Newly-Described Bird Species is Endemic to Indonesian Island

Newly-Described Bird Species is Endemic to Indonesian Island

Zosterops is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the family Zosteropidae. First introduced in 1827, the genus comprises over 100 species distributed in the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian regions. These birds are supreme island colonizers, which is why so many different white-eye species have evolved so rapidly, as different island populations […]

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Scientist under attack after he kills bird that took decades to find

Scientist under attack after he kills bird that took decades to find

For Christopher Filardi of the American Museum of Natural History, there is nothing like the thrill of finding a mysterious species. Such animals live at the intersection of myth and biology – tantalising researchers with the prospect that they may be real, but eluding trustworthy documentation and closer study. Indeed, last month, Filardi waxed poetic […]

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New species of ‘hog-nosed’ rat discovered in Indonesia

New species of ‘hog-nosed’ rat discovered in Indonesia

Victorian scientists have discovered a new mammal, the hog-nosed rat, with features not been seen by science before. Hyorhinomys stuempkei was previously undocumented in any scientific collection. The rodent was found by a team of scientists from Museum Victoria, Louisiana State University and the Dutch Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in a remote, mountainous forest of Mount […]

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‘Golden jackals’ of East Africa are actually ‘golden wolves’

‘Golden jackals’ of East Africa are actually ‘golden wolves’

Despite their remarkably similar appearance, the “golden jackals” of East Africa and Eurasia are actually two entirely different species. The discovery, based on DNA evidence and reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 30, increases the overall biodiversity of the Canidae—the group including dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals—from 35 living species to […]

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