SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2011

Hand-coloured copperplate engravings from Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede's
Hortus Malabaricus published from Amsterdam: 1678-1693
Source: http://www.aradersf.com/indianbotanicalselection.htm

1 February 2011: Forest Minister Benoy Viswom inaugurated the ‘Itty Achuthan Memorial Hortus Malabaricus Sasya Sarvaswam' project, conceived by the State Forest and Wildlife Department at Chaliyam in Calicut, Kerala today. The ambitious project will preserve all herbs and plants that find a mention in the historic work ‘Hortus Malabaricus' (Garden of Malabar) by Hendrik Van Rheede, who was a Dutch Governor in Kochi during 1667-77. Link: http://www.kerala.gov.in/dept_forest/forest.htm

2 February 2011: World Wetlands Day is going to be celebrated today with the theme ‘Wetlands and Forests’ and with a slogan ‘Forests for Water and Wetlands’ especially chosen because 2011 is the UN International Year of Forests. It marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The day is aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular.Link: http://www.ramsar.org/

3 February 2011: A newly discovered species of dinosaur appears to be related to the horned dinosaur species. The new species, called Titanoceratops weighed nearly 15,000 pounds and a massive eight-foot-long skull. It lived in the American southwest around 74 million years ago and is the earliest known Triceratopsin. The study appears in an upcoming issue of the journal Cretaceous Research. Link: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622812/description

4 February 2011: Astronomers have spotted a new solar system with small  planets packed in close orbit to their sun. The solar system discovery, published in the journal Nature, is mystifying astronomers for the time being and illustrates how much variety is possible in the universe.The team at NASA and a range of universities has named the system Kepler-11,after the Kepler space telescope that spotted it. Link: http://kepler.nasa.gov/

5 February 2011: The genome of the water flea Daphnia pulex has been sequenced for the first time. It has the largest number of genes ever recorded for a multicellular animal. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced. The findings was by the Daphnia Genomics Consortium led by the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics at Indiana University Bloomington and the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. Link: https://daphnia.cgb.indiana.edu/Home 

6 February 2011: The Indian Space Research Organisation is getting ready to launch Resourcesat 2, a remote sensing earth observation satellite, by February 20. Resourcesat-2 will replace Resourcesat-1 launched in 2003.With the tenth one to join, India has the largest number of Remote Sensing Satellites in the world. The remote sensing satellites currently operational are: Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-2B, Oceansat-2, RISAT-2, Cartosat-2A, IMS-1, Cartosat-2, Resourcesat-1 and TES. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in/

7 February 2011: An international symposium on Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) began at Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow. On this occasion a Morphine rich variety of Opium Poppy named CIMAP-Ajay was also released which contains about double the amount of Morphine as compared to other existing variety. The meeting is also hosted by the International Society for Horticulture Science (ISHS). Link: http://www.cimap.res.in/cimapdev/index.php

8 February 2011: The Centre is giving final touches to Green India Mission (GIM), a project to improve both the quantity and quality of the country’s forest cover. The objective of the mission is two-fold: to improve the quality of five million hectares of forest land and to convert five million hectares of non-forest land to forest in ten years. The GIM, conceived as part of National Action Plan on Climate Change,  would be implemented through grama sabhas. Link: http://pmindia.nic.in/climate_change.htm 

9 February 2011: An asteroid about the size of a car will pass close by Earth today, the second space rock in five days to fly near, but pose no threat of hitting, our planet. The asteroid is called 2011 CA7 and will fly within 103,480 kilometers of Earth, according to an alert from NASA's Asteroid Watch program. It is about 3 meters and was discovered by astronomers earlier this month. On Feb. 4, the asteroid 2011 CQ 1 sailed within 5471 km of Earth during its brief encounter. Link: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/ 

10 February 2011: Iran produced two cloned calves through freezing embryo in laboratory. The calves Abgoun and Abgineh were born in Biotechnology Research Center of  Royan Institute. The Middle East's first and the world's fifth cloned goat, Hanna was successfully born at Royan institute in Isfahan, Iran in April 2009. Iran's first cloned lamb, Royana, was born on Sept. 30, 2006 in Royan institute and was able to survive the post-natal complications common in cloned animals. Link: http://www.royaninstitute.org 

11 February 2011: India’s first International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT) at Vallarpadam in Kochi, designed to handle the largest container ships, will be opened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today. Lal Bahadur Shastri, a container ship owned by Shipping Corporation of India will dock at ICTT today to load containers.DP World owned by the Dubai government, won the 30-year contract to build and operate the ICTT in a public auction  in 2004. Link: http://www.vallarpadam.com/ a

