Top Ten New Species 2010 - Part 2
BY ALPER ÖZKAN (MBG/IV)
d_ozkan@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Right, let us continue as scheduled. By the way, it seems National Geographic has stolen my thunder. I've recently noticed that their Top 10 list was released in December 2010. I suppose that's cheating, since the year had not ended yet! Further, that list has the pink handfish, which to my knowledge was described in 2009. Oh well, let's do away with the nitpicking (after all, I'm drawing quite a bit from their list too!) and get to the main course. As per last week, Google Image Search will be your friend.
7.Tyrant king leech, Tyrannobdella rex
Alright, do not Google this if you're faint of heart (but if you do, you may want to know that the eye leech result is a Dinobdella, not Tyrannobdella), and you probably shouldn't read this part during lunch. While the usual, run-of-the-mill leeches are content with draining some blood and dropping off until another victim passes by, they are by no means limited to this strategy - leeches are known to infest such diverse locations as the eyes, nose, urethra, genitalia, or rectum, conclusively proving that mother nature hates us. Our leech, Tyrannobdella rex, targets the upper respiratory tract and is usually removed from the nose - the paper describing the animal also presents a few medical cases, and I think they're sufficient to express how thoroughly terrifying Tyrannobdella is.
"In 2007, a nine-year-old girl was admitted to La Merced hospital in Chanchamayo province, department of Junín, Perú following a two-week history of frontal cephalgia and a 'sliding' sensation inside her nose. The patient's parents noticed a black worm moving inside her right nostril and sought medical attention. (...) Physical examination was remarkable only for nasal pain with hand pressure and a black mass inside the right nasal cavity. With some effort, a 65-70 mm black leech was removed without significant bleeding from the patient's nasal cavity, and was preserved in ethanol."
Well, I guess I'm never going to Peru. If you still want to read the full article, search for a "Tyrannobdella rex N. Gen. N. Sp. and the Evolutionary Origins of Mucosal Leech Infestations." Bilkent has free access to it.
6. Strain GFAJ-1
This one's quite famous, and quite controversial too. GFAJ-1 apparently incorporates arsenic into its DNA when depleted of phosphorus - or does it really? Soon after the paper was published, criticism against the methods used started pouring in, most importantly about the fact that the bacteria might as well have used the trace amounts of phosphorus present in the phosphorus-deficient medium - to each their own, but I can't help but agree. If the bacterium does use phosphorus, however, then the implications are quite important indeed, supporting alternatives to Earth's biochemistry (if you're so inclined, you may want to check Wikipedia's "Hypothetical types of biochemistry" page, which details such alternatives and their plausibility.)
5. Giant velvet worm, Peripatus solorzanoi
Once thought to be the missing link between insects and annelids (earthworms and their kin) and now considered a sister raxon to the clade containing arthropods and tardigrades, this ancient group of claw-bearing worms is a distinct lineage with peculiar features, most notably their ability to immobilize prey with their adhesive secretions - much like a spider's web, but the velvet worm tries to actively rope in its target, instead of waiting for it to chance upon it (though there are active web-throwers amongst the former too, spitting spiders are an example). Incidentally, they seem to be the first animals to have evolved the ability to walk. The described velvet worm is fairly ordinary as far as velvet worms go, its defining feature is its great size - the holotype was 22cm in life. Velvet worms are swiftly gaining popularity as pets, since despite having interesting hunting methods, they're harmless, docile animals, so perhaps this giant species can be bred in captivity.
Next week, I suppose I'll be tackling the remaining four. Have a nice week.