Every few years biologists struggling to understand the evolutionary constraints placed on the largest and smallest of animals happen upon — usually by accident– a new contender. But that little creature then gets replaced by the next littlest critter. The competition goes on and biologists now find themselves measuring the smallest spined animals in tenths of millimeters.

The latest find is a miniature frog that can rest on a dime with plenty of room to spare. He (the males holds the tiny title right now) breaks a long-held theory that the biggest animals (blue whales) and the smallest (this frog or a tiny fish) all are linked to life in the water.

The idea is that the buoyancy of water offers support and helps the largest and smallest animals develop.

The new frogs to the phylogenetic fete reside in leaf litter on the floor of the tropical rainforest in Papua New Guinea. And instead of hatching into tadpoles in water they hop out of their eggs as fully formed frogs.

Tiniest animal, Paedophryne amauensis, Sits on a US Dime

So with discovery of tiny terrestrial frogs, the aquatic extreme theory apparently doesn’t hold water after all.

Chris Austin, the Louisiana State University biolgist who found the frog says, “The size limit of vertebrates, or creatures with backbones, is of considerable interest to biologists because little is understood about the functional constraints that come with extreme body size, whether large or small.”

But he wouldn’t have found the frog if it weren’t for its infernal high-pitched mating call.

In August 2009 Austin and graduate student Eric Rittmeyer were collecting and recording frog mating calls at night. They kept hearing a high-pitched “tink, tink” sound they assumed belonged to an insect.

Austin says the sound was all around them and it took a little while to determine where it was coming from. Once they narrowed the search to a pile of leafs on the forest floor, they grabbed big handfuls of habitat and stuck them into a plastic bag. Then they had the tedious task of slowly and methodically removing all the leaves to find the loud caller.

When he saw a tiny frog hop onto a leaf he knew he’d found the source of the sound. Weighing in at barely nothing and measuring 7.7 millimeters Austin had discovered the world’s tiniest vertebrate, named Paedophryne amauensis.

But that’s not the end of the frog tale.

Indonesian Carp, Paedocypris progenetica, World's Tiniest Fish

Male Anglerfish, Photocorynus spiniceps, Vies for World's Smallest Distinction

During the New Guinea expedition, Austin believes the researchers found about 20 new species species on that trip, including another related frog species that is just a millimeter or two larger and has a different call. The paper announcing the discovery of the tiniest frog appears in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Steven Beaupre, a University of Arkansas scientist and president-elect of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists says he doesn’t put too much stock in this type of record-setting announcement. He says it is far more interesting to view this and similar discoveries as a way to “better understand the advantages and disadvantages of extreme small size and how such extremes evolve. Fundamentally, these tiny vertebrates provide a window on the principles that constrain animal design.”

Whether the tiniest creature with a spine is a frog or a fish is rather inconsequential to biology. But Beaupre says what is remarkable is that “the discovery of two new frog species comes as great news against the background of more prevalent accounts of tropical amphibian extinction.”

Maurice Kottelat, the Swiss scientist who found the tiniest Indoesian carp says, “It is not so interesting to know which is really the smallest. Tomorrow will bring another smallest anyway.”

And his concern is not over who is known as the biologist who found the tiniest animal.

Since the discovery of his tiny fish Paedocypris progenetica in 2006, he says most of the habitat in the peat swamps of Indonesia where the fish live has been destroyed. He adds, “I have a great concern. It is not when will we discover the next smallest, but whether habitats where to discover them will still be there. Or how long will the habitats survive.”

It turns out the Dead Sea isn’t so dead after all. Microscopic life is thriving in the super salty environment, according to new findings by a German and Israeli team of scientists. They found new species of life in freshwater fissures in the seafloor.

Fresh, bubbling water containing the ingredients to support life in harsh environments has revealed new types of microorganisms never before seen. Scientists aren’t sure if the organisms have adapted to the salty environment or to the freshwater. Their research in that area is just beginning.

Danny Lonescu from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany led a team of ten researchers who camped along the shores of the Dead Sea and did daily dives to locate the source of freshwater discharge.