12 February 2011: This year has brought the 20th anniversary of the start of the Human Genome Project and the 10th anniversary of having in hand a draft sequence of the human genome. The Human Genome Project began in 1990 and a working draft of the genome was announced in 2000. A parallel project was conducted by the Celera Corporation. Although the working draft was announced in June 2000, it was not until February 2001 that scientists published details of their drafts. Link: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/

13 February 2011: India will start a Siberian Crane Breeding Program in the country to increase the number of birds in the wild. Cranes raised in captivity are given flight training to team up with those born in the wild. A microlite aircraft will be used to guides them on their migratory route till they get accustomed. The number of Siberian cranes at Bharatpur have dropped drastically from more than 120 pairs eight years ago to a handful which arrives from Siberia. Link: http://www.bharatpursanctury.com/ 

14 February 2011: India's first cricket mentoring web portal, 'CricketMentor.tv' was launched here today with a promise of providing an online platform for interaction between players, coaches and others associated with the sporting community. The site offers e-learning capabilities to players and coaches also  A unique feature of the site lies in the fact that the players will be provided a channel through which they can share their cricketing videos with their friends. Link: http://www.cricketmentor.tv/

15 February 2011: Some 210 million miles away, a comet-hunting Stardust-NExT spacecraft is ready to get up close and personal with its cosmic match on Valentine's Day. Speeding at 24,000 mph, NASA's Stardust craft will swoop within 125 miles of comet Tempel 1, close enough to take high-resolution images of the surface. In 2005, NASA craft Deep Impact aimed a copper bullet that crashed into the surface and excavated a crater. Link: http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/

16 February 2011: Fateh Singh Rathore, one of the last of the mighty men who fought all odds to protect the tiger, was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).“There were times when in Ranthambhore one could not spot a tiger even after trying hard for ten days. Then came Kailash Sankhla, Project Tiger and Fateh Singh,” said Divyabhanusinh Chavda, WWF India president on the occasion. Link: http://www.wwfindia.org/

17 February 2011: Today, the first space probe in nearly 40 years will approach the planet Mercury. The mission is called MESSENGER, for Mercury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging being launched on August 3, 2004 . It is there after more than six years of maneuvering between the Earth, Venus and Mercury itself. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. So far the only space probes to get a close look at Mercury is Mariner 10 in mid-1970's. Link: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

18 February 2011: The dreaded avian influenza (H1N1) or bird flu has reappeared at RK Nagar, 8km east of Agartala town Tripura after a gap of two years. The Centre advised the Tripura government to cull all birds in the farm after the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal confirmed that samples collected from the farm tested positive for H5 strain of Avian Influenza. The last outbreak was reported in January 2010 in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Link: http://www.hsadl.org/index.htm 

19 February 2011: Scientists of the University of Delhi, as part of the ‘Lost Amphibians of  India' initiative launched in November 2010 , have rediscovered five species of frogs such as Chalazodes Bubble-nest Frog (Raorchestes chalazodes), Anamalai Dot-frog (Ramanella anamalaiensis), Dehradun Stream frog (Amolops chakrataensis), Silent Valley tropical frog (Micrixalus thampii), and Elegant tropical frog (Micrixalus elegans). All these were believed to be extinct years ago. Link: http://www.du.ac.in/

20 February 2011: The laser, a 50-year-old invention now used in everything from CDs to laser pointers, has met its match in the 'anti-laser', the first device capable of trapping and cancelling out laser beams. The most obvious use of  this device is in computing. Instead of having chips with transistors and silicon, these new computers will use both light and electrical energy. Researchers of Yale University has published their findings in the journal Science. Link: http://www.yale.edu/

21 February 2011: India plans to set up its first laboratory exclusively tasked with designing vaccines against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI),near Delhi. It will be a joint venture of  India Government’s Biotechnology Department and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The THSTI laboratory will be the first, exclusively tasked towards new candidate HIV vaccines. Link: http://www.thsti.res.in/

22 February 2011: Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization have discovered a giant underground chamber on the moon, which they feel could be used as a base by astronauts on future manned missions to moon. An analysis by an instrument on Chandrayaan-1 revealed a 1.7-km long and 120-metre wide cave near the moon's equator that is in the Oceanus Procellarum area of the moon that could be a suitable 'base station' for future human missions.  Link: http://www.sac.gov.in/


23 February 2011: Thai scientists have successfully produced the world's first Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever vaccine and will let the private sector improve it for the effective treatment of patients. Dr Suthee Yoksarn, a lecturer of  Mahidol University, together with his team and Chiang Mai University have jointly developed four stereotypes of the live attenuated vaccine. This was achieved by combining attenuated DNA with a protein structure that stimulates immunity against the Dengue fever. Link: http://www.chiangmai.ac.th/

