1. World’s smallest reptile discovered

In February, researchers announced a new species of chameleon discovered in a rainforest in northern Madagascar, named Brookesia nana, or B. nana for short. This so-called nano-chameleon is about the size of a sunflower seed, and may be the smallest reptile on Earth.

Finding such a tiny reptile raises interesting questions about the lower limits of body size in vertebrates. It also highlights the astonishing—and highly threatened—biodiversity of Madagascar, scientists say. Its discoverers suspect the chameleon will soon be listed as critically endangered.

2. Black-footed ferret cloned

To save another endangered species, scientists have successfully cloned a black-footed ferret, using preserved cells from a long-dead wild animal. This is the first time any native endangered species has been cloned in the United States.

The achievement, announced in February, is a major advance, since there are only about 500 black-footed ferrets remaining—all of which are closely related and descendants of a single colony found in 1981 in Wyoming after the species was thought to be extinct.

But cells from one female named Willa, who died in the mid-1980s without reproducing, were preserved on ice at the Frozen Zoo, a program of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. These cells have now been cloned and made into a viable ferret named Elizabeth Anne.

Researchers hope that her offspring will be able to be reintroduced to the wild in the coming years, injecting a much needed dose of genetic diversity into the inbred population.

3. World’s bee diversity hotspot found

The San Bernardino Valley, straddling Arizona and Mexico, is one of the most important inland wetlands in the U.S. Southwest. Over the eons, water has traveled south from the mountains and forced its way out of artesian wells, giving rise to a bevy of plants and flowers throughout the year. This diversity of plants also supports a huge range of insects, including bees.

In April, a study published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, found that 497 species of bees live within just over six square miles of the valley—10 times smaller than Washington, D.C. This is, by far, the highest concentration of bee diversity on Earth.

The discovery makes crucial the need to protect the valley, which has suffered from the construction of the border wall, a 30-foot steel fence that bisects the valley. Builders used vast amounts of aquifer water to make cement for the base of the wall, which caused springs in the valley to dry up.

4. ‘Virgin births’ in a rare bird

California condors—magnificent scavengers with a wingspan of over nine feet—almost went extinct by the middle of the 20th century, due to poisoning, poaching, and habitat destruction. In an ambitious bid to save them, all 22 condors were captured from the wild in 1987 and bred in captivity, before being released back to parts of California, Utah, Arizona, and Baja California. The total population is now more than 500.

Researchers have kept careful track of the birds’ breeding habits and genetics, and in October, they discovered that two female birds had given birth to young—without breeding. This is the first evidence of virgin birth, also known as parthenogenesis, in this species (and likely any non-domesticated bird). Scientists think that this form of reproduction is significantly more common in the animal world than thought, in part because it’s difficult to detect and rarely tracked.

Although parthenogenesis could serve as a life raft for rare species when mates are scarce, it could also have downsides, such as reducing genetic diversity.

5. Some elephants are evolving to lose their tusks

Mozambique’s civil war, which lasted from 1977 to 1992, was brutal for African elephants: More than 90 percent of the animals were killed for ivory in the country’s Gorongosa National Park. But the carnage had an unexpected result: Some elephants are evolving without tusks—thus giving them a lower chance of being killed by poachers.

As National Geographic previously reported, about a third of younger female elephants in Gorongosa, born after the war ended in 1992, never developed tusks.

Research published in October in Science shows that such elephants have mutated copies of two genes that normally promote tusk development.

Normally, tusklessness would occur only in about 2 to 4 percent of female African elephants.

According to nationalgeographic.com. Source of photo: internet