A new specie has been found southern and eastern off the Australia shore. It is a fish with hands. It lives on the ocean floor and it uses hands to move instead of swimming like other fish. It is small, often strikingly colorful and decorative. Meet our new friend!
Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart (map), on the Australian island of Tasmania.
Though no one has spotted a living pink handfish since 1999, it's taken till now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species.
The new-species determinations were made based on a number of factors, including number of vertebrae and fin rays, coloration, the presence of scales and spines, and proportional body measurements, according to review author Daniel Gledhill of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO. All of the world's 14 known species of handfish are found only in shallow, coastal waters off southeastern Australia, the review notes.
Even among the previously known species, the fish are poorly studied, the review authors add, and little is known about their biology or behavior.
There are many beautiful animals on this great planet. Some are familiar to us because we’ve seen them in person, on one of the many television shows devoted to animals, or in school books or biology textbooks. Other animals are rare. So rare, in fact, that you may have never heard of them. Or, you may have heard of them, and know that they are extremely rare because they are critically endangered. Here are some of the rarest animals in the world
Tarsiers
Okapi
Sao Tome Shrew
Red Wolf
Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat
Seychelles Sheath-Tailed Bat
Javan Rhino
Golden Tabby Tiger
Yangtze River Dolphin (Baiji)
Pina Island Tortoise
An amazing phenomenon occurred in Cape Townocean foam spilled onto the embankment.
Ocean foam, or beach foam is a type of foam created by the agitation of seawater, particularly when it contains higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter (including proteins, lignins, and lipids) derived from sources such as the offshore breakdown of algal blooms. These compounds can act as surfactants or foaming agents. As the seawater is churned by breaking waves in the surf zone adjacent to the shore, the presence of these surfactants under these turbulent conditions traps air, forming persistent bubbles which stick to each other through surface tension. Due to its low density and persistence, foam can be blown by strong on-shore winds from the beachface inland onto sidewalks and streets.
