“Mother Nature’s unknown species”

August 23, 2011 at 11:40 pm (amphibians, ancient animals, Nature's wonders, new animals, Saving endangered animals + plants, working together)
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The world’s shortest snake, the 4-inch Caribbean threadsnake that lays “a single, very long egg

Barbados Threadsnake (Leptotyphlops carlae) is a species of blind threadsnake. It is the smallest snake species currently known to exist. This member of the Leptotyphlopidae family is found on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

L. carlae was described as the snake species with the smallest adults in the world. The first scientific specimens taken by the research team were found under rocks in a forest. The snake is thought to be near the lower size limit for snakes imposed by natural selection, as young snakes need to attain a certain minimum size to find suitable food.
The average length of Leptotyphlops carlae adults is approximately 10 cm, (4 inches), with the largest specimen found to date measuring 10.4 cm (4.09 inches).[1] The snakes are said to be “as thin as spaghetti.” The photograph above shows L. carlae on a quarter dollar, a coin with a diameter of 24.26 mm (0.955 inches).
A recent study estimates that there maybe as many as 8.8 million species on Mother Earth, but man only has discovered about a quarter of them. Who knows how many unseen species may even live in and around where we work, live and play.-seen ones could be in our own backyards.
So far, only 1.9 million species have been found. Some of the newest discoveries have been small and weird: a psychedelic frogfish, a lizard the size of a dime and even a blind hairy mini-lobster at the bottom of the ocean.
We’ll look at these strange and beautiful creatures soon.
Let us know what you think.

Resources

Excerpts courtesy of   http://goo.gl/zUx5X

Excerpts courtesy of    http://goo.gl/GMl3h

Image courtesy of    http://goo.gl/1mr5M

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August 22, 2011 at 6:11 pm (ancient animals, Helping Mother /earth, Saving endangered animals + plants)
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Dear NC Supporteers

Thanks to your efforts, we’ve already defeated one of the worst attacks on our wildlife in recent memory:

the Extinction Rider that would block vital protections for walruses, wolverines and other imperiled species.

Unfortunately, all of our hard work could be undone if anti-wildlife Senators manage a backroom deal to include any of the House of Representatives’ awful anti-wildlife provisions in a comprehensive spending bill for the federal government.

We’re mobilizing our best activists in defense of our imperiled wildlife on an upcoming conference call.   Please RSVP now to join us.

Right now, your Senators are back in their home states. But when they return to Washington in just a couple of weeks, they’ll begin work on a catch-all spending bill for the federal government that could spell disaster for our wildlife.

The House of Representatives has already made their stance on wildlife protection clear.

  • Anti-wildlife Representatives have larded up the Interior spending bill with proposals that undermine imperiled species and the Endangered Species Act.
  • They’ve slashed funding for national wildlife refuges and other core conservation priorities.
  • And they’ve proposed legislation to end Mexican gray wolf recovery efforts and prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from keeping dangerous pesticides that threaten human health and wildlife out of our waters.

We’re fighting each and every one of these damaging provisions in the House. Now we need to ensure that none of these awful provisions find their way into Senate legislation.

Please take action now. Let me know that you will stand up for wildlife and keep America’s natural treasures off the chopping block.

We all know the risks of backroom deal-making, and we all know that these attacks on our natural heritage have no business in a bill to fund the federal government.

Please take action now. RSVP now for the conference call.

With Gratitude,

Caitlin Balch-Burnett, Colorado Outreach Representative Caitlin Balch Burnett
Outreach Representative
Defenders of Wildlife

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“Your needed to save Brazil’s rain forest”

August 17, 2011 at 7:30 pm (Environmental crisis, Nature's wonders, Saving endangered animals + plants, saving the environment, saving water/waterways)
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The Amazon is in serious danger:    Click here to help

Brazil is on the verge of gutting its forest protection laws —

unless we act now, vast tracts of our planet’s lungs could be opened up to clear-cutting devastation. Click here to help

This threat to the Amazon has sparked widespread anger and protests across the country and tensions are rising. In an effort to stifle criticism, armed thugs, allegedly hired by loggers, have murdered environmental advocates. But the movement is fighting back — in three days, brave indigenous people are leading massive marches across Brazil to demand action and inside sources say President Dilma is considering vetoing the changes.

79% of Brazilians support a veto of the forest law changes and this internal pressure is leading some in Dilma’s administration to back a veto. But we need a global cry of solidarity with the Brazilian people to really force Dilma’s hand. Our global petition will be boldly displayed on banners at the front of the massive marches for Amazon protection. Let’s reach one million to SAVE THE AMAZON! Sign the urgent petition and send this on to everyone.

Image courtesy of   http://goo.gl/JoKHp

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“Helping Ma Nature”

August 17, 2011 at 2:43 pm (ancient water and lands, earth, Helping Mother /earth, saving oceans/waterways, saving the environment)


Nature’s Crusaders would like to invite its readers and friends to submit ways they are helping the planet every day. The quiet ways each of us are helping make the earth a safer, healthier place to raise our families and protect our environment and all living things are unseen acts of heroism.

“I removed three shopping carts from historic Bread and Cheese Creek before coming to work. Every day I work on cleaning, promoting, educating, and recruiting volunteers to assist with the restoration of this historic stream. Not only should this creek be treated with respect for the role it played in the War of 1812, but it is also one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most polluted tributaries. Submitted by J L

How have you loved our Mother Earth today?  Please let us know.

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“Last dino standing”

August 8, 2011 at 4:55 pm (ancient animals, Environmental crisis, working together)
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Three small primitive mammals walk over a Triceratops skeleton, one of the last dinosaurs to exist before the mass extinction that gave way to the age of mammals.

A genus of these  ceratopsid dinosaur lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago (Mya) in what is now North America. This is the last dinosaur of the last genera to appear before the great meteor extinction.

Bearing a large bony frill and three horns on its large four-legged body, and looking similar to the modern rhinoceros, Triceratops genus is one of the most well  known ceratopsid dinosaurs. It lived amongst and was preyed upon by the feared Tyrannosaurus Rex

Scientists think they have has found the last dinosaur to die and be preserved in the fossil record before the catastrophic meteor impact 65 million years ago.

The finding suggest that dinosaurs did not go extinct prior to the impact and lending support to the theory that is was the impact that cause their extinction.
Researchers from Yale University discovered the fossilized horn of a ceratopsian – likely a Triceratops, which are common to the area – in the Hell Creek formation in Montana last year. The fossil buried just five inches below the K-T boundary, the geological layer that marks the transition from the Cretaceous period to the Tertiary period at the time of the mass extinction that took place 65 million years ago.
Since the impact hypothesis for the demise of the dinosaurs was first proposed more than 30 years ago, many scientists have come to believe the meteor caused the mass extinction and wiped out the dinosaurs, but a sticking point has been an apparent lack of fossils buried within the 10 feet of rock below the K-T boundary. The seeming anomaly has come to be known as the “three-meter gap.” This specimen was so close to the boundary indicates that at least some dinosaurs were doing fine right up until the meteor’s impact.
Excerpts and Image courtesy of  http://goo.gl/59H7E

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