Tag Archives: Tanzania

Three New Species of Live-Bearing Tree Toads Identified in Tanzania

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A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen has identified three new species within the genus Nectophrynoides from Tanzania’s East Arc Mountains.

Nectophrynoides luhomeroensis seen here as an adult. Image credit: Slane et al., doi: 10.3897/vz.75.e167008.

The genus Nectophrynoides belongs to the family Nudibranchidae and currently comprises 13 recognized species that are endemic to the wet forests and grasslands of Tanzania.

Commonly referred to as tree toads, Nectophrynoides species exhibit viviparous reproduction, a feature that is quite rare among frogs.

All known species of Nectophrynoides inhabit the East Ark Mountains, with Nectophrynoides biviparus also found in the southern highlands of neighboring Tanzania.

“The three newly identified frog species are part of a rare group in the genus Nectophrynoides,” said Dr. Christian Slane and his colleagues at the University of Copenhagen.

“Instead of laying eggs that develop into tadpoles, female toads carry their young inside their bodies, giving birth to small, fully-formed toads.”

“This adaptation makes these amphibians among the few worldwide capable of internal fertilization and true live birth.”

“While it is widely recognized that frogs usually develop from tadpoles, this represents just one of many reproductive strategies within the diverse frog population,” noted Dr. Mark D. Schatz from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

“In fact, around 8,000 frog species exhibit various reproductive modes, many of which differ significantly from the classic narrative.”

“Only a select number of frog species in South America and Southeast Asia have developed a similar reproductive strategy, rendering these toads unique in the animal kingdom.”

“Live births in frogs and toads are exceedingly rare, with less than 1% of frog species exhibiting this trait, making these new species particularly fascinating,” remarked Dr. H. Christoph Liedtke from Spain’s National Research Council.

In this study, the authors examined 257 specimens of Nectophrynoides and identified three new species: Nectophrynoides luhomeroensis, Nectophrynoides hehehe, and Nectophrynoides saliensis.

“The introduction of these three new species raises the total number of known viviparous anurans globally to 20, with 16 belonging to the genus Nectophrynoides,” stated the researchers.

“The distinct reproductive and ecological characteristics displayed by these bufonids underscore the potential loss of ecological function should these species face extinction.”

“Given the risk of losing these species and their contributions to amphibian biodiversity, there is a significant need to intensify conservation efforts to safeguard them.”

“Further research is crucial to fully comprehend the behavior and ecology of these remarkable arboreal toads.”

This discovery is detailed in the following article: paper published in Vertebrate Zoology.

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C. Slane et al. 2025. Museology and integrated taxonomy reveal three new species of glandular viviparous tree toads (Nectophrynoides) from the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania (Anura: Bufonidae). Vertebrate Zoology 75: 459-485; doi: 10.3897/vz.75.e167008

Source: www.sci.news

Fossils from Tanzania and Zambia Illuminate the Permian Mass Extinction

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Paleontologists have discovered a variety of animals, including saber-toothed predators, burrowing foragers, and large salamander-like creatures that flourished in southern Pangaea about 252 million years ago, just prior to the mass extinction of the Permian period.

Artistic rendering of an evening about 252 million years ago during the Late Permian Epoch in the Luangwa Basin, Zambia. This scene features several sabertooth Golgonopsians and Dishnodons in the beak. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

“The extinction at the end of the Permian was catastrophic for life on Earth,” stated Professor Christian Saidal of the University of Washington.

“Yet, we do not have a complete understanding of which species managed to survive.

“The fossils we gather in Tanzania and Zambia provide a broader perspective on this remarkable period in our planet’s history.”

All new fossils were uncovered in three basins in southern Africa: the Roof Basin in southern Tanzania, the Luangwa Basin in eastern Zambia, and the Zambezi Central Basin in southern Zambia.

The majority were found by team members during several month-long excavation trips to the region over the past 17 years.

Others were analyzed from specimens excavated decades ago, preserved in museum collections.

“These regions in Zambia and Tanzania are home to incredibly well-preserved fossils from the Permian era,” Professor Saidal remarked.

“They provide us with an unparalleled glimpse into terrestrial life leading up to the mass extinction.”

The Permian period marks the conclusion of what paleontologists term the Paleozoic era.

During this time, animal life, which first emerged in our oceans, began to colonize land and developed complex terrestrial ecosystems.

The Permian epoch saw a diverse range of amphibians and reptile-like creatures inhabit environments ranging from early forests to arid valleys.

The mass extinction at the End-Permian wiped out many of these ecosystems, paving the way for the Mesozoic era, which witnessed the evolution of dinosaurs, the first birds, flowering plants, and mammals.

