Animal of the Day: Viscacha

Today's Animal of the Day is the viscacha and, in my opinion, the viscacha is one of the cutest animals in the world!  There are five species of extant (still living, opposite of extinct) viscacha, composing two genera.  The viscachas live in the South American Andes, with one species, the plains viscacha, inhabiting the Pampas of Argentina.  The plains viscacha can apparently live in warrens (groups of interconnected burrows) of up to around one hundred individuals!  

Now what exactly is the viscacha, anyways?  Except for the long tail, it sure looks like a rabbit, now, doesn't it?  Well, the rabbit-like features of the viscacha actually evolved through a fascinating biological process called convergent evolution, in which organisms evolve a similar adaptation to other organisms, but did not receive the adaptation from a common ancestor.  For example, the antlers of the elk and the moose are not an example of convergent evolution, as the common ancestor of the two animals both had antlers.  

However, the saber-teeth in the Chinese water deer and the musk deer DID evolve via convergent evolution, as their common ancestor did not have these features.  And yes, that picture of the Chinese water deer to the right is a real picture.  We'll talk about these fascinating animals at some point in the future.  

Tangents aside, I never actually answered the question: what are the viscachas related to, if not rabbits?  Rabbits, along with hares and pikas, are members of the order Lagomorpha, or the lagomorphs, contrary to the belief of many people, who (understandably) think that the rabbits are actually rodents.  If you were to say that the viscacha was a rodent, however, then you would be correct!  The viscacha is indeed a member of the order Rodentia, and are fairly closely related to the chinchillas, one of which is pictured off to the left.  The chinchillas, just like the viscachas, are also native to the South American Andes.  The chinchillas, despite being a very popular pet (I remember my preschool had one when I went there), are not doing too hot in the wild: both extant species, the short- and long-tailed chinchilla, are labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.  

This was the birthday post of Isabel Lippincott! Happy birthday, Isabel! If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animals, and I will do my best to get a post in! And if you like what you are reading, please feel free to follow us here or via Facebook!

An Amur Leopard Upchucks

On Saturday, January 26th, my father and I drove down to Colorado Springs to see a few of my friends perform in the Colorado All State Jazz Band.  Before the concert, we met up with my grandma and grandpa, and went up to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for an hour or so.  We saw a few cool things, all of which I will share with you in the next post, but this post I wanted to devote to the "Critically Endangered" sub-species of the leopard, the elusive and mysterious Amur leopard.  Fewer than thirty of these amazing creatures are thought to be alive in the wilds of southeastern Russia and northeastern China, in the Primorye region.  Poachers have taken an immense toll on the numbers of this cat, as its pelt is highly prized.  Like that of the snow leopard, another fairly large cat that also lives in a very cold, harsh environment, the Amur leopard has a very soft and, for lack of a better term, floofy, coat.

The Amur leopard prior to its little....episode.

Since the number of people who see an Amur leopard in the wild per year could almost certainly be counted on one hand, you are very unlikely to see this animal lose its lunch.  For that, you would have to go to a zoo. Now, don't get me wrong, we didn't go to the zoo just to see animals throw up, but it was definitely an interesting addition to our day!  I do hope that the poor animal is feeling better, though.  If you want to see the video of the animal barfing, click on the link below.  It's not actually as gross as it sounds, trust me!  Also, please enjoy some pictures of the beautiful cat PRIOR to its cookie tossing.  

The leopard recovers after it loses its cool

Harry Potter Names: Remus Lupin

Remus Lupin is one of my favorite protagonists from the Harry Potter series.  Despite the fact that he is a werewolf, he nevertheless is an exemplary wizard and a fantastic teacher.  The origins of his name are also quite interesting!

