First new river dolphin species found since World War I

Hi peeps...

Well I am happy to stumble upon this...! River dolphins are among the rarest creatures in the world. And now they have found a new species in Brazil’s Araguaia River basin. There are now 5 species of river dolphin. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature there were 4 species. However 3 of those species are on the Red List which means that they are critically endangered.

These species are only distantly related to their cousins in the vast oceans. River dolphins tend to have long beaks which allows them to rummage about in the mud at the bottom of the river in search for fish. Seemingly there are only about 1,000 of these creatures living in the Araguaia River basin...

Researchers have discovered a new species of river dolphin for the first time in since 1918 in Brazil. Unfortunately, it might be lost as quickly as it was discovered due to habitat destruction. The discovery was made by a group of researchers led by Tomas Hrbek of the Federal University of Amazonas and was published in PLOS One.

The newly discovered dolphin has been named Inia araguaiaensis, or the Araguarian Boto. Hrbek and his team made the discovery in Brazil’s Araguaia River basin. This area is pretty well populated and the dolphins are seen quite frequently, but until genetic sequencing and skull comparisons were completed, they were assumed to be members of I. geoffrensis. However, since I. araguaiaensis is physically isolated, Hrbek and his team suspected that it was a novel species and began to investigate. He notes: “It is an area where people see them all the time, they are a large mammal, the thing is nobody really looked.”

www.iflscience.com...

What great news. Albeit they might not be around much longer as their habitat is being destroyed...

Peace
Fluff

reply to post by fluff007


River dolphins tend to have long beaks which allows them to rummage about in the mud at the bottom of the river in search for fish.


And from the pic, it allows them to play Fetch as well..!


Great find fluff.

reply to post by facelift


Lol yep..! I wondered that myself when I saw the picture but I was not sure if it may be a fish. But it does look like a stick..

Amazing find! Thanks for the share!

reply to post by mai38



No worries.. I thought this was too important not to share....!