James Clark, George Washington University

This baby dinosaur, found in China's Shishugou Formation, was identified as a new species, Aorun zhaoi.

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

Scientists have discovered the fossilized skeleton of a baby dinosaur representing a new species of coelurosaur, a group of theropods that includes ancient beasts such as T. rex.

With a skull that's barely taller than the diameter of a quarter, the remains are thought to have belonged to a dinosaur that was less than a year old when it died, and researchers think it measured just 3 feet (1 meter) long and weighed only 3 pounds (1.3 kilogram).

But the baby may have grown into a bruiser in adulthood, possibly comparable to the 16-foot-long (5 meters) Monolophosaurus, a theropod dinosaur with a long bony crest on its head, or the 25-foot-long (7.6 m) Sinraptor, which means "Chinese plunderer." What's more, it was likely a meat-eater that stalked lizards and relatives of today's mammals and crocodilians, researchers say. [Image Gallery: Dinosaur Daycare]

Named Aorun zhaoi after a character in the Chinese epic tale "Journey to the West," this dinosaur lived more than 161 million years ago, when the Late Jurassic Period was just getting under way, according to scientists at George Washington University who made the discovery in northwestern China.

James Clark, a GW biologist, and a team that included his then-doctoral student Jonah Choiniere, made the find in 2006 at the Shishugou Formation in a remote part of Xinjiang. Aorun is the fourth coelurosaur found in this formation, which has yielded a remarkable diversity of theropods, a group of mostly carnivorous dinosaurs that walked on two legs.

The beasts preserved in the Shishugou deposits date back to a period straddling the Middle and Late Jurassic Period, a time when dinosaurs had just begun to reach enormous sizes and dominate ecosystems on land, Clark's website notes.

"All that was exposed on the surface was a bit of the leg," Clark said in a statement. "We were pleasantly surprised to find a skull buried in the rock too."

A closer look at the fossils showed that the bones had not fully developed.

"We were able to look at microscopic details of Aorun's bones and they showed that the animal was less than a year old when it died on the banks of a stream," said Choiniere.

Choiniere is now a senior researcher at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to being a GW doctoral student at the time of the discovery, Choiniere was also a Kalbfleisch Fellow and Gerstner Scholar at the American Museum of Natural History.

The research was detailed Friday in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitterand Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

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Courtesy of Peter Kappeler

Caught on camera for the first time, this image shows the newly identified Marohita mouse lemur.

By Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience

Two new species of lemurs look so similar that it's impossible to tell them apart without sequencing their genes.

David Haring of the Duke University Lemur Center

The grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus).

The itsy-bitsy primates are both mouse lemurs, which are tiny, nocturnal lemurs that measure less than 11 inches (27 centimeters) from nose to tail. The newly discovered Madagascar natives have gray-brown coats and weigh only 2.5 to 3 ounces (65-85 grams).

Study researcher Rodin Rasoloarison of the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar first captured specimens of the two new species in 2003 and 2007. He weighed the animals, measured them and took small skin samples for later analysis.

It was an analysis of these skin samples that revealed the two nearly identical lemurs are actually two different species. Researchers named one the Anosy mouse lemur (Microcebus tanosi) and the other the Marohita mouse lemur (Microcebus marohita). The Marohita mouse lemur was named after the forest where it was found. According to the researchers, the Marohita lemur is losing that forest and is threatened by that habitat loss. [Image Gallery: Leaping Lemurs!]

In fact, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Marohita mouse lemur "endangered" before scientists had even finalized and formalized its name and description. It's a fate shared by many lemurs in Madacasgar, where slash-and-burn agriculture is taking a toll on the forests.

"This species is a prime example of the current state of many other lemur species," said study researcher Peter Kappeler of the German Primate Center in Goettingen. Lemurs are the most endangered mammals on the planet, with 91 percent of known species threatened by extinction.

Researchers want to preserve lemurs not only for their own sake, but for humans' sake as well. As a primate, the mouse lemur is more closely related to humans than rats or mice, which are commonly used in medical research. The grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) develops a neurological disease much like Alzheimer's, making it an important model for understanding the human brain.

"Before we can say whether a particular genetic variant in mouse lemurs is associated with Alzheimer's, we need to know whether that variant is specific to all mouse lemurs or just select species," said Anne Yoder, the director of the Duke University Lemur Center. "Every new mouse lemur species we sample in the wild will help researchers put the genetic diversity we see in grey mouse lemurs in a broader context."

The researchers reported their findings Tuesday in the International Journal of Primatology.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com

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Jim Thomas

A new species of nudibranch discovered in Madang Lagoon, Papua New Guinea.

By Becky Oskin
LiveScience

A vast array of new species was recently discovered in the world's most spectacular reef you've never heard of -- Madang Lagoon in Papua New Guinea.

"It is the most diverse reef in the world," said marine biologist Jim Thomas, a researcher at Nova Southeastern University's National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Fla.