24 February 2011: Aadhaar, the Unique Identification (UID) project launched by Central Government in 2009 is here in Kerala today. The IT Department has been designated as nodal department and Akshaya, IT@School and Keltron are the enrolment agencies. K Chandrika, Mayor of Trivandrum was the first person to be enrolled. Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number which will be linked to the basic biometric information based on photograph, fingerprints and iris mapping of each citizen. Link: http://uidai.gov.in/

25 February 2011: Space shuttle Discovery, the most flown spacecraft in history, will blast off for its 39th mission today, this time for the last. It promises to be a sentimental journey for the six astronauts assigned to the mission as well as the supporting cast of thousands who have painstakingly prepped the world's most traveled rocketship. When Discovery returns, it will be the first of the three surviving shuttles to be decommissioned this year and shipped off to a museum. Link: http://discovery.nasa.gov/

26 February 2011: Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have designed a pen-shaped, needleless drug delivery device, the first such in India that will use supersonic shock waves for painless delivery of medicines into the body. Around 12 billion injections are used globally,and the device will be helping some 150 million diabetics around the world. US-based Bioject Medical Technologies Inc. is also making such a device, but is using a different gas-based technology. Link: http://www.iisc.ernet.in/

27 February 2011: Scientists think they have seen the "birth"  baby planet around a very young sun-like star, about 350 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Chameleon. If they can confirm their discovery, it would be the earliest picture yet of a natal planetary system, further illuminating how planets are born. Using the Very Large Telescope, astronomers were looking at a star called T Chamaeleontis. The finding is in  the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Link: http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt.html

28 February 2011:Because of the issues surrounding turtles and the need to raise awareness, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) has proclaimed 2011 as the Year of the Turtle. Currently, 328 species of turtles are known worldwide -- 57 (20% of the world's turtle species) are found in the United States and Canada. The United States has more native turtle species than any other country; it is a turtle biodiversity hotspot. Link: http://www.arc-trust.org/

MOVIE OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2011

I AM NUMBER FOUR

Director       : D J Caruso
Camera        : Guillermo Navarro
Studio          : Reliance BIG Entertainment

Distributor   : DreamWorks
Releasing on: February 18, 2011
Language     : English

I Am Number Four is an upcoming 2011 American teen science fiction film, directed by D. J. Caruso, and starring Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron, Kevin Durand, and Callan McAuliffe. The film is based on the novel I Am Number Four, written by Jobie Hughes and James Frey, with an adapted screenplay by Al Gough, Miles Millar and Marti Noxon.

The film is being produced by Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg through DreamWorks; The Hollywood Reporter projected the budget to be between $50 and $60 million. The film will be released on February 18, 2011.

Nine infant aliens, who closely resemble humans, flee their home planet, Lorien, to hide on Earth. An invading species, the Mogadorians, have destroyed their planet, and followed them to Earth to hunt them down. Each of the nine aliens is given a guardian and will develop superhuman powers as they become adults. They are each assigned a number. These last children of Lorien can only be killed in the sequence of their numbers. Numbers One, Two, and Three have been killed so far.

Number Four (Alex Pettyfer), also named John Smith, moves to Paradise, Ohio, disguised as an American high school student. He makes a friend, Sarah Hart (Dianna Agron), a sweet Midwestern girl who is a photographer. After being on the run his whole life, Number Four falls in love and now has something to stand up and fight for.

In March 2010, Alex Pettyfer was in talks to play the title character in the film, Number Four. It was later confirmed that the 20-year-old English actor will play the lead. Sharlto Copley was going to star as Henri, Number Four's guardian and mentor, but had to drop out due to press obligations with his film The A-Team. Copley was replaced by Timothy Olyphant. Kevin Durand plays the villain of the film, Commander, an alien who leads the hunt of the escaped aliens on Earth.

DreamWorks went through multiple rounds of tests to find the right actress for the female romantic lead. Dianna Agron, a star in the Fox television series Glee, won the highly sought-after role. She plays Sarah, a girl who dates a high school football player, but falls for Number Four and keeps his secret. Jake Abel plays the football player, Mark James, an antagonist in the film who doesn't like someone moving in on his girlfriend. Teresa Palmer plays another alien, Number Six, and 16-year-old Australian actor Callan McAuliffe plays Sam, Number Four's best friend.

Film producer and director Michael Bay brought the manuscript of the teen book, I Am Number Four, to Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg at DreamWorks. A bidding war developed for the film rights between DreamWorks and J.J. Abrams, with DreamWorks winning the rights in June 2009, with the intention of having Bay produce and possibly direct the project. The rights were purchased with the hope of attracting teenage fans of the Twilight saga films, and the potential of establishing a film franchise, with a least six more installments planned by the book's publisher.