The surname, Remus, originates from the myth of Rome's foundation.  One of two main characters in the story, Remus's brother Romulus is the other central character.  There are many different forms of the myth, but here is how most of them seem to go.  The mother of Remus and Romulus has the two young boys float down in the river to protect them from the Gods, in the hopes that someone else will raise them.  They end up being raised by a female wolf.  Later on, they are adopted by humans, and eventually build a large city.  Both brothers want to be king, however, so the pair quarrel, and Remus is killed.

So we have the wolf connection: Remus and Romulus were cared for by a wolf, and Remus Lupin is a werewolf.  Another connection is that, in the seventh book, Remus Lupin is a guest on Potterwatch, and goes by the code name "Romulus."  Some sources even cite that J. K. Rowling's intentions were to represent the conflict within Remus Lupin (between his human side and his werewolf side) by having the names of the two brothers both apply to Remus Lupin.

Next, we have the last name, "Lupin."  In Latin, the word "lupus" means "wolf:"  This is where the scientific name for the gray wolf comes from, Canis lupus, shared by the many sub-species of the gray wolf, including the arctic wolf, the Mexican red wolf, and the domestic dog.  So that apparently means that "lupin" translates to "wolf-like."

We have one more connection, courtesy of Aniruddh Prakash: the letters in the name "Remus Lupin" can be rearranged to the words "Primus lune," which means full moon.  Coincidence?  I think not!  Clearly, Rowling put a great deal of thought into this name!

Animal of the Day: Addax

The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) sometime called the screwhorn antelope, is a "Critically Endangered" member of the group of animals known collectively as the antelope.  The addax is found in the Sahara desert.  The Addax has been extirpated, or made regionally extinct, in the countries of Egypt, Algeria, Western Sahara, and Sudan.  Nowadays, the Addax can only be naturally found in the countries of Chad,  Niger, Mauritania, and has been reintroduced into Morocco and Tunisia.  The Addax has earned its "Critically Endangered" status due to the immense and very frequent hunting of its horns, and is still often hunted on game reserves in the United States.  The meat and leather obtained from the Addax are also highly prized.  Their diet consists of primarily grass, as well as the leaves of various shrubs.  Rarely drinking, they instead gain most of their moisture through the plants that they eat.  The Addax is a slow moving animal, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from cheetahs, leopards, lions, African wild dogs, and humans.  The calves can also be killed by servals, caracals and hyenas.

There is also a Spanish motorsport team named the Barwa Addax Team, but I was unable to ascertain whether this team was named after the animal or not!
 

Animal of the Day: The Axolotl

The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a fascinating little amphibian.  This salamander, closely related to the much more normal-looking tiger salamander, is unfortunately labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, due to destruction of its native habitat.  The axolotl is endemic to two lakes in central Mexico, Lake Xochimilco (pronounced SHO-chan-ha-nay-shanay) and Lake Chalco.  Lake Chalco, however, is no more, as it was drained by humans to avoid flooding.  Lake Xochimilco, on the other hand, is still around, but merely a shadow of its past, now reduced to

a number of canals.  They are further threatened by the growth of Mexico City.  The axolotl is able to regenerate its limbs, a fact which has not gone unnoticed to scientists, prompting many to employ their use as "lab axolotls," if you will. 

Apparently, there are two Pokémon created as a tribute to the axolotl: wooper, and mudkip.  Wooper looks to me to be very similar to the axolotl, at least superficially, while mudkip I would now have guessed at, unless I had read it on the Pokémon wiki page.  Amusingly, the page is called "On the Origin of Species," presumably a reference to the book by the same title written by Charles Darwin.  The link is included below, just in case you want to learn more about either the Pokémon things, or even the axolotl.

On The Origin of Species: Wooper

23-Fact Tuesdays: The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch!

Remember 23-Fact Tuesdays?  Not very surprising if you don't, since there was only one and it took place a few weeks ago.  But we are going to do one again (despite the fact that today is Sunday) and this time, all of the facts are going to be drawn from the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (NBWR for short!)Adventure Guide Book!  If you recall, the Wildlife Ranch was the place that I talked about in our Animal Spotlight featuring the Aurochs a few weeks ago, where you drive through this large area and the animals will come up to your car!  Pretty neat, huh!?  And most of the pictures that I upload for this blog post will actually be ones that we took down there!  So, as Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus says, "Seat belts, everyone!"  Let's do this thing.

