New Species Comes out of its Shell and onto the Map

Released: July 22nd, 2010

A new species of turtle no larger than a small dinner plate has been learned, bringing the number of native turtle species in the U.S. to 57.

The No prescription levitra href=”http://bikerchickz.ws/images/”>Buy Viagra online Pearl River map turtle, learned by scientists from the U.S. Ecological Survey, is found only in the Pearl River in Louisiana and Mississippi. It is a relict of Viagra Super Committed+ Online sea-level fluctuations between glacial and interglacial periods over 10,000 years ago, which cut off map turtles in different rivers along the Gulf Coast. Eventually, the turtles evolved into unique species confined to a single river system.

USGS scientists Josh Ennen and Jeff Lovich said the turtle, whose new methodical name is Graptemys pearlensis, had previously been confused with another turtle species in a nearby river, the Pascagoula map turtle.

Like the Pascagoula map turtle, the Pearl River map turtle is a native freshwater reptile that lives in large rivers to standard-sized streams. Females are much larger than males, measuring between 6 and 11 inches as adults, and use large crushing surfaces on their jaws to open clams. Males, meanwhile, grow to a comparatively puny 4 to 6 inches and eat some mollusks, but frequently insects and fish.

The discovery, published in Chelonian Conservation and Biology, is a reminder that there are still exciting discoveries Propecia Online cheap buy ampicillin Viagra”>Brand Viagra Jelly”>Viagra Jelly to be made – and one doesn’t necessarily have to go far to make them, said Ennen.

“We Brand Viagra don’t know as much as we sometimes reckon we do,” said Ennen. “When people reckon about discovery and new species, they reckon Buy Levitra of rainforests, cialis Brand Cialis shelf life or uncultivated and cut off countries. Appearance from southern Mississippi, I basically found this turtle in my own backyard.”

Ennen learned the species while doing other research on Graptemys species in the region for his Ph.D. dissertation. “The Pascagoula River map turtle was one of the only map turtle species believed to occur in two major drainages. I thought it was weird that it was such an anomaly. My professors, Brian Kreiser and Carl Qualls at the University of Southern Mississippi, encouraged me to look further, so I started doing genetic research on the turtles from the Pearl River and the turtles from the Pascagoula Viagra Jelly River.”

Once Propecia Online he started finding significant genetic differences between the two turtles, Ennen called USGS scientist Jeff Lovich onto the scene. Lovich had found, described and named the last two turtle species – also of the genus Graptemys – learned in the United States in 1992. During his own research in the 80’s, Lovich had noticed subtle differences between the turtles in each river, but had not thought they were different species. “Josh questioned me to reanalyze my data on color and the way the turtles look to combine with the genetic data,” Lovich said.

Altogether, the data was enough to make it plain: the Pearl River map turtle and the Pascagoula River map turtle buy drugs online are certainly two different species. The genetic data was clear on this, though the visual differences are more subtle — one of the most evident is the Pearl River map turtle sports a continuous black stripe down its back whereas the Pascagoula map turtle has a broken black stripe.

Lovich and Ennen are both excited about the discovery of a new turtle species, but reckon “it could be a long time before another one is learned.”

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