For decades, scientists relied on the Kalu Basin in South Africa for their best understanding of the Permian, the corresponding extinction, and the onset of the Mesozoic Era, which boasts nearly complete fossil records from before and after that mass extinction.

However, since the 1930s, paleontologists have noted that the fossil records in the Tanzanian and Zambian basins are comparably pristine.

This excavation represents the most extensive analysis of the local fossil record from the period surrounding the Permian mass extinction to date.

“The quantity of specimens found in Zambia and Tanzania is extraordinarily high, and their condition is so exquisite that paleontologists are able to draw species-level comparisons with those in South Africa,” Professor Sidor explained.

“We recognize that there is no better location on the planet to make such precise conclusions and comparisons to glean sufficient detail about this era.”

In the Series of 14 Articles published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers have detailed numerous new species of dicynodonts.

These small, burrowing, reptile-like herbivores first emerged during the Central Permian.

By the time of the mass extinction, the Dishnodons had beak-like snouts featuring two small tusks; many of them dug holes and became the dominant plant-eating animals on land.

The findings also uncover several large saber-toothed predators known as Golgonopsians, along with new species of amphibians, such as large salamanders.

“We can analyze two distinct geographical regions of Pangaea and observe the happenings before and after the Permian extinction,” Professor Saidal concluded.

“This allows us to explore critical questions regarding which species survived and which did not.”

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Bone Tool Unearthed in Tanzania Dates Back 1.5 Million Years

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Paleontologists have documented a collection of bone tools from one horizon, 1.5 million years ago, in Tanzania’s All-Bai Valley. These bone tools preceded more than a million years ago other evidence of systematic bone tool production, shedding new light on the almost unknown world of early human bone technology.

The elephant’s humerus, which was 1.5 million years ago, has soaked into the tool. Image credit: CSIC.

Early humans had already made stone tools with some capacity for at least a million years, but there was little evidence of widespread adoption from bones about 500,000 years ago.

Humanity, who shaped the newly discovered bone tools, did it in the same way they created stone tools by shaving small flakes and creating sharp edges.

The transfer of this technology from one medium to another shows that the human race who made bone tools had a high understanding of tool creation, and that they can adapt their technology to different materials, important intellectual leaps.

It could be that human ancestors at the time had higher levels of cognitive skills and brain development than scientists thought.

“The discovery envisages that early humans will greatly expand their technical options, previously limited to stone tools production, and now allow new raw materials to be incorporated into a repertoire of potential artifacts.”

“At the same time, this expansion of technological potential demonstrates the advances in the cognitive and mental structures of these humans, who knew how to incorporate innovation by adapting knowledge of stone work to manipulation of bones.”

“The tool provides evidence that their creators work carefully on the bones, shatter the flakes and create useful shapes,” says Dr. Renata Peters, a researcher at the University of London.

“We were excited to find these bone tools from these early time frames.”

“It means that human ancestors were able to transfer skills from stones to bones, a level of complex cognition that we have not seen elsewhere in a million years.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipecfzkuytc

The 1.5 million-year-old bone tool was discovered at the T69 complex site in Friedalie Ki Collongo West Gully in the All-By Valley in northern Tanzania.

The research authors discovered a collection of 27 bones shaped into the site’s tools. The bones mostly came from large mammals, mostly elephants and hippopotamus.

The tool is made only from the bones of the animal’s limbs. These are because they are the most dense and strong.

Very early stone tools have come from the All Old One era, which grew from about 2.7 million to 1.5 million years ago. It employs a simple method of making stone tools by shaving one or several flakes from the stone core using hammer stones.

The bone tool reported in the current study was a time when ancient human ancestors began in the Akeirian era, when they began around 1.7 million years ago.

Acheulean technology is best characterized by using more complex hand axes carefully shaped by napping.

Bone tools show that these more advanced techniques have been carried over and adopted for use in bone.

Prior to this discovery, bones shaped into tools were only sporadically identified in rare and isolated cases of the fossil record, not a way to imply that human ancestors systematically produced them.

Due to the overall shape, size and sharp edges, exactly what the tool was used is unknown, but it may have been used to deal with animal corpses in food.

It is also unknown that human ancestor species created the tool.

Alongside the collection of bone artifacts, no relics of humanity were found, but they are known at the time, Homo Erectus and Paranthropus Boisei He was a resident of this area.

“These tools were such an unexpected discovery, so we hope that our findings will encourage archaeologists to reconsider bone discoveries around the world in case other evidence of bone tools is missed,” the researchers said.

Their paper Today I’ll be appearing in the journal Nature.

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I. de la Torr et al. Systematic bone tool production 1.5 million years ago. NaturePublished online on March 5th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08652-5

Source: www.sci.news