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Today
SCIENCE.
THE SNAKE "LEPTOTYPHLOPS CARLAE"
World’s smallest snake found in Barbados
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Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist, said Sunday he
has discovered the globe’s tiniest species of snake in
the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown
adults typically less than four inches long.
SAN JUAN,
Puerto Rico – A U.S. scientist said Sunday he has
discovered the globe's tiniest species of snake in the
easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown
adults typically stretching less than 4 inches (10
centimeters) long.
S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State
University whose research teams have also discovered the
world's tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the
smallest frog in Cuba, said the snake was found
slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian
forest.
Hedges said the tiny-title-holding snake, which is so
diminutive it can curl up on a U.S. quarter, is the
smallest of the roughly 3,100 known snake species. It
was to be introduced to the scientific world in the
journal "Zootaxa" on Monday.
"New and interesting species are still being discovered
on Caribbean islands, despite the very small amount of
natural forests remaining," said Hedges, who christened
the miniature brown snake "Leptotyphlops carlae" after
his herpetologist wife, Carla Ann Hass.
The Barbadian snake apparently eats termites and insect
larvae, but nothing is yet known of its ecology and
behavior. Genetic tests identified the snake as a new
species, according to Hedges. It is not venomous.
Zoologist Roy McDiarmid, curator of amphibians and
reptiles at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
History in Washington, said he has seen a specimen of
the diminutive creature. He saw no reason to argue with
the assertion that it is the world's smallest snake.
Finding the globe's tiniest snake demonstrates the
remarkable diversity of the ecologically delicate
Caribbean. It also illustrates a fundamental ecological
principle: Since Darwin's days, scientists have noticed
that islands are often home to both oversized and
miniaturized beasts.
Chef suggests poison plant
The Associated Press
LONDON – A British celebrity chef says he's sorry for
mistakenly recommending a deadly plant as a tasty salad ingredient.
Anthony Worrall Thompson says he meant to suggest using the weed fat hen,
a member of the spinach family whose leaves are edible. He instead told
Healthy and Organic Living magazine for its July edition that henbane
could be used in salads.
Henbane, whose name means "killer of hens," is a toxic plant that can
cause hallucinations, drowsiness and disorientation if ingested. The
magazine issued a correction Monday on its Web site.
Man calls 911 because of Subway
The Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville police say Reginald Peterson
needs to learn that 911 is not the appropriate place to complain that
Subway left the sauce off a spicy Italian sandwich. Police say the 42-year-old
man dialed 911 twice last week so he could have his sub made correctly.
The second call was to complain that officers weren't arriving fast
enough. They locked him out of the store after he left to call police.
When officers arrived, they tried to calm Peterson and explain the
proper use of 911.
TODAY
IN HISTORY
The Associated Press
1810
– Napoleon Bonaparte imposes tax on all colonial imports
into France.
1884 – Cornerstone of Statue of Liberty is laid
at entrance to New York harbor.
1944 – More than 1,000 Japanese, taken as
prisoners of war by Australia, unsuccessfully attempt to
escape from a camp in Cowra, New South Wales; 234 are
killed and 108 wounded.
1949 – United States aid to Nationalist China
ceases; Earthquake in Ecuador takes about 6,000 lives.
1954 – Iran and eight Western oil companies agree
to reactivate Iran's frozen oil industry, ending a three-year
battle that bankrupted Iran and its relations with
Britain.
1962 – Anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela is
arrested at a police roadblock; U.S. movie star Marilyn
Monroe is found dead in a bedroom of her Los Angeles
home.
1965 – Cook Islands in South Pacific granted
internal self-government by New Zealand.
1969 – The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flies by
Mars, sending back unprecedented photographs.
1973 – Palestinian “Black September” guerrillas
attack a line of travelers at Greece's Athens airport
with grenades and machine guns, killing three and
wounding 55.
1992 – Nelson Mandela leads 100,000 blacks in
Pretoria in a protest to end white rule.
2002 – Four masked gunmen attack a Christian
school for the children of Protestant missionaries in
Murree, 55 km (35 miles) north of Islamabad, killing six
and wounding three others, all Pakistanis.
news@speed
||| A pickup truck thief lost his purloined
Silverado to an armed carjacker during a 7-Eleven stop
Pakistani Kushti
wrestlers train at the Champion Khalu Behalwan wrestling
club in the Old City of Pakistan. Kushti, an Indo-Pakistani
form of wrestling, is several thousand years old and is
a national sport in Pakistan.
Students at KIPP DC KEY
Academy are rewarded on Fridays for behaving well, doing
their homework or making academic gains. Rewards include
"paychecks", which can be used at the school's store for
genuine items, and wearing jeans on Fridays.
Paul Green’s School of
Rock All-Stars show off damaged gear during a
performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park on
Sunday.
A young girl dances in a competition at the Bear
Mountain, N.Y. Native American Heritage Celebration.
Native American dancers from numerous tribes from the
Americas performed at the two-day celebration.
Big Brown is led
onto the track before the Haskell Invitational horse
race at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. Kent Desormeaux
riding Big Brown won the race, and Joe Bravo riding Coal
Play was second.
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