1.  The African bongo, a type of antelope, has a prehensile tongue that it uses to grab vegetation, much like a giraffe.

2. The "Critically Endangered" addax from the Sahara Desert has flat and broad hooves, which help to keep the animal from sinking into the sand.

A picture of an addax that I took while in Palm Desert, California, at the excellent zoo called "The Living Desert"

3.  The addax also is very lightly colored, which helps to reflect heat away from the animal, keeping it cool.

4.  The South American rhea can run up to 40 m.p.h.

A picture of the rhea that my mother took at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch on our visit in 2008.  The rhea is one of the ratites, like the ostrich and the emu, amongst others.

5.  The Patagonian cavy is the second-largest rodent in the world, second only to the capybara.

6.  The Watusi is the largest horned animal in the world, and its horns can be six feet across when fully grown.

A picture of a Watusi, with a calf, that my mother took when we visited the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2008

7.  The African springbok pronks, meaning that it jumps with all four feet off the ground.  Typically, when an animal pronks, it is either during pursuit by a predator, or simply during play.  During pronking, the springbok can jump ten feet in the air.

A small group of springbok at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2011

8.  The scimitar-horned oryx is labeled "Extinct in the Wild" by the IUCN, hunted to extinction in the wild for their horns, which the animal would sometimes use to spear predators to death.

 

 

9.  The gemsbok was kept in large, semi-domesticated numbers in ancient Egypt, where they were killed for sacrificial purposes.

10.  The Indian barasingha "has the unique ability to submerge their heads in water while closing their nasal passages," which "allows them to take advantage of vegetation in the swampy areas of their homeland."

11.  The name "wildebeest" came from the Dutch settlers who settles in South Africa.  It means (can you guess?) "wild beast."

12.  The nilgai, or the bluebull, is the largest of the Asian antelope.

13.  The "Near Threatened" white rhinoceros is the largest of all of the rhinoceros species, and the second largest land mammal, second only to the African elephant.

14.  The white rhino will wallow in mud to cool off, as well as to help protect their skin.

15.   The name "rhinoceros" comes from the Greek words "rhino" (which means nose) and "ceros" (which means horn).  Think about the name Triceratops real fast: tri=three, tops=face, so then cera (like "ceros") = horn!

16.  The "Critically Endangered" bactrian camel, the larger of the two camel species, can go several days without no water, spit when agitated, and can survive extreme temperature swings, from -20 degrees F, all of the way to 100 degrees F!

A picture of the bactrian camel that I took at the Denver Zoo when I went there with my friends Masaki Kleinkopf and Brynn Conroy in April of 2012

17.  The ostrich is not only the largest of all of the birds, but it is also the only bird to have two toes.

This picture of ostriches stalking our car looks like something out of Jurassic Park

An ostrich accosting my sister for food at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch in 2011

18.  The blackbuck, native to India and Pakistan, is a "Near Threatened" species.  According to the guidebook, there are more blackbuck in Texas than there are in India and Pakistan.

19.  The gait of the giraffe is unique amongst quadrupeds.  As they walk, they swing both of their feet on one side of their body at the same time.

A picture of one of the giraffes from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo from my visit a few weeks ago

20.  Giraffes eat around 75 lbs. of food a day, and can drink around 10 gallons of water in one standing!

21.  The heart of the giraffe can pump up to 20 gallons of blood per minute.

22.  There are two sub-species of sika (type of deer).  The Formosan sika, which inhabits Siberia, and the Japanese sika, native to Japan and Korea.

A picture of a Japanese sika that I took in 2011 at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

 23.  The North American elk is frequently referred to as the "Wapiti."  Wapiti is actually the Native American term that refers to the white patch of hair on the rear of the animal.

