In this issue of Wildlife News Round-Up, we find out about an ancient vertebrate that presents the earliest known evidence of teeth that grow from jawbones, a new species of golden frog that measures only 2 centimeters, and the rediscovery of the thought-to-be-extinct Baji dolphin in the Yangtze River. There is also news of a massive communal spider web in a park in Texas, the discovery of a previously unknown reed-warbler population in Israel, and the alarming realization that Indo-Pacific coral reefs are shrinking at a rate of 600 square miles per year.

• Jaws, Teeth of Earliest Bony Fish Discovered (National Geographic) — August 1, 2007. Scientists have discovered a 420 million-year-old fossil that represents the oldest known specimen of a vertebrate whose teeth grow from its jawbone. The tooth fairy must be very impressed.
• Zimbabwe's Wildlife Decimated by Economic Crisis (National Geographic) — August 1, 2007. Zimbabwe's bleak economic situation has spurred the widespread poaching of wildlife and destruction of habitat throughout the country's wildlife parks. An estimated 60 percent of the country's wildlife has been destroyed.
• Coral Reefs Vanishing Faster Than Rain Forests (National Geographic) — August 7, 2007. Researchers have discovered that during the past twenty years, coral reefs throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans have been dying off at a rate of 600 square miles per year.
• Bat Breath Reveals The Identity Of A Vampire's Last Victim (Science Daily) — August 19, 2007. A study conducted in Latin America has shown, by monitoring the carbon dioxide exhaled by vampire bats, that the bats are feeding on blood meals from cattle, instead of from rainforest mammals.
• Basra Reed-Warbler Returns to Israel (Birdlife International) — August 22, 2007. Scientists have discovered that the Basra Reed-Warbler, previously thought to breed only in the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq, is breeding in Israel' Hula Valley.
• Globally Threatened Birds Pay for Their Sex (Birdlife International) — August 29, 2007. A new study has suggested that many estimates of bird population sizes may be over estimates. Population estimates are often made based on the number of males observed, but many estimates have not compensated for the fact that, for most bird species, there are more males than females.
• New Golden Frog Discovered in Remote Region of Colombia (Fauna & Flora International) — August 29, 2007. A new species of frog has been discovered in Colombia’s Cundinamarca region. The poisonous frog has been called the Golden Frog of Supatá and measures just mere 2 centimeters in length.
• Super Spiders Make Bolder Birds (Science Daily) — August 28, 2007. Research has shown that some birds preferentially feed their young spiders that contain taurine, an amino acide sown to impact the personality and memory of the young birds.
• Baiji Dolphin Previously Thought Extinct Spotted in the Yangtze River (WWF) – August 31, 2007. A local businessman captured video footage of a large animal in the Yangtze. The animal was later confirmed by scientists to be a Baji, a dolphin previously believed to be extinct.
• Even Spiders Know Everything's Bigger in Texas (NPR) — August 31, 2007. A couple hundred yards of a nature trail in Lake Tawakoni State Park, Texas, have been draped in a massive communal spider web built by a swarm of spiders.

About Wildlife News Round-Up

Wildlife News Round-Up is a monthly digest featuring animals and wildlife headlines from around the web. It includes headlines from well-established sources such as the World Wildlife Fund, BBC News, New York Times, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and Birdlife International. The sources are selected with care and include only those that archive articles for many years, offer top-notch science writing, and follow stories as they develop over time.

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