Chile: More than 100 new species found in underwater mountains

A squat lobster documented in coral at a depth of 669 meters on Seamount JF2.

Some 3000 meters underwater off the coast of Chile, striking purple, green, and orange sponges burst from the rocks. Sea urchins with maroon spines gather in colonies, while poppy-colored crustaceans pick their way among them. Transparent, ghostly creatures undulate in the dark. A team of researchers captured these and dozens of other never-before-seen species—more than 100 in total—with a camera mounted to a deep-sea robot traversing largely explored underwater mountains, known as seamounts, with steep cliffs that rise from the sea floor.

A spiraling coral documented at 1419 meters deep on Seamount JF1

Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute recorded footage up to 4500 meters deep near the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges, which together stretch more than 3000 kilometers. Along with the variety of new organisms—including sponges, amphipods, urchins, crustaceans, and corals—the team mapped four seamounts in Chilean waters that were previously unknown to scientists, they report today in a press release. The tallest of these measured 3530 meters from sea floor to peak and was unofficially named Solito by the researchers.

VIDEOS:

Sources: www.science.org, schmidtocean.org

ENG/ESP: Top 10: Life´s greatest inventions- Los 10 Mayores Inventos de la Naturaleza

English Article:

1. The eye

THEY appeared in an evolutionary blink and changed the rules of life forever. Before eyes, life was gentler and tamer, dominated by sluggish soft-bodied worms lolling around in the sea. The invention of the eye ushered in a more brutal and competitive world. Vision made it possible for animals to become active hunters, and sparked an evolutionary arms race that transformed the planet. The first eyes appeared about 543 million years ago - the very beginning of the Cambrian period - in a group of trilobites called the Redlichia. Their eyes were compound, similar to those of modern insects, and probably evolved from light-sensitive pits.

Trilobites' eyes allowed them to become the first active predators, able to seek out and chase down food like no animal before them. And, unsurprisingly, their prey counter-evolved. Just a few million years later, eyes were commonplace and animals were more active, bristling with defensive armour. This burst of evolutionary innovation is what we now know as the Cambrian explosion. However, sight is not universal. Of 37 phyla of multicellular animals, only six have evolved it, so it might not look like such a great invention after all - until you stop to think. The six phyla that have vision (including our own, chordates, plus arthropods and molluscs) are the most abundant, widespread and successful animals on the planet.
Graham Lawton.

2. The brain

The evolution of brains lifted life beyond vegetation. Brains provided, for the first time, a way for organisms to deal with environmental change on a timescale shorter than generations. A nervous system allows two extremely useful things to happen: movement and memory. If  you have a nervous system that can control muscles, then you can actually move around and seek out food, sex and shelter. The simplest nervous systems are just ring-like circuits in cnidarians - the jellyfish, urchins and anemones. The next evolutionary step, which probably happened in flatworms in the Cambrian, was to add some sort of control system to give the movements more purpose. Armed with this, finding food would have been the top priority the earliest water-dwelling creatures. With brains come senses, to detect whether the world is good or bad, and a memory. Together, these let the animal monitor in real time whether things are getting better or worse. The more complex functions of the human brain - social interaction, decision-making and empathy, for example - seem to have evolved from these basic systems controlling food intake. The sensations that control what we decide to eat became the intuitive decisions we call gut instincts. The most highly developed parts of the human frontal cortex that deal with decisions and social interactions are right next to the parts that control taste and smell and movements of the mouth, tongue and gut. There is a reason we kiss potential mates - it's the most primitive way we know to check something out.

Helen Phillips.

Meet the 100 Weirdest and Most endangered Birds

The comic dodo, the stately great auk, the passenger pigeon blotting out the skies, the giant moas reigning over New Zealand: humankind has wiped out nearly 200 species of birds in the last five hundred years. Birds we'll never get back. Now, if we don't act soon we'll add many new ones to the list: birds such as the giant ibis, the plains-wanderer, and the crow honey-eater. These are just a few of the birds that appear on the long-awaited EDGE list of the world's 100 strangest and most endangered birds. 

Below are just a tiny sample of 10 of those weird and endangered bird species:

 1. 

Spoon-billed sandpiper chick. The spoon-billed sandpiper is number 11 on the list having been decimated by hunting and coastal development. Less than 200 pairs survive today. 

Photo by: Simon Buckell. 

2.

This Brilliant hummingbird is found on a single island in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. Photo by: Peter Hodum.

ENG/ESP: Bizarre Marine Criatures - Criaturas Marinas Extrañas

• Las profundidades marinas apenas se conocen, y las nuevas especies que se descubren no dejan de sorprendernos. Les dejo una pequeña muestra de las especies marinas más extrañas encontradas hasta la fecha. Ellas son:

• The deep sea is poorly known, and we not cease to surprise as new species are discovered. Below you can take a glance to  a small sample of bizarre marine species discovered.