They noticed ripples near shore indicating that something was bubbling up. When they dove to investigate they found a set of springs. After analyzing the water in a makeshift lab, they found micro bits of life, which was thought to be impossible in the Dead Sea. Even during the dives, the high salt content in the water burned the divers and forced them to take extra precautions. Prevailing scientific wisdom says that no life can thrive in this harsh, salty environment.

Since the 1930s scientists knew about freshwater springs and algae in the Dead Sea but the conditions made it almost impossible for scientific divers. So few have been able to see what lurks below the surface until now.

Christian Lott, a biologist and underwater photographer on the team says, “The interesting thing is normally the Dead Sea is thought to be dead… but here we have a huge variety of life forms that can exist in [these] adverse conditions.”

He marvels at hardiness of the extremophiles that inhabit the Dead Sea.

Dr. Lott says, “After a week of diving we get burns, we get bruises, our skin is getting bad and these bugs just live right there – they love it, it’s heaven for them.”

Just as the scientists have made this discovery, they are worried that evaporation of the land-locked sea will spoil their find. Every year the Dead Sea recedes by about 3.3 feet.

Dive with Christian Lott into the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth.

According to a new study it could take 1,200 years, 300,000 researchers and $364 billion to identify and catalog all the species on Earth.

New research in the online journal PLoS Biology, a publication of the Public Library of Science uses a new way of calculating just how many plants and animals inhabit Earth. So far of the estimated 8.8 million we have discovered just 1.9 million.

Recent discoveries have been small and weird. They include a psychedelic frogfish, a dime-sized lizard and a blind, hairy lobster found on the ocean floor near Antarctica. Some scientists are actively searching for species to fill in the big gaps on the species pyramid. Others just happen across new species.

Describing the wild world in which we live biologist and study co-author Boris Worm from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia says, “We are fairly ignorant of the complexity and colorfulness of this amazing planet.”

Scientists from the U.S. and Canada who are part of the Census of Marine Life released the study this week. It found the previous estimate of global species a bit too difficult to pin down. The range of 3 million to 100 million didn’t sit well and researchers have been trying to narrow the number.

Using a new computer modeling method Dr. Worm and Camilo Mora from the University of Hawaii now believe the number to be somewhere between 7.5 million and 10.1 million. Even with the more improved method for counting the study admits it could be off by as much as 1.3 million.

In 1758 Carl Linnaeus built the system that is still used today to name, describe and catalog species. In the 253 years since, about 1.25 million species — roughly 1 million on land and 250,000 in the oceans — have been described and entered into central databases. But there are about 700,000 more species that have yet to reach the central databases. They are sitting in limbo between discovery and classification, many waiting patiently in backroom of major museums like the Smithsonian.

Based on the new way of estimating the number of species on Earth, the biologists estimate there are 6.5 million species found on land and 2.2 million or 25 percent living in the ocean depths. They suggest that about 86 percent of all species on land and 91 percent of those in the seas have yet to be discovered, described and catalogued.

According to the Associated Press, evolutionary biologist Blair Hedges from Penn State University says the new study isn’t good enough and could be off by millions. He thinks there are many tiny species lurking in corners of the unexplored Earth. And he should know. In 2001 while rooting around in dead leaves in the Dominican Republic in 2001 he found the world’s smallest lizard, a half-inch long Caribbean gecko. And then in 2008 he discovered a four-inch snake in Barbados that lays a very long egg.

Who Cares?

Scientists don’t want to classify every living creature on Earth just for the sake of saying they did it. They are trying to identify new species which could potentially have benefits for humans, ranging from medicine to climate adaptation.

Famed biologist E.O. Wilson says undiscovered species need to be found before they disappear taking possible cures with them. He says, “We won’t know the benefits to humanity from these species, which potentially are enormous.”

In order to advance medical and other science he says we need to know what’s in the environment.

Dr. Mora says, “Many species may vanish before we even know of their existence, of their unique niche and function in ecosystems, and of their potential contribution to improved human well-being.”