A picture of a small herd of elk that my mother took in 2006 at Yellowstone National Park

North Palm Desert on Dwellable

War of the Wombats

There are three different types of wombat.  There is the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), the southern hairy-nosed (Lasiorhinus latifrons) and the northern hairy-nosed (L. krefftii).  They have been classified by the IUCN, respectively, as Least Concern, Least Concern, and Critically Endangered.  Unfortunately, all three wombats face threats that could easily result in their extermination from the wilds of the earth.  Fortunately, steps are being taken to prevent such a wombacide.

In Queensland, Australia  lies Epping Forest National Park.  In just two square miles of this park live the last ninety individuals of the northern hairy-nosed wombat.  Surrounding this puny area is a 20 kilometer long perimeter fence, erected after 10 wombats were killed by dingoes a few years ago, which, considering the severity of a ten percent population loss in such a small population, makes total sense.

Although these steps are being taken to protect the northern hairy-nosed, this species of wombat still faces several severe problems.  One such problem is the fact that 75% of these wombats are male, making a boom in their population more difficult to achieve.  Fortunately for the northerners, the southern hairy-nosed wombat has a very similar reproductive system as the northern hairy-nosed.  Scientists are therefore using female southerners as surrogate mothers for the northerners.  This method is referred to as "cross fostering," and has been used successfully when it comes to other marsupials.

The other major problem confronting the northern hairy-nosers is the fact that all of the animals are located in the same place.  In the event of a disease, wild-fire, or some other similar catastrophe, most or all of these creatures could be exterminated in the virtual blink of an eye.  Conservationists think it wise to create a second population of northerners, not too far away from the first, but far enough away to ensure that a disaster could not take out both populations with one fell swoop.  Scientists and conservationists have decided that it would be most beneficial to the northerners if they were to assist in their burrow construction.

These burrows, which can be over 100 feet long, would be time-consuming construction projects.  Not only that, but a single wombat will often use up to five different burrows, moving to a different one each day.  The first wombat doesn't just leave his or her old burrow unoccupied, however, as another wombat, probably the same one every five days or so (I would guess), temporarily moves in.  It's really less of a permanent residence, like a house, and more of a time-share condo.

But just how time and energy consuming would it be to dig such a burrow if you were a wombat?  Wombats have a problem with keeping cool.  If you ask my opinion, I suspect it has a lot to do with their body design.  As we discussed a few posts ago, animals that live in hot environments typically adapt in ways to increase their Surface Area to Volume ratio, or SA:V for short.  To learn more about why this is, click HERE.  However, fossorial, or burrowing, animals, like the wombat, aardvark, marsupial mole, and many, many others, try to keep their bodies streamlined.  Like dolphins and sharks, these animals want to be able to glide smoothly through their desired area (be it water or burrows).  Having random chunks of body, i.e. the ears of an elephant or a deer, would merely slow the animal down.  That is my theory, anyways.

To keep cool in the heat of the Australian day, wombats will take refuge in their burrows.  However, to be efficient enough when it comes to trapping moisture (as water can often be very difficult to come by in the habitat of the northerns), it has been estimated that the burrow would need to exceed fifteen feet in length.  It has also been calculated that the approximate amount of energy required for a wombat to dig a three foot long chunk of burrow is about the amount of energy that a wombat would expend running twelve miles.  That means for the comforting fifteen foot length of burrow, the wombat could instead run about sixty miles.  Clearly no small effort.