1) Pez Ojos de Barril (en inglés: barreleye; Macropinna microstoma) del Océano Pacífico luce sus barriles de color verde altamente sensibles dentro de su cabeza transparente. es la única especie de pez del género Macropinna, perteneciente a la familia Opisthoproctidae. Miden unos 15 centímetros y es reconocible por su cabeza transparente en oposición a la opacidad del resto del cuerpo. Se encuentran entre los 600 y 800 metros de profundidad. Encima de su boca tiene dos orificios negros que por su posición pueden parecer los ojos, en cambio son sus órganos olfativos. El pez ve a través de su cráneo transparente por medio de los órganos verdes que están dentro de dicho cráneo con una visión periférica grandísima pudiéndolos mover en todas las direcciones. Son unos ojos tubulares, muy sensibles a la luz. Este hecho le permite tener un campo de visión muy amplio. Este ejemplar, descubierto vivo en 2004 en las aguas profundas frente a la costa central de California por el Instituto de Investigación de la Bahía de Monterey (siglas en inglés: MBARI), es el primer espécimen vivo de este tipo que se ecuentra con su cabeza transparente intacta. , ya se sabía de su existencia  desde 1939, sólo a partir de muestras destrozadas arrastradas a la superficie por las redes.  

Fuentes (2): 1) nationalgeographic.com

2) wikipedia (español)

1) Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) from the Pacific Ocean, showing off its highly sensitive green barrels within its clear head. It actually is the only fish species of the genus Macropinna, belonging to the family barreleyes. They measure about 15 centimeters and is recognizable by its transparent head as opposed to the opacity of the body. They are between 600 and 800 meters deep.

Over his mouth has two black holes that resemble eyes position may seem, however are their olfactory organs. The fish sees through her skull through the transparent green bodies that are within the skull with a great peripheral vision and that can be moved in all directions. Tubular eyes are very sensitive to light. This allows it to have a very wide field of view.

This specimen, discovered in 2004 living in the deep waters off the central California coast by the Research Institute Monterey Bay (MBARI), is the first live specimen of its kind with its head transparent intact. Already knew of its existence since 1939, only from broken  samples pulled to the surface by the networks.

Fonts (2): 1) nationalgeographic.com

2) wikipedia (Spanish)

Choosing a Puppy according to his/her Energy level

If you already have made the decision to adopt or buy a dog, here below you will find three (3) lists with the breeds categorized by their levels of energy. However, keep in mind that although the breed is important, is also important to interact with those puppies you are interested in to check their behavior before taking them home.

A dog’s energy level is the single most important factor to consider when choosing a dog, says celebrity dog trainer and YouTube star Zak George. 

Here’s how to evaluate a low-energy dog, a medium-energy dog, and a high-energy dog.

Figuring out a dog’s energy level is the easiest way to categorize whether or not a dog is right for you. Of course, there are other factors you might think about such as size, puppy versus an adult, and a mixed breed versus a purebred. However, energy is certainly the most important one.

So, how do you choose a dog based on energy level? We’ll outline the different levels so you can figure out where a dog fits. However, keep in mind that when first meeting many dogs, their energy is likely to be very high due to the excitement of greeting someone new. Make sure you ask the breeder or shelter worker what the energy level of the prospective dog is like during his down time. Also, try to visit the dog multiple times to get a more complete sense of what his personality is like.

Low-Energy Dogs: Level One

Because these dogs lie around most of the time, they make a great companion for a relatively inactive person. These couch potatoes require a few short daily walks, and then they’re happy snuggling next to you for the rest of the day. Low-energy dogs are not typically motivated to learn very advanced tasks, nor are they likely to be impressive athletes. However, they’ll likely make up for it in good behavior, and you won’t have to put in as much effort to train them as you would need to for a higher-energy dog.

How to spot a low-energy dog: Untrained low-energy dogs may wag their tails and come up to you, but they’re usually not the type to incessantly jump. Look for the dog who interacts with people and other dogs but does not engage in sustained, vigorous play. When considering a dog who seems to be low energy, first make sure that you rule out sickness or a recent change in the dog’s environment as the cause of his calmness. That way when you get home you won’t be in for any surprises, like finding out that the dog is actually a little Energizer bunny!

Low energy dog breeds:

In terms of gentler, less active breeds, choose from some of the following (mixed) breeds.

·         Basset Hound

·         Bloodhound

·         Bolognese

·         Bulldog

·         Cavalier King Charles Spaniel