Lord Robert May, a past president of the British Royal Society praised the new system for estimating species numbers. He says, “It is a remarkable testament to humanity’s narcissism that we know the number of books in the U.S. Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you — to within an order-of-magnitude — how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with.”

But fledgling projects like the Census of Marine Life and the Encyclopedia of Life are trying to speed the process given that human activity appears to be hastening the demise of habitats that could contain undiscovered species.

If the 8.8 million number is right, Erick Mata says, “Those are brutal numbers.” The executive director for the Encyclopedia of Life says even with an accelerated rate of discovery, “We could spend the next 400-500 years trying to document the species that actually inhabit our planet.”

Do Something that Counts

The International Union for Conservation of Nature monitors 59,508 species and classifies 19,625 as somehow threatened. Right now this is the most sophisticated system for monitoring known species and it is only looking at about one percent of the entire list.

That’s where citizen scientists come in. Scientists believe that some of the yet-to-be-discovered species could be found in our own backyards.

What will you do to help find, describe and catalog species that scientists discover?

The growing garbage problem may have a new solution–fungus that eats plastic. For years mounting mounds of plastic have been choking landfills and polluting the ocean. Now an annual undergraduate trip to the rain forest may have found a solution to the plastic problem.

Unleashing creativity in science sometimes has amazing results. That’s what a group of Yale students discovered after they took a trip to the Amazon rainforest in search of fungus that could hold medical or scientific promise. Upon their return they tested the fungus to see if they could detect any biological activity.

One undergrad started the project in 2010 and then graduated. Another 2011 participant in the Yale Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course picked up where she left off and that led to the isolation and discovery of an enzyme in a fungus that helps degrade polyurethane and turns it back into carbon.

Dr. Scott Strobel says, “The average third grader asks all kinds of great questions; they probe, poke and manipulate. Then somewhere around fourth grade we drive the interest in science right out of these kids. People conclude they can’t do science, but in reality they have been doing science all their lives.”

He teamed up with Howard Hughes Medical Institute to create the class and create opportunities for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to the real world. HHMI gave a $1 million grant to fund the program for four years.

Yale biochemist Kaury Kucera is a post doctorate researcher who co-leads the annual rainforest trek. She told the New Haven Register, “We take 15 undergraduates into the Ecuadorean rain forest and collect plant samples.”

Each year, students collect organisms called endophytes found in rainforest plants and then take them back to New Haven to test them for biological activity. The whole program is student-generated so they decide what they want to study. Once back in the lab, students analyze the endophytes that show biological activity to see whether they might have any medical or other practical use.

In 2008 Pria Anand was part of the trip to Ecuador where she gathered plants and later extracted part of a fungus to test its affect on plastic. Her goal was to help reduce the piles that are swelling in landfills, also known as bioremediation. She graduated in 2010 before getting the results she wanted.

Jeffrey Huang in the same class was studying which endophytes were most effective at breaking down chemical bonds.

This year, Jonathan Russell tested one of Huang’s best endophytes on Anand’s bioremdiation task. From there Russell focused on locating the enzyme in the fungus that is most effective on breaking down plastic.

All three undergrads are listed as lead authors on the forthcoming paper Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

This is not the first time a particular agent has broken down polyurethane. But this enzyme can operate in an oxygen-free zone, such as those found underground in landfills.

Since the discovery students in another class are looking at different endophytes to see which if any will be most effective at dissolving polystyrene or styrofoam, one substance that is designed to stick around indefinitely.

Two different Yale students in the 2009 Rainforest Expedition class have had other fungal breakthroughs which could lead to a new “myco-diesel” biofuel and another which could protect agricultural farms from pathogens.

Breaking Down the Degradation of Common Items in Landfills

Decomposition Timeline, from Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, WA, photo by: Hadley Maris

*Undergraduates at Yale are working to find enzymes in rainforest fungus to reduce the decomposition timeline

Biologists from the California Academy of Sciences and its counterpart in the Philippines have found over 300 new species of animal life, both on land and in the sea.

Ranging from a starfish that only eats sunken driftwood to an inflatable shark, scientists say that over 90% of the world species have yet to be discovered.

