#phys.org

[todaysbat]

Street smarts: Cooper's hawk uses pedestrian crossing signal to ambush urban prey

A University of Tennessee researcher documented an immature Cooper's hawk using vehicle traffic and pedestrian signal patterns as concealmen

[briery]

The Amazonian rainforest was transformed over two thousand years ago by ancient people who built hundreds of large, mysterious earthworks. (Hi-Res).

[folklorehorse]

Owners' belief in horse emotion is linked to healthier animals, new study shows

Researchers have shown that owners who believe in their horses' emotions and treat them with care, have animals that are significantly healt

[normal-news]

Two new snail species named after Tolkien characters

Researchers have named two newly discovered freshwater snail species from Brazil after characters from "The Lord of the Rings."

[toadschooled]

Six new species of tiny frog discovered in Mexico

Scientists have discovered six new species of frog the size of a thumbnail in the forests of Mexico, with one earning the distinction of Mexico's smallest frog.

All six species are smaller than a British 1p coin—around 15mm long—when fully grown. Adult males of the tiniest of these species, named Craugastor candelariensis, grow to only 13mm.

The newly discovered species are known as 'direct-developing' frogs: rather than hatching from eggs into tadpoles like most frogs, they emerge from the eggs as perfect miniature frogs. And they're so small that they're right at the bottom of the forest food chain.

The discovery, by researchers at the University of Cambridge, London's Natural History Museum, and the University of Texas at Arlington, is published in the journal Herpetological Monographs.

"Until now these new species have gone unnoticed because they're small and brown and look really similar to other frogs," said Tom Jameson, a researcher at the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, who led the study.

The study involved gathering almost 500 frog specimens from museums around the world, which had been collected in Mexico, and using new methods to categorize the relationships between them.

The new species have been named Craugastor bitonium, Craugastor candelariensis, Craugastor cueyatl, Craugastor polaclavus, Craugastor portilloensis, and Craugastor rubinus. Jameson is particularly pleased with the name cueyatl—it means 'frog' in the indigenous language, Nahuatl, spoken in the Valley of Mexico where this species was found.

"We chose the name cueyatl to honor the rich human history of the Valley of Mexico, and the local people who have probably known these frogs far longer than we have," he said.

Known as 'micro-endemics', some of the newly discovered frogs may occur only in one small area, such as a hilltop in a certain part of Mexico. This makes them incredibly vulnerable.

"We named Craugastor rubinus after the garnet mines in the hillside where they're found," said Jameson. "Sadly, it will only take the expansion of one mine and these frogs could be gone.”

Read more here: https://phys.org/news/2022-04-species-tiny-frog-mexico.html

[art-of-mathematics]

A new theory of quantum subsystems

A new theory of quantum subsystems

When studying a complex system, scientists identify smaller pieces called subsystems that they can make sense of. By studying subsystems and

[reaperlight]

Chernobyl black frogs reveal evolution in action

The accident at reactor four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 generated the largest release of radioactive material into the env

[anthroposcenarios]

"The biosphere figured out how to host life by itself billions of years ago by creating systems for moving around nitrogen and transporting carbon," Frank says. "Now we have to figure out how to have the same kind of self-maintaining characteristics with the technosphere."

Can a planet have a mind of its own?

The collective activity of life—all of the microbes, plants, and animals—have changed planet Earth.