Sunday, October 31, 2010

Census of the seas

The Census of Marine Life has issued its final report on the 10-year effort to document the diversity of the world's oceans. More than 2,700 scientists cataloged 28 million observations of new species as well as old favorites such as the octopus. This octopus specimen was collected at Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef in an Autonomous Reef Monitoring System, or ARMS, at a depth of 30 to 36 feet (10 to 12 meters). The ARMS system is one of the legacies of the census.

From :http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39473500/ns/technology_and_science-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1&GT1=43001

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"ඒනිව් රේටඩ් සයිමෝනිස්" කළුතරින් නැවත හමුවෙයි

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වද වී යන කුහුඹුවකු ලෙස හදුන්වන "ඒනිව් රේටඩ් සයිමෝනිස්" කළුතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයේ කිරිකන්ද වත්ත ප්‍රදේශයේ ජීවත්ව සිටින බව නවතම අධ්‍යනයකින් අනාවරණය වී තිබේ.



කැලණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ සත්ත්ව විද්‍යා අංශයේ මහාචාර්ය ශ්‍රියාණි ඩයස් මහත්මිය සදහන් ක‍ළේ, එම කුහුඹු කුලයට අයත් දැනට ජීවත් වන එකම කුහුඹු වර්ගය "ඒනිව් රේටඩ් සයිමෝනිස්" බවය.

ලොව පුරා විද්‍යාඥයින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ආවේණික එම කුහුඹුවා පිළිබද පර්යේෂණ ආරම්භ කර ඇතැයි, මහාචාර්යවරිය  වැඩිදුරටත් සදහන් කළාය.
ඇය සදහන් කළේ, ප්‍රථමයෙන් 1956දී අමෙරිකානු විද්‍යඥයින් එම කුහුඹුවා මහනුවර, පේරාදෙණිය යන ප්‍රදේශවල ජීවත් වු බවට අනාවරණය කර ගෙන තිබු බවය.

By : http://www.ethalaya.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5538:q-q-&catid=1:news-left&Itemid=18

Monday, October 4, 2010

Lets have a look at some of the weird animals on the planet


The star-nosed mole's snout has 22 fleshy tentacles that are used to identify food by touch. Often found in North America, it lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and molluscs



The Hispaniolan solenodon, a strange looking shrew-like creature with a long snout and specialised teeth capable of delivering venom. Only two solenodon species exist today, one in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the other in Cuba



Seapigs live on, or just underneath, the bottom of the ocean and feed on the mud of the seafloor. Scientists haven't yet worked out how they are such a successful deep-sea creature


The blobfish is a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than that of the water it occupies. This helps it maintain buoyancy. Hovering just above the sea-floor, the blobfish gobbles edible matter that floats past it


Discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean, this creature was dubbed the "yeti lobster" or "yeti crab". It lives at a depth of 2,200 metres on hydrothermal vents along the Pacific-Antarctic


The white turtle, whose creamy colour is offset by a few hints of pink, features prominently in Chinese culture - a character in Journey to the West is turned into one for his wrongdoings


The long eared jerboa is a nocturnal mouse-like rodent found in the deserts of China and Mongolia. It has a long tail, long legs and extremely large ears. Being such a rare creature, it is in danger of extinction


The aye-aye shares a lot in common with the woodpecker - it taps trees to find grubs. When food is located it uses its rodent-like teeth to gnaw a hole, then digs them out with its long middle finger


The saiga's unusually over-sized, and flexible, nose warms up the air in winter and filters out the dust in summer


With their unusual feeding habits and slime-producing capabilities, the hagfish has been dubbed the most "disgusting" of all sea creatures