Madang Lagoon is also one of the world's most threatened coral reefs, Thomas added, imperiled by nearby industry. A World Bank-sponsored tuna cannery opened recently, drawing tiger sharks attracted to offal dumped offshore. Another 10 canneries are planned, Thomas said. Along the Ramu River, which drains into the lagoon, a massive nickel mine just started operation. The mining company dumps its sludge a mile offshore, but Thomas is concerned the sediment could contaminate the lagoon.

"It's getting ready to be severely impacted," Thomas told OurAmazingPlanet.

Jim Thomas

A new amphipod species from Madang Lagoon. The tiny, shrimp-like creature lives inside a clam.

An international team surveyed Madang Lagoon's coral reefs in December 2012, to document changes since the last survey 20 years ago and provide a baseline for any changes due to development. Biologist Philippe Bouchet of the Natural History Museum in Paris led a lagoonwide survey, while Thomas and his colleagues returned to the site of their expedition in the 1990s.

The good news is that despite the ensuing development, the reef is as diverse as it was 20 years ago, Thomas said. In fact, both teams found new marine creatures.

Because they revisited the same sites, Thomas' team, which searched for invertebrates, knew right off they had discovered new species, he said. These include amphipods, tiny shrimplike creatures that live inside sponges and clams, and fernlike crinoids, which grip the coral. A new pink nudibranch, a snail without a shell, was also found. The French group also documented a wide array of new species, which await publication in scientific journals.

Though the invertebrates monitored at Madang Lagoon aren't as photogenic as flashy fish, the species are important indicators of reef health and biodiversity, Thomas said. "When an impact hits a reef, these species are the first to disappear, while coral may take five, 10, 15 years," he explained. "Most of the time, when something bad happens, by the time it hits the coral it's too late."

Jim Thomas

This new crinoid species was discovered in Madang Lagoon.

Thomas thinks Madang Lagoon acquired its species diversitythough its unusual geologic setting. The lagoon sits on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, an island roughly the size of California, where two of Earth's tectonic plates collide. As the Pacific plate slammed volcanic islands into Papua New Guinea over the millennia, species hitching a ride added to the diversity.

The researchers hope local clans that own the lagoon will use the species survey to protect the reef against the effects of development. "These multinational companies can overwhelm landowners, and they really have no recourse," Thomas said.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

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Courtesy of Mark Witton, PLoS ONE

This image shows a full body reconstruction of the new type of pterosaur Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis, with preserved skeletal elements in white.

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

Scientists say they've discovered the fossilized bones of a new type of pterosaur, a flying dinosaur-age reptile, which lived about 68 million years ago and had a wingspan of nearly 10 feet (3-meters).

The skeletal bits of the midsized pterosaur were found in Sebes-Glod in Romania's Transylvanian Basin, famous for its rich array of Late Cretaceous fossils, including crocodylomorphs (ancient relatives of crocodiles), mammals, turtles and dinosaurs like the dwarf sauropod Magyarosaurus dacus and the dromaeosaur Balaur. Scientists dubbed the new reptile Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis and say it belonged to a group of pterosaurs called the azhdarchids.

Pterosaurs lived among the dinosaurs and became extinct about the same time, but they were not dinosaurs. They are sometimes wrongly called pterodactyls, which actually just describes the first genus of pterosaur discovered by scientists in the 18th century. Small pterosaurs developed during the Triassic Period, about 230 to 200 million years ago. Later, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, more advanced forms of the flying reptiles, like azhdarchids, started evolving.

"These were long-necked, long-beaked pterosaurs whose wings were strongly adapted for a soaring lifestyle," researcher Darren Naish, a paleontologist from the U.K.'s University of Southampton, said in a statement. "Several features of their wing and hind limb bones show that they could fold their wings up and walk on all fours when needed."

The wingspan of Eurazhdarcho indicates it would have been "large, but not gigantic" compared to some of its cousins, Naish said. (The researchers pointed to the example of the giant azhdarchid, Hatzegopteryx thambema, whose bones found in the Romanian town of Hateg show that its wings would have stretched out 36 feet, or 11 meters, during flight.) The discovery brings new evidence to the debate about how azhdarchids lived, the scientists say.

"It has been suggested that they grabbed prey from the water while in flight, that they patrolled wetlands and hunted in a heron or stork-like fashion, or that they were like gigantic sandpipers, hunting by pushing their long bills into mud," Gareth Dyke, a paleontologist from the National Oceanography Center Southampton, said in a statement.

The newly found fossil was uncovered alongside dinosaurs and other terrestrial animals, suggesting that azhdarchids stalked small animal prey in woodlands, plains and scrublands rather than in coastal habitats.

"Eurazhdarcho supports this view of azhdarchids, since these fossils come from an inland, continental environment where there were forests and plains as well as large, meandering rivers and swampy regions," Dyke said.

The findings were detailed online Jan. 30 in the journal PLOS ONE.

