes and a notched head create a cow-nose likeness that gives these rays their name. Cownose rays use their flexible fin lobes to probe the seafloor for prey, like clams. After detecting buried prey, they dig deep depressions in the sand by flapping their pectoral fins and, at the same time, sucking sand through their mouths and out their gill slits. As they forage, large schools of rays can stir up huge clouds of silt over a large area.
The rays’ eyes and spiracles are on their brown upper bodies, and their mouths are on their white or yellowish underbellies. The rays have large, flat tooth plates on both jaws that they use to crush hard-shelled prey. The rays spit out crushed shells and eat the soft body parts.
Cownose rays have poisonous stingers, but even in large groups they’re shy and not threatening. In 1608, Captain John Smith, an East Coast settler and explorer, learned about the nature of a cownose’s sting. While Smith was spearing a ray with his sword near the Rappahannock River, the ray defended itself by stinging Smith in the shoulder. The pain was so terrible that the crew were convinced Smith was dying, so they dug a grave for him. But John Smith overcame the pain and felt well enough that evening to eat the ray for supper. The place where this happened is still known as Stingray Point.
Boraras naevus, a dazzling new miniature fish recently discovered 83km north of Surat Thani in southern Thailand. Measuring just 15 to 20mm, the species has been recorded at several spots within the lower Tapi river catchment. The fish is named after the large blotch on its body (the Latin “naevus” means “blemish”)
Bangana musaei. A subterranean blind fish from the carp family, measuring 7.7cm, this species was found in the Xe Bangfai catchment, a Mekong tributary in central Laos that runs 7km underground through limestone
Walking catfish (Clarias gracilentus). This species lives in freshwater streams on the island of Phu Quoc off the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang. While it does not truly walk, Clarias gracilentus has the ability to use its pectoral fins to stay upright while it wiggles forward with snake-like movements
[Left] A tasselled wobbegong shark lying on the substratum with the head of a brown-banded bamboo shark in its mouth in this photo taken during an underwater visual census of fishes on the fringing reef of Great Keppel Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Generally, tasselled wobbegong sharks are known to prey upon invertebrates and small fish, but this unusual field observation highlights its versatility as an ambush predator, according to findings published in the journal Coral Reefs.
Cristobal Serrano called this photograph “The Pursuit”. He said: “At a depth of 20 metres, lying face up on the sandy bed of the Sea of Cortez, Baja California, I was constantly forced to change my position since it was impossible to say from which direction the bird would come. With my fisheye lens l also wanted to get as close as possible to the action. Finally, everything fell into place: in my immediate vicinity the cormorant plummeted bullet-like into a shoal of grunts, scattering them in all directions to isolate individual fish”
A long-tom fish (Tylosurus crocodilus crocodiles) catches a smaller fish in its sharp teeth in the crystal clear waters of the Java Sea, in the Thousand Islands marine national park, Indonesia.
Lionfish (pterois) range in size from 6.2 to 42.4 cm with typical adults measuring 38 cm and weighing an average of 480 grams. They are well known for their ornate beauty, venomous spines and unique tentacles. Juvenile lionfish have a unique tentacle located above their eye sockets that varies in type between species. It is suggested that the evolution of this tentacle serves to continually attract new prey; studies also suggest that it plays a role in sexual selection. Pterois can live from five to fifteen years and have complex courtship and mating behaviours. Females release two mucus-filled egg clusters frequently, which can contain as many as fifteen thousand eggs. Studies on Pterois reproductive habits have increased significantly in the past decade.
[Right] The Leafy or Glauert’s seadragon (Phycodurus eques), found along the southern and western coasts of Australia, has long leaf-like protrusions coming from all over the body are not used for propulsion; they serve only as camouflage.
[Left] The Weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) has small leaf-like appendages for camouflage and a number of short spines for protection; it is found along the southern and western coasts of Australia round to Victoria and Tasmania.
A Cambodian man grimaces as he comes face-to-face with a giant barb on the Tonle Sap River near Phnom Penh.
Fishermen along the Tonle Sap catch five to ten adult giant barbs each year, making the region one of the last places on Earth to see these impressive fish at their largest.
Fish experts believe the giant stingray, such as this one in Cambodia’s Mekong River, is the largest freshwater species on Earth. This specimen measured more than 13 feet (4 metres) long.
Headline from The Independent, 5th September 2013:
“Testicle-eating fish, the Pacu, found in Paris with fears it could be coming to the UK
“This small piranha-like fish was found in European waters for the first time in August 2013. Danish men, who like to swim naked, were getting worried!”
However, it was a joke; see this National Geographic report. There was apparently some confusion about its diet, which was said to include nuts!
The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus), a species that lives at great depths and is rarely seen but resembles a marine “Jabba the Hutt” (a Star Wars character), has been voted the world’s ugliest animal. It inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of the Australian mainland and Tasmania. More uglies here.