#species

#species

How Might Animals Evolve in the Next Million Years? Some scientists believe we are now in the beginning stages of a mass extinction event. The earth is losing species at an alarming rate, due to human activity and climate change. But the earth has already seen at least five mass extinction events in its history. While a large percentage of existing species died out each time, there were always survivors that adapted and evolved to live in a new kind of environment. While we are learning about the past, looking to the future can be quite interesting. Mandy Nguyen at Vox asked various scientists to indulge in some speculative biology and imagine how species may evolve into something new in the relatively distant future. First, they had to imagine which species will survive the earth's current woes, and the absence of the ones that won't, and how those absences will affect the ecosystem. Which species will fill the future gaps in the food chain? One must also imagine what challenges a post-extinction event environment will present to surviving animals. Another factor to consider is whether humans will be around a million years from now, or how long we will have been gone by then. Read about the possibilities of aquatic rats with flippers, predatory pigeons, and giant praying mantises, among other evolved animals, at Vox. -via Metafilter(Image credit: Amanda Northrop/Vox) #evolution #species #speculativebiology

Madagascar Hawkmoth Has the World's Longest TongueThe Madagascan hawkmoth is now recognized as a new species, and it has the longest tongue of any insect. This species was predicted by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace before being discovered.In 1862, Darwin speculated that an orchid with a nectar tube of 30 centimeters long can only be pollinated by a moth with a very long tongue. Then, in 1867, Wallace predicted that the moth would be similar to a hawkmoth with a long proboscis, and it can be found in the same place together with the orchid.Wallace wrote, “That such a moth exists in Madagascar may be safely predicted, and naturalists who visit that island should search for it with as much confidence as astronomers searched for the planet Neptune, – and they will be equally successful.”He was proven correct when the moth was finally described by Karl Jordan and Lord Walter Rothschild in 1903. Now, the moth is classified as a new species named Xanthopan praedicta.Image:Minet et al. 2021#moth #hawkmoth #longest #tongue #species

New Fly Species Named for RuPaulCSIRO entomologist Bryan Lessard has now named 50 species of insects. It is a soldier fly of the Opaluma genus found in Australia. The entire genus has only been recently identified. Lessard has been naming species after celebrities since Scaptia beyonceae, the Beyonce fly, in 2011. He says the resulting publicity makes the practice worthwhile to generate interest in threatened species and the importance of preserving their environment.Lessard said naming the soldier fly Opaluma rupaul came as an “obvious decision”.“I was watching a lot of RuPaul’s Drag Race while examining the species and I know it would challenge RuPaul on the runway serving fierce looks,” Lessard said.“It has a costume of shiny metallic rainbow colours, and it has legs for days. I think once (Ru) sees the fly she’ll realise it’s quite fierce and hopefully appreciate the name.”