Fried News Day

Just one story today, but it's a good one, I think:

Sept. 25, 2009 07:12 AM Associated Press
BANGKOK - A gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, an environmental group said Friday.

Lee Grismer, of La Sierra University in California reported, "We were engrossed in trying to catch a new species of gecko when my son pointed out that my hand was on a rock mere inches away from the head of a pit viper."

Grismer's careless actions, and the fact that he came to no harm because of them, caused a great stir in the scientific community, with many researchers questioning, for the first time, the widely-accepted scientific doctrine of "survival of the fittest."

Just a few of the animals discovered include:

1) A baldheaded song bird in Laos called the barefaced Bulbul Pycnonotus hualon.

Is it just me, or does that sound like something Gabby Hayes would call the crooked land baron in a John Wayne movie - a barefaced Bulbul Pycnonotus hualon?

2) A new bird species called the Nonggang babbler that favors walking to flying.

Researchers discovered the bird by following the males' unusual cry -"If God had meant for birds to fly, He'd have given them...oh...right." When they got closer, the team heard the females' response - "Shut up, you old buzzard - you're babbling again."

3) A tube-nosed bat named Murina harpioloides.

Not a new species at all, but previously unknown in Southeast Asia. Formerly the only specimen known to science was found in a third-grade classroom in a small Arizona town. Colleagues and acquaintances almost never used her given name, "Murina," opting instead for the more formal "Miss Harpioloides." Kids got in big trouble if they were ever caught calling her a tube-nosed bat. She threatened to sic her fanged frog on us ... I mean them ...