By Christine Tran
Staff Writer
While one species was introducing itself to the world for the first time, another animal that scientists once thought was long gone came back to say hello. According to ScienceDaily on a trip run by Taxon Expeditions, a new species of water beetles was discovered at a remote waterfall in Maliau Basin, Borneo.
Characterized by its partially retractable head and protruding eyes, the beetle was named Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi, after Oscar award winning actor Leonardo Di Caprio. This tribute is to mark the 20th anniversary of Di Caprio’s foundation that helps restore balance to threatened ecosystems and fight climate change. Di Caprio’s beetle now joins other bugs named after prominent figures such as the blond-haired Donald Trump moth and the big-armed Arnold Schwarzenegger fly.
“Tiny and black, this new beetle may not win any Oscars for charisma, but in biodiversity conservation, every creature counts,” said Taxon Expeditions’ founder and entomologist Iva Njunjic in an interview with the journal Zookeys.
Across the globe in Baja California, a fuzzy friend decided to make a reappearance. The San Quintin kangaroo rat is larger than other rats in the region and has strong hind legs with a long tail sporting a tuft at the end. True to its name, this species of rat can jump more than 6 feet high and run at 10 kilometers an hour.
According to the Smithsonianmag.com, this particular kangaroo rat has not been seen in 30 years and was eventually declared extinct by Mexican authorities in 1994. It was last seen by Troy Best, a professor at Auburn University, Alabama in the 1970s, but when he returned to the San Quintin area in the late 1980s, the burrows and trails made by the rats were gone.
Last summer, researchers from the Smithsonian captured four San Quintin kangaroo rats during routine surveys but was unable to identify it. It was not until they reviewed museum specimen and photographs did they realize what they discovered. Researchers attribute the kangaroo rat’s comeback to a decrease of farming in the San Quintin area over the last decade due to a drought.
“These rediscoveries speak to hope and resilience in a changing world,” stated Sula Vanderplank science advisor at Terra Peninsular research center in a press release from the San Diego Natural History Museum.