But the purpose of this expedition of discovery to the Philippine island of Luzon was to find unique habitats and species in an effort to preserve land that is being rapidly developed and to expand protected marine sanctuaries.

Using sophisticated DNA sequencing and old-fashioned looking under a microscope, scientists will compare the new candidate species to vast databases of existing species to see just how many are really new to science.

Terrence Gosliner, the head of research collections at California Academy of Sciences says, “The Philippines is one of the hottest of the hotspots for diverse and threatened life on Earth.”

On a six-week expedition this spring, biologists hiked through the land and dove beneath the waves in search of new species. Despite being known for its rich biodiversity, the area is relatively unstudied. The Philippines is one point of the Coral Triangle, an area rich is sea life biodiversity stretching from Indonesia to New Guinea.

For all the scientists involved in the project, the most shocking revelation was the amount of garbage the teams found. They repeatedly said they found more trash than life. Divers even found barnacles that had apparently adapted to an underwater plastic environment. Even in 6,000 feet of water, they found plastic coating the ocean floor.

According to MSNBC.com’s Alan Boyle, “Among the suspected new species are dozens of types of insects and spiders, deep-sea corals, sea pens, sea urchins and more than 50 kinds of sea slugs.”

Scientists say they also came across a new kind of cicada that makes a distinctive “laughing” call.

In addition to protecting as yet undiscovered species from extinction before their existence is recognized, many species, including several sea slugs have been identified as key ingredients in future commercial drugs. Other species hold unknown solutions to problems we can only just imagine, which makes protecting biodiversity a key goal of this project.

Poisonous Sea Urchin in Philippines, photo by Terry Gosliner

This video from May 2010 tells the tale of a gray whale lost, half a world away from home. Biologists immediately thought it was a hoax but after studying the 43-foot whale more closely they discovered that it must have gotten off it’s north-south Pacific Ocean migration track thanks to an ice-free Arctic a couple of summers ago.

Now, new research stemming from this historic sighting off the coast of Israel in the eastern Mediterranean has scientists suggesting that climate change is opening up the fabled Northwest Passage — not just to boaters and geo-political interest — but to animals and plants.

According to seabed core samples, plankton previously not spotted in the Atlantic for 800,000 first re-appeared in the Labrador Sea in 1999 and then in the Gulf of St. Lawrence two years later. Now it has taken root and spread as far south as New York.

Scientists see this one example of a wayward whale and the proliferation of ocean greenery as a clear sign that something is changing in the Arctic.

In a new report which is part of the larger CLAMER project about oceans and climate change, researchers say the lone gray whale’s presence in the Mediterranean “coincides with a shrinking of Arctic Sea ice due to climate change and suggests that climate change may allow gray whales to re-colonize the North Atlantic.”

During the 1800s the Atlantic population of gray whales was hunted to extinction. Only two populations of the endangered species exist, a small pod in the western Pacific and a larger group in the eastern Pacific, from which the whale in Israel was believed to be a member.

The Northwest Passage is a route through the freezing northern Canadian archipelago and has been sought after for explorers for over 500 years. Until recently it was considered the “fabled Northwest Passage” because it was locked in ice year-round. But in 1998 and again in 2007 the passage was ice-free for a brief time during the summer from end to end. That’s when marine biologists expect the whale went through.

Phillip Reid, a senior plankton research fellow at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth, England told the Associated Press, “The implications are enormous. It’s a threshold that has been crossed.”

Since the North Pacific and the North Atlantic have been virtually shut off to one another, each has developed its own biosystem. Reid says the last time there was a major incursion from the Pacific to the Atlantic was about 2 million years ago. That had a huge impact on the Atlantic, driving some species to extinction as the new arrivals dominated and won in the competition for food.

Reid’s study on plankton and the gray whale are part of almost 300 papers written over the last 13 years that are being synthesized and published as a book and documentary this year by the CLAMER project.

Right now the migration of one gray whale and two species of plankton is not much of a concern to Reid. But he says, “It’s the potential for further ones to come through if the Arctic opens. That’s the key message.”