The way that the scientists actually figured all of this out was really quite interesting.  To see how long it takes for a wombat to dig a burrow, experimenters Glen Shimmin and David Taggart put one wombat into a box.  (Equipped with breathing holes, of course.  As pirates and I like to say, "A dead wombat digs no holes").  The human duo then dug a hole in the ground the same size as the box.  Placing the wombat-infested box into the ground, they then opened up one end of the container, allowing the wombat free access to the soil.  Instinctively, the wombat would begin to dig.  A half an hour later, Shimmin and Taggart ceased the wombat-excavation, and carefully measured how much dirt was displaced by the wombat, as all of the displaced dirt would conveniently be shoved (by the wombat) into the box!  Convenient, huh?  During the half hour digging session, the wombat moved more than 100 pounds of dirt!  Impressive, but the team concluded that, if conservationists were to release a group of northern hairy-nosed wombats into their new territory without pre-dug burrows, it was incredibly likely that the wombats would simply dig themselves to exhaustion, and subsequent death.  An undesirable outcome for all parties involved, it was decided to dig man-made burrows, resembling those of wombats, throughout the habitat, prior to the installation of the wombat center-piece.

What are some other problems facing wombats?  Well for starters, some of these problems, even when facing the wombats in the face, are virtually invisible to them.  Wombats, like Stegosaurus, rhinos, and myself (without my contacts), are virtually blind.  You don't need eyes if you are a fossorial (burrowing) creature; just ask the marsupial mole, the golden mole, or many other types of fossorial animals who no longer use, or even have, eyes!  However, when it comes to crossing roads, their terrible eyesight really takes its toll.  Hundreds, if not thousands, are hit by cars each year.

Other problems include starvation, drought, mange, and other people problems.  Starvation can be easily caused by the gradual squeezing out of the native grasses typically consumed by wombats by other, inedible grasses.  Drought should be self-explanatory; without water, the food dies.  Without water, there is no water.  Both are not good for wombats.  Mange, for wombats at least, is a fatal skin disease.  And as for the other people problems?  Let's just say that prairie dogs can relate.  (And now, even though I just said "Let's just say," I am going to go into more detail).  Like prairie dogs, wombats burrow.  And also like prairie dogs, the habitat of the wombat is perfect for ranchers.  So it goes like this.  Ranchers come along, and bring their cattle.  The cattle step in prairie dog/wombat holes, break their legs, and die.  The ranchers, enraged, take their rage out on the culprits: the prairie dogs or the wombats.  And as we have discussed before, wombat burrows can be quite extensive.  Furthermore, the entrance holes would have to be quite fat in order to accomodate such...robust occupants. 

As we have also previously discussed, much is being done in order to protect the wombat.  Another bit of good news is that a population boom of around 10% was recorded for the sole population of the northern hairy-nosed wombat!  Another wee bit of hope in a world that we willfully wish not to become wombatless.

WOMBAT FACTS:

1. Cooling Off:  Besides retreating into their burrows, wombats will also flick dirt onto their bodies to keep cool.
2. Olympic Runners:  Despite its dumpy appearance, the wombat can reach a top speed of around 25 mph.  This means that it can outrun an Olympic sprinter, like Usain Bolt!
3. Cooling Off V 2.0:  Besides retreating into their burrows and flicking dirt onto their bodies, wombats are also nocturnal, meaning that they avoid the heat of the day.
4. Life Span:  Wombats can live around twenty years.
5. Wombat Wesearch:  Prior to around fifteen or so years ago, not much research had been done on wombats.  Most of what we know has been discovered since that time.
6. Power House Excavators:  For their size, wombats may be the world's most powerful excavators.

Whitsunday Islands on Dwellable

Shrinky Dink: The Channel Island Fox and The Island Effect

If you (as a species) get trapped on an island, there is really one of three things that can happen.  The first thing, which seems to be like it would be the most common of the three things, is that you and your species would go extinct on the island.  Perhaps your species still survives on the mainland, but the island group has died off.  The second, and second most likely to happen (in my opinion) is you and your species, over many generations, shrink, to match the food supply.  If there is a limited supply of food, then the smallest of your species, not the largest, are much more likely to survive.  And the third happenstance is that you and your species grow in size over many generations.  Say you and your species are rats.  On the mainland, you are preyed upon by dogs, foxes, coyotes, cats, and the like.  When you and other of your rat buddies became trapped on the island, there was an abundnace of food there, but no predators to prevent you from growing bigger.  So grow you did.  We will talk about a very interesting occurrence of this later on. This shrinking and growing, called "Foster's Rule," is often simply known as "The Island Rule."

