Census of Marine Life-affiliated scientists consolidating world databases of ocean organisms have demoted to alias status almost one-third of all names culled from 34 regional and highly specialized inventories.

The new World Register of Marine Species contains about 122,500 validated marine species names (experts having recognized and tidied up some 56,400 aliases - 32% of all names reviewed). It also contains some 5,600 images, hyperlinks to taxonomic literature and other information.

Marking the World Register’s …

 Photo by David Brickford, courtesy of AP

On April 1, 2008 I wrote an article on AZA’s  “The Year of The Frog.”  AP is now reporting the discovery of new species of frog which has no lungs and breathes through it’s skin.  David Brickford, one of the …

Photo courtesy of AP

A group of New Zealand led scientists spent about 50 days exploring the Antarctica.  What they found, was a variety of new unknown species.  The picture above shows some of the giant star fish found in the Ross Sea.  Check out the article to read about what else …

What’s next?  The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans is in a dispute with none other than FEMA.  This dispute is about the Aquarium saving FEMA a little over half-million dollars.  FEMA agreed to pay the New Orleans Aquarium $616,000 to help restock fish lost during Hurricane Katrina, if the fish were bought through commercial suppliers.  Instead, the Aquarium wanted to speed-up the process of opening to the public, and went on it’s …

This summer, while completing the second phase of a two-year broad scientific survey of the waters around the Aleutian Islands, scientists have discovered what may be three new marine organisms. This year’s dives surveyed the western region of the Aleutians, from Attu to Amila Island, while last year’s assessment covered the eastern region.

During the dives, two potentially new species of sea …