Bytes

 
Published: Saturday 31 May 2008

rat find: A team of scientists has rediscovered the greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus), last seen 112 years ago. It was in the canopy of a large tree, on a large horizontal branch covered by a thick layer of moss, orchids, and ferns, about five metres above ground at Mt Pulag in the Philippines. Finding the animal gives hope for the conservation of one of the most diverse and threatened mammal faunas of the world.

low on oxygen: Oceanographers have found that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm up, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live. Levels in tropical oceans at a depth of 300-700 metres have declined during the past 50 years, says the study. The ecological impacts of this increase could have substantial biological and economical consequences.

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