For now, however, we are going to focus on the more common of the two, and the more interesting (both in my opinion); island dwarfism.  This has occurred many, many times throughout history, and even to humans!  However, today we are going to look at one particular occurrence of this dwarfism.  The Channel Island fox of the Channel Islands off of the coast of California.

Scientists believed that the ancestors of these foxes "rafted" to the northernmost islands in the island chain sometime between 10,400 and 16,00 years ago.  These ancestors would have been the gray fox, very similar to the ones we see today.  The foxes rafted over during the last Ice Age.  This would have dramatically lowered the sea levels, and much of the water that is in today's oceans would be locked away in the ice caps at the poles, or in glaciers.

As you can see in the map below, the four islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa are all located with only shallow water separating them.  During the Ice Age, with the lower sea levels, these four islands were all one island, called Santa Rosae.  Also at this time, the distance from the mainland to the "mega-island" would be much smaller, making the crossing for these gray foxes much easier.  It has been theorized that Native Americans then brought the fox to the four southern islands, as hunting dogs, or perhaps even pets. 

The mainland gray fox.  Photo credit Zack Neher, taken at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

Today, the fox only lives on six of the eight islands, with distinct sub-species on each island.  The fox still inhabits the islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas, San Clemente, and Santa Catalina (often simply called Catalina Island), and is absent from the islands of Anacapa and Santa Barbara.  While Santa Barbara is too small to support the food needs of the fox, Anacapa has no consistent source of fresh water.  The fox is the largest on Catalina, and the smallest on Santa Cruz.  The foxes on the southern three islands all have become separate at different dates, with the foxes of San Clemente estimated as being the oldest (becoming isolated between 3,400 and 4,300 years ago).  The San Nicolas fox is next, at around 2,200 years ago.  Finally, the foxes of Catalina Island, between 800 and 3,800 years ago.

Even smaller than the mainland kit and swift foxes, the Channel Island is the smallest of all of North America's foxes.  Like many island animals, the Channel Island fox is labeled as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, as they don't have much territory to spread into when humans influence them.  One influence was indirect, but still devastating for the foxes.  Prior to the 1990s, the golden eagle was a rare visitor to these islands.  The bald eagle, already well established in the area, was apparently a large deterrent for the golden eagle, preventing them from settling on the island.  DDT helped to eradicate the bald eagle on the Channel Islands, and with very few bald eagles in the area, the golden eagle moved into the gap: nature abhors a vacuum!

Anyways, the golden eagle, unlike the bald eagle (who is primarily piscivorous) would, and did, hunt the Channel Island foxes; at four times the foxes size, they were most definitely a force to be reckoned with.  That, coupled with diseases brought over from the mainland by domestic dogs, such as canine distemper, have also wreaked havoc upon the fox populations.  Conservationists are currently working on a solution, and tracking the foxes with radio collars seems to be helping them learn more about the foxes, in an attempt to prepare for the future. 

Avalon on Dwellable

Denver Zoo 7/20/2012

Ok, a little off topic, I know, but please, everyone reading this blog, go see the new Batman movie.  Words fail to describe it.  Now go.

OK, back on topic.  Yesterday, a couple of friends and I visited the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  While I had already seen their new Toyota Elephant Passage, I did get to see a couple of things that I didn't get to last time, some of them not actually at the Elephant Passage.  Although some of the pictures are not very good at all, I would still like to share a few with you.  One of the most exciting things of the day was the new Amur leopard cub that was born recently.  With only around 30 individuals remaining in the wild, the Amur leopard inhabits the Primorye region of southeastern Russia, and is labeled "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.  unfortunately, all of my pictures of it were terrible.  I didn't get to see the clouded leopard (JUST LIKE LAST TIME.  DARN), but I did get to see the fishing cat!  Native to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the fishing cat is definitely one of my favorite animals.  So here are some pictures, enjoy! 