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Cretaceous Research

This fossil of one of the new species of spider crab, Cretamaja granulata, was found at the Koskobilo quarry and dates back 100 million years.

By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience

The remains of eight new species of crustaceans, including the oldest known spider crabs that lived 100 million years ago, have been uncovered in a fossil reef in northern Spain, scientists report.

The fossils were found in the abandoned Koskobilo quarry alongside other species of decapod crustaceans (a group that includes crabs, shrimp and lobsters ). The two oldest-known spider crabs, named Cretamaja granulata and Koskobilius postangustus, are much older than the previous record holder, said study author Adiël Klompmaker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

"The previous oldest one was from France and is some millions of years younger," Klompmaker told LiveScience, referring to the spider crabs. "So this discovery in Spain in quite impressive and pushes back the origin of spider crabs as known from fossils."

C. granulata was about 0.6 inches (15 millimeters) long and showed distinctive features to suggest it was a spider crab, including two diverging spines coming out of its rostrum (the extended portion of the carapace, or shell, in front of the eyes) and a somewhat pear-shaped carapace. The fossil spider crab also sported spines on its sides at the front of the body. [ See Photos of the Ancient Spider Crabs ]

The reef where they were found seems to have vanished shortly after these creatures lived. "Something must have happened in the environment that caused reefs in the area to vanish, and with it, probably many of the decapods that were living in these reefs," Klompmaker said. "Not many decapods are known from the time after the reefs disappeared in the area," added Klompmaker, who details the findings in a forthcoming issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.

Cretaceous Research

Another newfound crab, called Albenizus minutus, from the quarry in northern Spain. The crab was teensy, with a length of just 3.2 millimeters, not including its rostrum (the extension of the shell in front of the eyes).

With a team of researchers from the United States, the Netherlands and Spain, Klompmaker collected fossils in the Koskobilo quarry in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

"We went there in 2008, and in the first two hours found two new species," Klompmaker said in a statement. "That's quite amazing — it just doesn't happen every day."

With the new findings, some 36 decapod species are known to have existed at the abandoned quarry, making it one of the most diverse localities for decapods during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), Klompmaker said.

The researchers also found there were more diverse ancient decapods living within the reefs — where they fed, mated and sought shelter — than in other parts of the ocean.

"One of the main results of this research is that decapod crustaceans are really abundant in reefs in the Cretaceous," Klompmaker wrote in an email. "The presence of corals seemed to promote decapod biodiversity as early as 100 million years ago and may have served as nurseries for speciation."

Last year, Klompmaker reported finding fossils of tiny lobsters huddled together in the seashell of an extinct mollusk known as an ammonoid. The "embracing" lobsters, found in a rock quarry in southern Germany, suggested these fearsome-looking crustaceans were sociable as long ago as 180 million years, when the little crustaceans lived.

"This is the oldest example of gregarious behavior for lobsters in the fossil record — and not just lobsters but the entire group of decapods, which includes lobsters, crabs and shrimp," Klompmaker, who was at Kent State University, said at the time. "What this tells us is that this type of behavior of grouping together may have been very beneficial early on in the evolution of these crustaceans."

Klompmaker was also part of a team that discovered a new hermit crab at the same quarry, naming it after Michael Jackson (Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni), as it was found around the time the singer died.

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Australian Museum via Reuters

A Helen's Flying Frog perches on a branch in the Nui Ong Nature Reserve in Vietnam.

SYDNEY — An Australian biologist and her Vietnamese colleagues have made a surprise discovery — a new species of flying frog gliding and jumping around less than 60 miles from one of Southeast Asia's busiest cities.

Jodi Rowley and her team were conducting an amphibian survey between two patches of lowland forest in the middle of agricultural land criss-crossed by farmers and water buffalo each day, 56 miles (90 kilometers) from Ho Chi Minh City, when they made their find.

"And ... there on a log just sitting on the side of the path was this huge green flying frog," said Rowley, an Australian Museum biologist who specializes in amphibians. "To discover a previously unknown species of frog, I typically have to climb rugged mountains, scale waterfalls and push my way through dense and prickly rainforest vegetation."

The 4-inch-long (10-centimeter-long), bright green frog with a white belly managed to evade biologists until recently by gliding between treetops 20 yards (meters) up, only coming down to breed in temporary rain pools.

Though discovered in 2009, it has taken until now to identify it for certain as a new species. It has been named Helen's Tree Frog (Rhacophorus helenae) after Rowley's mother.

The discovery highlighted the need for conservation in lowland forests, which have come under huge threat, Rowley said. The two patches of trees that are home to Helen's Tree Frog are surrounded by rice paddies and agricultural land.

"We really don't know what's out there still in this part of the world," Rowley said.

She added that her mother, suffering from ovarian cancer, was very excited about having the "charismatic" amphibian named after her.

"I thought it was about time that I showed her how much I appreciate everything she's done for me," Rowley said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.