Plankton is at the bottom of the food chain and is a major source of nutrients for many fish species. Scientists have studied the relationship between plankton and fish stocks for many years and they note that changes in plankton often coincide with big swings in fish stocks.

In the North Sea, studies have blamed changes in plankton for threats to fish-eating birds and the collapse of some fish stocks.

Katja Philippart from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research says changes in the ocean’s chemistry and temperature have grave impacts on fisheries, especially as species move northward searching for cooler waters.

Philippart heads the European Union-funded CLAMER project. She says, “We try to put the information on the table for people who have to make decisions.” She told the AP, “We don’t say whether it’s bad or good. We say there is a high potential for change.”

Even though since the mid-1990s intrepid adventurer sailors have tried to penetrate the treacherous trail through the Northwest Passage just a handful of people have successfully navigated their way from end to end when the sea ice retreats enough to allow safe passage. It stands to reason that if people are able to do this with some effort, then animals and plants are too.

After swimming off the coast of Israel for a few weeks, the gray whale who appeared malnourished and “not in good shape” according to researchers, was spotted near Spain 23 days later. But that’s the last report. No one has seen the whale 2010.

First, physicist Dr. Michio Kaku looks back over the natural disasters that rocked the world and does some future disaster forecasting as well.

2010 started with a major earthquake that killed 200,000 and 3 million homeless in Haiti. Then later in the year a gigantic quake in Chile knocked the Earth off its axis and shortened our 24-hour day by one micro-second. Dr. Kaku insists that the planet is not trying to seek revenge on the human species, which has also been very busy this year.

Top Bio Stories

According to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News 2010 was a big year for biology. Last year third-generation gene sequencers came to market which opened the door to generate DNA sequences as well as epigenetic information with single-molecule sensitivity in real time. This was also the year that synthetic biology became mainstream. J. Craig Venter created a bacteria from scratch, making Synthia the first fully synthetic, self-replicating cell.

2010 Also saw the gene patent wars heat up. In the Spring a New York court declared the patent on the breast cancer genes BRCA1 and 2 invalid. This case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court before it’s finished but the Justice Department now supports the lower court’s ruling, saying that naturally occurring phenomena such as genes should not be subject to intellectual property laws.

Stem cells, aging and cancer rounded out a full year for biotech. After President Obama repealed former President Bush’s ban on research involving embryonic stem cells this year a federal court judge placed the future of embryonic stem cell research in limbo again.

After all the excitement about the anti-aging benefits of sirtuins, the chemical found in red wine, is still not well understood. A couple of drug candidates involving the activator and inhibitor are in clinical trials but haven’t made the medical strides they promised last year.

A cancer vaccine called Provenge made it to market this year to help treat prostate cancer. Several other treatments are in late stage clinical trials and could be ready next year.

Top Physics and Space stories

One of the most inspiring space endeavors to finish a rocky trip in 2010 was the Japanese Hayabusa mission. It rendezvoused with asteroid Itokawa in 2005 after being pummeled by a large solar flare in 2003. The goal was to gather dust from the asteroid and bring it back to Earth.

After all the technical mishaps Japanese researchers didn’t hold much faith that the probe would return with any dust. But after a triumphant return to Earth in June, a few specks of the asteroid were identified. Now scientists have another tool to understand the beginnings of our solar system.

But 2010 was all about space water. Remember water on Mars? That was so last year. This year confirmed water on the moon and on one of Saturn’s moons.

Saturn's Moon Enceladus, as viewed from NASA's Cassini Spacecraft

The ever-impressive NASA Cassini Equinox mission continues to blow us away with amazing imagery from the Saturnian system, including what appears to be liquid water shooting from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The spacecraft has been orbiting the ringed gas giant since 2004, buzzing past its many moons and delivering some of the most detailed observations of this iconic planet we have ever seen.

But closer to home, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found that the moon not only has water ice stored in the shadows of its deepest and darkest craters, but there appears to be a lot of water just below the surface.

Discovery News asks how much water is there.