Elephant demonstration

Asian elephant catching lemons in its mouth.

The "Endangered" fishing cat.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the clouded leopard again, just like last time.  Darn. 

Downtown on Dwellable

Another Living Fossil: The Coelacanth

400 millions years ago (MYA), during the Devonian Period, life had already gained a foothold on land.  However, in the seas, unless you were at the top of the food chain, there were a lot of predators to contend with.  If you were a fish in the middle of the food chain during the Devonian, you not only had to deal with ancestors of the modern day shark, but a now-extinct group of armor-plated fish, called the Placoderms.  Some of these Placoderms, like Dunkleosteus, grew to simply enormous proportions, around 30 feet in length!  One type of fish that lived during the Devonian and was most likely preyed upon by the sharks and the Placoderms was a fish known as the Coelacanth.

The Coelacanth (SEE-lah-canth) was a relatively unassuming fish, its closest living relative being the lobe-finned fish.  Fossils of the Coelacanth have been discovered ranging from 400 MYA to around 65 MYA, coinciding with the death of the dinosaurs.  In 1938, however, when one was hauled in on a fishing net off the coast of South Africa, the temporal range of this animal was extended by 65 million years!  Today, by studying the living Coelacanth, scientists have found that the fish gives birth to live young, unlike other fish.  Further discoveries both in Africa (off the coasts of Mozambique, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania) as well as Asia, around Sulawesi, Indonesia, of living Coelacanth specimens have further widened the current geographical range of the Coelacanth.

A specimen of the Cretaceous coelacanth Coccoderma nudum from Germany.  On display at the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History on the campus of the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

Unfortunately for this living fossil, it is labeled "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN, much like yesterday's living fossil, the mountain pygmy possum.  Just like the mountain pygmy possum, conservationist groups are working towards it's protection, trying to keep fisherman from fishing in the Coelacanth's habitat.  Hopefully, humans won't be the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, for this 400 million year old fish.

Animal Spotlight: The Mountain Pygmy Possum

You've probably never heard of the mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus); few people have, it being one of Australia's many lesser known marsupials.  One of five extant (opposite of extinct, or still living today) species of pygmy possum, the mountain pygmy possum has a very interesting story about its discovery, a story that we will now look at.

The genus Burramys, the genus the mountain pygmy possum is a part of, also contains three extinct species of possum.   In fact, prior to 1966, the mountain pygmy possum had been described solely from fossils dated from the Pleistocene Epoch.  (The Pleistocene Epoch dates from around 2.5 million years ago to around 10,000 years ago, when the last Ice Age ended.)  It was first described from these Pleistocene fossils by the famous geologist/zoologist/paleontologist Robert Broom in the year 1896, and was assumed to be extinct, just like the other three members of the genus Burramys.  That is until 1966, when one showed up in a ski hut on Mount Hotham, a mountain in New South Wales, southern Australia, and home to the Hotham Alpine Resort.

Since this surprising discovery, scientists have located three populations of the Mountain Pygmy Possum in different spots in southern Australia.  Although it is exciting to discover a species that was previously thought to be extinct, it is saddening to find out that this animal has a wild population of a mere 2,000 individuals, and is labeled "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN.  Means have been taken to protect the mountain pygmy possum, including the so-called "Tunnel of Love," a little possum-path that granted the males better access to the female habitat, and helping to reduce fatal encounters with automobiles.

Works Cited:

Mountain Pygmy Possum. (n.d.). - Just another global2.vic.edu.au weblog. Retrieved June 29, 2012, from http://teacherrsc.global2.vic.edu.au/

Dinner Plain on Dwellable