Page 28 - Aruba Today

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SCIENCETuesday 16 February 2016

New tarantula species named
after singer Johnny Cash

In this Jan. 22, 2015 file photo, Gentoo penguins stand on rocks
near the Chilean station Bernardo O’Higgins, Antarctica.

Associated Press

Antarctica study:

Iceberg nearly erases
penguin population

This undated photo provided by biologist Brent Hendrixson shows a new species of tarantula SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A areas starting in Decem-
called Aphonopelma atomicum, which can be translated as “atomic tarantula.” new scientific study says ber 2010. The huge piece
an estimated 150,000 Ade- of ice forced the birds to
Associated Press lie penguins have died in walk more than 37 miles
Cape Denison, Antarctica (60 kilometers) in search of
JANET McCONNAUGHEY lege collected nearly 1,500 broader range of DNA than in the five years since a gi- food, gradually reducing
Associated Press spiders from the 12 states any past studies, said Ingi ant iceberg blocked their the population to just a few
A tarantula named af- where tarantulas live, and Agnarsson, who evaluated main access to food. thousand.
ter singer Johnny Cash is about 300 sent by the pub- the study as an editor for The research was recently The survey was conducted
among 14 new species lic. the journal ZooKeys, which published in the journal in 2013-14 by scientists at
identified by scientists who They analyzed DNA from recently published it. Antarctic Science. The Climate Change Re-
spent a decade collecting more than 1,000 of those “This is unequivocally the It says a 60-mile (97-kilo- search Center at the Uni-
the hairy spiders and study- spiders, and examined an- most important work on ta- meter) iceberg crashed versity of New South Wales
ing nearly 3,000 of them. other 1,200 specimens lent rantulas ever done. It sets and got stuck in Common- in Australia and New Zea-
The tarantula is black and by museums in New York an incredibly high stan- wealth Bay, blocking ac- land’s West Coast Penguin
can be found near the and London. dard for taxonomy which cess to their natural feeding Trust.q
California prison that is the They have collapsed the few will be able to attain,”
setting of Cash’s “Folsom number of U.S. species from Robert Raven of Austra-
Prison Blues.” 55 to 29, including the 14 lia’s Queensland Museum
Chris Hamilton and col- new ones. wrote in an email after
leagues from Auburn Uni- The group used more DNA reading the paper.q
versity and Millsaps Col- specimens and a much