5/22/12 Current Events: "Sneezing Monkey Highlights New Species List"

Thomas Geissmann / Fauna & Flora International
"A previously unknown type of snub-nosed monkey, discovered in northern Myanmar and dubbed Rhinopithecus strykeri, has a nose so upturned that the animals sneeze when it rains. To avoid inhaling water, they sit with their heads tucked between their knees on drizzly days, local hunters say. The species is shown here in a Photoshop reconstruction based on a Yunnan snub-nosed monkey and a carcass of the newly discovered species."




Article:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47538032/ns/today-today_tech/t/sneezing-monkey-highlights-new-species-list/#.T71zsdxSS6M 
(Photos are from article)
Shortened link to article (case-sensitive): http://goo.gl/BekOZ




   Although this article is titled "Sneezing Monkey Highlights New Species List," it actually concentrates more on the actual list the monkey is mentioned in. The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of scientists recently released this list for multiple purposes, one of which was to recognize the birthday of Carolus Linnaeus, the man who invented the naming and classification system for newly discovered organisms. The second reason was to try to attract people's attention for the same reason that some of the animals on the list no longer exist. Humans are causing a sixth mass extinction. Although many were selected as possible entries on the list, only those which were expected to attract the most attention were selected.
   I found this article very interesting, and I am going to find this list later on my own time. However, the second reason that the list was issued is a bit depressing. I think this list should only have had to be released for celebratory and entertainment purposes. The six mass extinction, that we are now in the middle of, should have never begun. If it hadn't, we might have had more amazing creatures like those mentioned on the list including the new snub-nosed monkey, the walking cactus, and the spongiforma squarepantsii (which I found funny but odd that it was named after Spongebob Squarepants, since it does not appear to be square.)

Thomas Bruns

"A funky new mushroom species 'lives in the rain forest, under a tree,' and researchers say it's nearly as strange as its SpongeBob SquarePants namesake. The bright orange (sometimes purple) mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was discovered in the forests of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo."