Alien snakes invading the US

National Geographic reports that alien (as in non-native) snakes threaten to invade the lowest third of the US according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Alien Giant Snakes Threaten to Invade Up to 1/3 of U.S.

Nine species of giant snakes—none of them native to North America and all popular pets among reptile lovers—could wreak havoc on U.S. ecosystems if the snakes become established in the wild, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (pictures of giant snakes mentioned in the study).

These snakes come to the US as pets, but when they became too hard to maintain, their owners let them out in the free, allowing them to breed.

I cannot fathom why people can't get into their thick heads that releasing non-native animals into the wild is a horribly bad idea. Australia has many prime examples of this, but it's not like the US doesn't have similar examples, e.g. the European starlings.

If you cannot take care of your non-native animal, make sure to get someone else to take it off you, or have it put down. The last suggestion might sound rough, but it's much better than creating havoc in the local ecosystem.

The Human Family Tree | Interactive - National Geographic Channel

Interesting interactive page at National Geographic about how closely related humans really are.

Explore the haplogroups from participants in the National Geographic Channel show The Human Family Tree.

View >>

Undead spiders!

OK, lame title, but I couldn't help myself.

What it refers to, is an interesting piece of science news over at National Geographic, which reports on some new findings related to spiders.

Spider "Resurrections" Take Scientists by Surprise

Like zombies, spiders in a lab twitched back to life hours after "drowning"—and the scientists were as surprised as anyone.

The spiders, it seems, enter comas to survive for hours underwater, according to a new study.

The unexpected discovery was made during experiments intended to find out exactly how long spiders can survive underwater—a number of spiders and insects have long been known to be resistant to drowning.

I wasn't aware of this, but some spider species apparently take a long time to drown (we're talking 24 to 36 hours here), and the researchers were trying to find out exactly how long it took for these spiders to drown.

After the spiders had drowned, the researchers wanted to dry out the spiders, so they could weight them. This is when they found out that they spiders hadn't really drowned, but rather had gone into some kind of coma. After a fairly short while, the spiders started moving again, and after a couple of hours they were recovered.

So, just how long time does it take to really drown these things?

According to the article, the study should be in Biology Letters, but I wasn't able to locate it at the website.

Short news, endangered species edition

While browsing around on National Geographic I came across two pieces of news related to endangered species.

Guantanamo's Wild Side: Huge Boas, "Banana Rats," More

It turns out that the US military base at Guantanamo Bay is the home of a lot of wildlife, much of which is endangered, or at least threatened. They obviously don't live in the prison camp, but in the military base as a whole, specially the more remote parts.

6,000 Rare, Large River Dolphins Found in Bangladesh

A previously unknown population of Irrawaddy dolphins discovered in Bangladesh has given scientists "great hope" for the survival of the rare species, conservationists said Wednesday.

A research team estimated that 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins thrive in the country's Sundarbans mangrove forests and nearby waters of the Bay of Bengal.

This is obviously great news as well, and we can hope it's possible to protect this population, to ensure the survival of the species.

Preventing extinction

National Geographic has a good article about how preventing extinction requires protection of habitats.

Last One

In the United States as elsewhere, stopping the countdown to extinction means preserving healthy habitats—the aim of the celebrated and scorned Endangered Species Act.

The focus of the article is the US Endangered Species Act, which is aimed at protecting the habitats of endangered species, but the problems it mentions are global.

One of the things the article mentions is that the more iconic animals are easier to protect than the less "sexy" animals. Panda bears are cute, and an icon for animals close to extinction, yet there are other animals who are as close to extinction as they are, without receiving any focus whatsoever.

A thing I would have liked the article to mention, is the role of invasive species, when it comes to driving plants and animals to extinction. One way of loosing your habitat is for someone else to take it over, and while this might not be the worst problem in the US, it has had serious impact in other countries, including Australia, where imported animals such as rabbits, foxes, rats, and cats, is a huge problem.

Good article about Neanderthals in National Geographic

National Geographic has a long article on Neanderthals, describing how they died out, perhaps due to the invasion of homo sapient, and what research has been done into understanding them better.

One noteworthy thing about the article, is the image the use. It is a picture of how neanderthals might have looked, based upon DNA-analysis. A far cry from the old well-known image.

Walking upright for 6 million years

National Geographic brings us the news that research indicated that our ancestors might have been walking upright for as long as six million years ago.

6-Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor 1st to Walk Upright?

An analysis of six-million-year-old bones from an early human ancestor that lived in what is now Kenya suggests that the species was the earliest known hominin to walk, a new study says.

The study that the National Geographic article refers to can be found here (behind the paywall at Science), and an Science article about it can be found here (again behind the paywall).

I can't really add anything to this, so please go read the articles.