Page 79 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Vol 24 No 2 - February 24 2015

New seadragon species
discovered for the first
time in 150 years
By Justin Beach, National Monitor
Until now there have only been two known
species of seagragons, with the last being
discovered 150 years ago. However, powerful
new DNA tools have allowed researchers to
more carefully analyze previously collected
samples and identify a new, third, species.
Using both DNA and anatomical
research tools, researchers at Scripps Institution
of Oceanography at the University of California
San Diego found evidence for the new species
using samples provided by the Western Australia
Museum (WAM).
Having found some evidence, the
researchers requested the full specimen as well
as photographs taken in 2007. The team, which
included graduate student Josefin Stiller and
Greg Rouse of Scripps as well as Nerida Wilson
of the Western Australia Museum (WAM) were
surprised by the color of the new specimen. It
was bright red and vastly different than the
orange, yellow and purple coloring of known
seagragons.
The team, whose research is published in
the journal Royal Society Open Science, named
the new species Phyllopteryx dewysea, or
”Ruby Seadragon.”
"We're now in a golden age of taxonomy
and these powerful DNA tools are making it
possible for more new species than ever to be
discovered. That such large charismatic marine
species are still being found is evidence that
there is still much to be done. This latest finding
provides further proof of the value of scientific
collections and museum holdings,” said Rouse,
curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate
Collection in a statement.
The identification of the original Ruby
Seadragon was part of Stiller’s graduate
research on the population genetics of the
known species found off the Australian coast.
Stiller studies genetic diversity and migration in
the hope of encouraging sea dragon
conservation.
"A CT (computer tomography) scan
gave us 5,000 X-ray slices that we were able to
assemble into a rotating 3-D model of the new
seadragon. We could then see several features of
the skeleton that were distinct from the other
two species, corroborating the genetic
evidence,” said Stiller in a statement.
According to the researchers the new
species’ coloring suggests that it lives in deeper
water than the Leafy and Common Seadragons.
After the initial discovery, Wilson
examined WAM collections more thoroughly
and found a second Ruby Seadragon specimen
which had washed up on a beach almost 100
years ago. Stiller found two more in the
Australian National Fish Collection.
"This new seadragon first entered the
Western Australia Museum's collection in 1919,
and lay unidentified for almost a century.
Recognizing this new species demonstrates how
museum collections underpin biodiversity
discovery,” said Wilson.
In this case it is largely the availability of
new tools that made the discovery possible.
However, it is not unusual for new species to be
discovered in museum collections decades after
the fact.
According to Nancy Simmons, Curator-
in-Charge, Department of Mammalogy at the
American Museum of Natural History, “while
scientists may have a hunch about a specimen in
the field, the actual discovery is more commonly
made in scientific collections—often years after
collections are brought back and filed away. On
average, more than two decades pass between
the first collection and archiving of a new
species and its formal description,” she said.
“What accounts for the delay? For one,
the sheer volume of the collections. Major
expeditions in the early 20th century routinely
brought thousands of specimens into the
Museum’s collections, and researchers are still
playing catch-up,” explained Simmons.
The authors of the most recent study now culture, including coverage of the paranormal
hope to find Ruby Seadragons in the wild.
"It has been 150 years since the last
seadragon was described and all this time we
thought that there were only two species.
Suddenly, there is a third species! If we can
overlook such a charismatic new species for so
long, we definitely have many more exciting
discoveries awaiting us in the oceans,” said
Wilson.
Sea dragons, which are fond exclusively
off the southern coast of Australia have
camouflage so effective that once they reach
adult size, they have no known natural
predators. However, pollution and limited range
have caused concern about their long term
survival according to Australian Geographic.[]
Michael Luckman, Author
And Cultural Rabble-
Rouser Who Taught
Nation’s First College
Course on Rock Music,
Dies at 72
Michael C. Luckman, an author, lecturer and
media personality, died Friday, Jan. 30 in New
York City from complications following a
stroke. He was 72.
Luckman was best known as an authority
on UFOs and was a favorite source for major
news outlets when they covered the topic. But
for over four decades he stirred controversy by
bringing a variety of offbeat subjects into the
public spotlight.
Luckman taught the nation’s first college
course on rock music, at the New School for
Social Research in New York City, in 1971.
Later he ran a lecture series there on
pornography, also the first of its kind. He went
on to produce and host the freewheeling
“Underground Tonight Show” on Manhattan
Cable TV in the mid-1970s, a pioneering public
access talk show notorious at the time for its
frank depictions of sexuality and marijuana use.
In 1976 Luckman began editing and publishing
the cutting-edge alternative paper, The New
York Daily Planet, which focused on alternative
and UFO sightings. In the latter area he found
his greatest passion.
Luckman spent several decades bringing
the subject of UFOs and the paranormal to the
public’s attention, producing major UFO
conventions and events in New York, going on
the national lecture circuit, and appearing as the
go-to expert on the subject on such programs as
“Geraldo,” “Extra,” “Hard Copy” and “A
Current Affair.” His book ALIEN ROCK: The
Rock ‘n’ Roll Extraterrestrial Connection
(Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster, 2005), an
Amazon bestseller, colorfully documented the
UFO and paranormal experiences of pop figures
such as David Bowie, Michael Jackson and John
Lennon.
In recent years he has been heard on the
radio as a frequent guest as well as hosting his
own Internet-based program, ‘Starship One
Radio.” At the time of his death he was working
on a book about pop star Michael Jackson, as
well as planning a UFO-themed rock concert in
California.
Luckman was from Queens, New York.
He attended Adelphi University, where he was
editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. During
the Vietnam War era, he was a leading publicist
for the antiwar movement. []