Writer Ian O’Neill says, “Bucketloads. 600 million gallons stashed away in 40 craters as measured by a NASA instrument that flew on board the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission. But how much water is 600 million gallons? That’s enough water to fulfill Seattle’s water needs for a whole year… or enough water to manufacture 588 billion bags of Cool Ranch Doritos (according to one commenter who obviously has way too much time on his hands).”

(Artist rendering of moon landing...not a real picture)

2010 was the year that President Obama canceled the Constellation manned space program and scrapped plans to go to the moon. But it was also the year that commercial space flight became a reality. Leading the way into space is Virgin Galactic. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are helping to privatize the space industry and will be fulfilling space services for NASA once the shuttle program is retired in early 2011.

But the biggest space story of the year was happening right here on Earth. Or rather under the Earth at the European nuclear science lab CERN. There particle physicists in search of the elusive Higgs Boson or God particle have successfully trapped antimatter for the first time.

Physicists capture antihydrogen for the first time in 2010

Capturing antihydrogen will allow physicists to study the beginning of the universe and try to figure out why if both matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts during the Big Bang that matter is all that mattered for its formation.

Top Stories by Accident

Science makes some its greatest discoveries through accidental encounters and without looking. A few stories found their way to us that way this year, mostly from the animal kingdom.

The most distressing story resulted from pictures of oil covered seabirds struggling in the slimy Gulf of Mexico after the BP Horizon Deepwater oil rig explosion and disaster. Months later, clean up efforts are still underway and scientists are looking at long term consequences of the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

But across the world, a two-foot long isopod — that looks like something Hollywood cooked up for a sci-fi movie — hitched a ride to the surface aboard a deep sea submarine, giving the world a glimpse of this rare giant creature.

Deep Ocean Submarine Finds Giant Hitchiking Isopod

In Mono Lake, California, NASA says that a form of life, never before found on Earth, is thriving. This potato-shaped microbe is not proof of aliens among us but it is a big deal for scientists.

NASA’s announcement on Thursday of radical new bacteria that survive by incorporating arsenic instead of phosphorus into its DNA has shifted what scientists consider necessary for life to exist.

This is opening up the possibility of life existing on other planets previously thought inhospitable for life as we know it. Researchers now plan to take a closer look at Mars for this new arsenic-loving bacteria.

Marine biologists believe they have discovered several new species of underwater creatures, including sponges, corals and sea stars

A little green frog is causing big problems across Hawaii, where the coqui has become the latest invasive species to get a strong foothold.

But Hawaii may be the only place experiencing a surging frog population. Around the world, frogs are dying in droves from a fungus called a chytrid.

What can we learn from the little coqui?

Last week, after 17 years of secrecy, scientists announced they had found the oldest example of the human lineage. Her name is Ardi, short for Ardipithecus ramidus, and she is a 4.4 million year old fossil.

Ardi was found in the famous Rift Valley of Ethiopia, where other fossils, like Lucy were discovered. Its unique geology pushes fossils to the surface where torrential flash floods both preserve specimens and uncover them.

Now scientists are trying to find the common ancestor that both humans and chimpanzees shared. They believe the two lines diverged sometime between 7 and 8 million years ago.

A Yeast Cell with Synthetic Genes, courtesy of Dr. Pamela Silver, Harvard Medical School

Life is often stranger than fiction. But the direction that biology is heading, synthetic life could be stranger than science fiction.

The emerging field of synthetic biology is moving closer and closer to creating new forms of life in the lab.

Amy Wright Collects Samples While Diving, courtesy of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University

Cures to the most mundane and deadly illnesses have been found deep in the jungles, high in the mountains and hidden in the rainforests. But until recently not many scientists were looking to the ocean as another source of medicine.

But sponges, coral, snails and other marine creatures have a lot to offer the medical community. The small molecules that make them so adaptive to their harsh environments could give medical science an edge in fighting cancer, chronic pain and auto-immune diseases.

Story written and produced by Michelle Ma

Deep sea coral reefs found just several decades ago off the United States’ southeastern coast hold promise for the discoveries of new species and cures for cancer and other diseases. But the reefs may face danger from energy exploration–whether it’s wind, wave or oil.

