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Extinction, distinction and a weird celebration

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 14, 2006

A six-week expedition searching for a rare dolphin in China's Yangtze River ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct.

The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20-million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

A few baiji may still exist but not in sufficient numbers to breed and ward off extinction, said August Pfluger, the co-leader of the expedition.

"The baiji is functionally extinct. We lost the race," said Pfluger. "It is a tragedy. We are all incredibly sad."

Overfishing and shipping traffic, whose engines interfere with the sonar the baiji uses to navigate and feed, are likely the main reasons for the mammal's declining numbers.

It used to be that scientists thought that the oldest flying mammal was a bat that lived 51-million years ago. But a fossil discovered in China seems to indicate that there was a flying squirrel-like creature that lived as much as 164-million years ago. At that age, it would be older than the first birds. But the researchers say it probably wasn't a very good flier. Mainly it was able to glide from tree to tree, extending its insect-hunting grounds.

Paleontologist Richard L. Cifelli said this "wholly unexpected diversity of something adapted for gliding at this early time is absolutely astonishing."

Researchers are excited about the find because it suggests that mammals were a lot more varied earlier than has always been presumed. They named the creature Volaticotherium antiquus, which is Latin and Greek for "ancient flying beast."

The camel didn't have anything to do with it. But when some mechanics at a Turkish airport got some good news, it was bad news for the camel.

The mechanics learned that a troublesome brand of British-made planes would no longer be used at the airport, so to celebrate, they took a camel out on to the runway and sacrificed it. It got really bad when photos of workers holding up bloody chunks of the animal made it to the front page of newspapers.

Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim took the hard line, saying "it is not possible to approve such an incident."

The crew chief that approved the slaughter was fired.

Turks traditionally sacrifice animals as an offering to God for when their wishes come true. But with the country trying to join the European Union, officials are trying to encourage more modern celebrations.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 01:04:10]