The team, comprising experts from 16 nations, has just returned from a research trip in six weeks on board the vessel RRS James Cook.

Among the findings made by the expedition, those of 10 possible new species, and rare marine animals such as a creature of the deep that has no eyes, no obvious sensory organs or brain, but which has a similar end to a and a similar head to the tip of a tail, both fairly well-defined, and has the typical body structure of primitive animals with backbones.

The expedition was made under the MAR-ECO, an international research program established to improve awareness, distribution and ecology of animals along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, between Iceland and the Azores.

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A collection of mobile phones has been launched at the Prague Zoo. Visitors can now get rid of their old phones in bins located at the entrance. Ten crowns by phone are donated to the Dja Reserve, located in southern Cameroon to help protect the gorillas. The species is particularly threatened by mining coltan, used precisely ores for the manufacture of mobile phones. Recycling of this component should reduce the environmental impact of this industry. Other Czech zoos also expressed interest in this initiative.

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The census of lynx is a very difficult task. Indeed, traditional methods of capturing and collaring very difficult to apply this cat, because it is particularly elusive. Therefore, scientists have developed a new method of animal identification, unique in Central Europe, which relies on a network of 50 cameras that automatically photograph any animal that passes in front of their goal. This system is really effective with the lynx, because they have the distinction of being all well distinguishable (distribution of patches, size).

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A team co-led by Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University, and Nicolas Vidal, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, has discovered that blind snakes are one of the few groups of organisms that lived in Madagascar when this island is separated from India makes about 100 million years and still live today.

Exist about 260 different species of blind snakes, constituting the largest group in the world of snake-like worms. These animals are common on tropical islands and southern mainland, but are present on all continents except Antarctica.

These snakes have poor vision (which is why they are called “blind”) and feed on social insects, including termites and ants. As there is hardly any known fossil snakes blind, has been difficult to reconstruct their evolution.

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A new study has revealed American songbirds that have been major changes in the shape of the wing during the last hundred years in response to forest changes associated with human activities.

The study is based on measurements of 851 specimens of 21 species of songbirds in the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates in the United States and the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada.

Since 1900, has decreased the extent of mature coniferous forests in Quebec as a result of extensive logging. That has caused some birds look more forced to travel greater distances to find mates, food and habitat. To fly at greater distances, these northern songbirds have developed more pointed wings.

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On the sandy plains of the Caribbean sea bed, where soft-bodied animals routinely are exposed to predators, camouflage is key to survival. Perhaps there is a group of animals that is so good at camouflage in their environment such as cephalopods, including cuttlefish and squid, and have developed a unique system of skin that can instantly change his appearance.

Roger Hanlon, a cephalopod expert at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and colleagues have studied the unique abilities of the octopus camouflage Macrotritopus DeFilippi, whose strategy to avoid predators includes skillfully disguised as a fluke.

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