The species was first spotted by an indigenous tribe in south India’s lush forests.
by
Deepa Padmanaban
A
striking new species of crab has been found living in tree-holes high
above the ground. The animal, which fits in the palm of a human hand,
has a deep bluish black body that stands out against the tree bark that
it prowls for worms and seeds to eat.
Scientists discovered the crab—named Kani maranjandu—in the lush forests of the Western Ghats in south India. It’s an entirely new genus and species named after the Kani, the tribal community that noticed the crabs, and maranjandu, the local colloquial term for tree crab…
Vampire crabs are a rare species of crustacean that, until recently, had scientists completely stumped – because despite noticing them in pet stores and aquariums around the world, biologists had no idea where they came from. Crab dealers had pointed to a number of possible places of origin, from Borneo to New Guinea, but nothing seemed to quite fit the bill – until finally, with a good deal of detective work, a German carcinologist (crab expert) named Christian Lukhaup was able to trace their origins back to the Indonesian island of Java.
The Sea Angel (Gymnosomata) Is a group of sea slug that grow no larger than 5cm. These obscure little creatures are found in a wide range of habitats from polar to tropical regions of the sea.
This is the Brazilian three-banded armadillo, one of the few species that can actually turn into a ball for protection! Their defense is almost impenetrable: the legs and ears are tucked in and the tail interlocks with the head to completely seal the shell. They are so well-armored that contrary to most other armadillos they don’t even dig burrows. The only predators capable of killing a balled armadillo are jaguars and cougars!
Exciting news: while the Icelandic horse breed already has a vast array of colours and patterns, this one is new, and it’s called ýruskjóttur,which translates to drizzled skewbald or pied. (x)
This is Ellert frá Baldurshaga (IS2013180518), and he’s currently registered as bay dun splashed white (66s0) in Worldfengur, but that´s not quite his colour. The whole description of how he looks is bay dun splashed white with white legs and belly, a broad blaze and cloudy eyes (or: bleikalóttur yruskjóttur með hvítar lappir, breiðblesu og vagl í augum). After some DNA research it was confirmed that this colour/pattern is completely unique. Apparently he’s the only horse on the planet with this particular colour!
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