Species of the week
Species of the week: Tenrecs
Guest blog by Sive Finlay, a PhD student from Trinity College Dublin Tenrecs are one of the most interesting and fascinating mammal groups yet many people have never heard of them. They are one of only four mammalian groups to have colonised Madagascar, a land filled with evolutionary curiosities. Tenrecs are a striking example of … Continue reading
Species of the week: the crayfish
by Zara Gladman, intern at the Society of Biology My name is Zara and I’m an “astacologist”, which is a fancy way of saying that I study crayfish, lobster-like freshwater crustaceans of which there are more than 640 described species. In Australia, they go by the name of “yabby” (as in “Yabby Creek” – Home … Continue reading
Species of the Week: the Coelacanth
Many species of Coelacanth, a primitive fish, are present in the fossil record, but they were thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Then, in 1938, a museum curator on a South African fishing trawler caught a living species: Latimeria chalumnae. Decades later, in 1998, a second species, L. menadoensis, … Continue reading
Species of the week: The Green Turtle
The green turtle, Chelonia mydas, occurs throughout tropical waters and, to a lesser extent, in subtropical seas as well. They nest occurs in more than 80 countries worldwide. Green turtles are slow growing and long lived; those that reach maturity may live to be 80 years old. Fully grown they are approximately 69 to 79 … Continue reading