A new fossil in the ever-growing list of incremental species that outline the history of human evolution may not be the missing link after all. A week after Ida’s debut on the paleontological scene, scientists are taking a closer look at her place in our phylogenetic map.

A new documentary on the History Channel called The Link reveals the 47-million-year-old fossil for the first time, following its blockbuster announcement on May 19 in New York City.

The exclusive agreement with the independent production company required two years of secrecy, which bucks scientific convention when it comes to big discoveries.

Not everyone is pleased with how Ida is being elevated to rock star status, among other fossil ancestors, like Lucy. P.Z. Myers over at Pharyngula is especially incensed.

History Channel’s IDA THE LINK EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW

They look like the animated robots, called Furbys, from the 1990s. And, they could be mistaken for the fictional gremlins.

But pygmy tarsiers are real. And, much to the surprise of many scientists, they are not extinct.

They are alive and well in the mountainous region of one island in Indonesia.

The deep sea is about as understood and explored as outer space. And, it is home to alien lifeforms that look otherworldly.

An international research team is sailing back from an expedition to the bottom of the North Atlantic where they discovered new sea creatures and realized a long-term dream.

How would you like to see a sea creature with your name? The Scripps Oceanographic Institute is allowing donors to name some newly discovered ocean animals and fish.

If the price is right, a sea slug could get your name. The naming program is a new twist on an old fundraising idea. Contact the Scripps Development Office for more information.

A new family of anglerfish might be added to the history books. The new species of frog fish, as they are commonly known, is found around Indonesian coral reefs. It looks like something you’d see in the mind of glass artist Dale Chihuly. With its flat face and wrinkled skin its an unusual sea creature in a bizarre ocean world.

To see more frog fish pics go to www.divingmaluku.com.

A super synthesizing microbe is turning trash into gold. Or at least sugar which can be refined into biofuel. That’s almost as good as gold these days.

A census of life at the bottom of Southern Ocean near Antarctica is revealing odd creatures — ranging from new fish, glass-like sea creatures called tunicates and giant sea spiders. After a recent 20-day collection trip, scientists announced that 25% of the animals they found were new to science.

Dr. Quentin Wheeler is legitimately the bug guy at Arizona State University but he has become famous for his clever naming of the insects rather than for his discoveries.

Scientists in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum. The rat is about five times the size of a normal city rat and the possum is now among the world’s smallest marsupials. This is the first time either animal has been seen. Biologists believe more new species are left to be found on this lush island nation.

Just in time for the Holidays. Cats that glow under ultraviolet light. Researchers in South Korea have successfully inserted a fluorescent gene into cloned cats. The purpose is to show that cats can be created with genetic disorders to be better studied and to find cures to human hereditary diseases.

A rare rodent has just been caught on video. It looks like a mouse but with giant ears. And, it hops like a kangaroo. It lives in Mongolia and could be threatened by a common predator—the house cat.

Life used to fit into two categories. Plant or animal. Then we got complicated. Now we have three domains for all life. Bacteria, eukaryotes (plants, people and everything in between) and archaea. Archaea looks like a bacteria but its DNA is different. Now from the depths of Canada comes proof that archaea has been around for billions of years.

As more and more biologists are worried about mass extinctions, a group of researchers has just discovered a treasure trove of new plant and animal species in an unlikely place–the war-torn Congo.

The International team of researchers plumbing the 2.5-mile depths of the Arctic Ocean didn’t find what they were looking for—exactly. But they didn’t come up empty-handed either.

An extraordinarily rare sea creature has just been spotted off the coast of Washington state. Believed to be extinct for 100 million years the reef-building glass sponge is thriving in the chilly Pacific, out in the open ocean.

courtesy of NSF

Washington state will not be the home to the world’s deepest underground science lab. That distinction is going to South Dakota where scientists in the not too distant future will conduct research on dark energy, earthquakes and micro organisms.

Douglas Kennett

A controversial new theory about the disappearance of Clovis man and 35 North American animal species is making waves in geology circles. Two University of Oregon anthropologists are part of a group of 26 who think a comet crashed into Earth 13,000 years ago, causing a major global freeze. Now all they have to do is prove it.