James Frey is the co-author of the book, along with Jobie Hughes, a graduate of Columbia University's creative writing program. Al Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of the television series Smallville, were hired to write the screenplay in August 2009. Marti Noxon, writer and producer for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also contributed as a writer. In early-2010, D. J. Caruso was brought on to direct, after Bay opted to focus on directing the third film of the Transformers series. Caruso had been selected by Spielberg to direct Disturbia and Eagle Eye for DreamWorks, and had success with both films.Caruso had less than a year to prepare, shoot and edit the film, due to a worldwide release date set for Presidents Day weekend.

Chris Bender, J.C. Spink and David Valdes are executive producing the film.Steven Spielberg contributed to the film's characters, but is not expected to take a credit on the film. It will be the first DreamWorks film to be released by Disney's Touchstone film label, as part of the new 30-picture distribution deal between DreamWorks and the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. The film is also the first release for DreamWorks after the studio's financial restructuring in 2008.

Filming began on May 17, 2010, using 20 locations all within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.DreamWorks selected the area primarily due to tax incentives from the Pennsylvania Film Production Tax Credit. The film studio also had a positive experience shooting She's Out of My League in Pittsburgh in 2008. The production was scheduled to last 12 to 13 weeks.

Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro shot the film on 35 mm, using a format known as Super Beaver, the former Conley Inn in Homewood, and nearby Buttermilk Falls were used as locations in the film; interior and exterior scenes were shot near a boat launch in Monaca. A spring fair scene was filmed in Deer Lakes Park; Port Vue, North Park, New Kensington and Hyde Park were also used as locations.

The setting of the film's fictional town of Paradise, Ohio is Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, where filming took place in June 2010. Producers chose Vandergrift as the "hero town" of the film because of its unique look and curved streets, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York City's Central Park.

Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville was chosen over 50 other schools in the area, due to its proximity to nearby woods, a part of the film's plot, and its surrounding hills. The school was also selected for its one floor layout, wide hallways, and its football stadium in front. In the last few weeks of production, scenes were filmed at the 200-year-old St. John's Lutheran Stone Church in Lancaster Township.[Additional filming took place in the Florida Keys.

I Am Number Four is being edited by Jim Page, with Industrial Light & Magic developing the visual effects for the alien creatures.It is director D. J. Caruso's first extensive use of computer-enhanced special effects. The film is being scored by former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin.

A teaser trailer for the film was issued in late September 2010,and a full length trailer premiered on December 8. Advertisements ran in Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines, and Disney released a promotional iPhone app in January 2011.Disney has also developed a lot of Internet content to target a teen audience with their marketing campaign. A cast tour, in association with American retailer Hot Topic, and cast media appearances are scheduled to lead up to the release of the film.I Am Number Four will be released in theaters on February 18, 2011, and will also be released in the IMAX format.

Website: http://www.findnumberfour.com/
Source  : http://www.wikipedia.org/

BOOK OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2011

                                                        
Title         : MARIE CURIE: A Biography
Author     : Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie
Pages       : 189 
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Published:  25 January 2011
Price        : $ 17
ISBN       : 13: 978-1616142162

2011 is the Year of  Chemistry. The year coincides with the centenary year of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry to Marie Curie. And if you are preparing for the activities relating to this, here is a book for your reference- Marie Curie:A Biography. It covers her entire lifetime, beginning with he rearly life and education in a Poland under the oppressive rule of the czar of Russia. This book, however, looks at more than her scientific achievements. The book discusses all aspects both personal and fascinating life.

Marie Curie (1867- 1934) was one of the most important women scientists in history, and she was one of the most influential scientistsman or womanof the 20th century. Curie postulated that radiation was an atomic property, a discovery that has led to significant scientific developments since. She was also the first person to use the termradio activity. Her perseverance led to the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. This combination of creativity and perseverance netted her two Nobel Prizes. one in physics and the second in chemistry.

There is probably no woman scientist more famous than Marie Curie (1867-1934). She made one of the most important theoretical breakthroughs of the twentieth century when she postulated that radiation was an atomic rather than a chemical property, an important milestone in understanding the structure of matter. Not only did she coin the term radioactivity, but her painstaking research culminated in the isolation of two new elements, polonium and radium. For her achievements she won two Nobel Prizes, one in physics (in 1903) and the other in chemistry (in 1911).

This informative, accessible, and concise biography looks at Marie Curie not just as a dedicated scientist but also as a complex woman with a sometimes-tumultuous personal life. Historian of science Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie describes Curie’s life and career, from her early years in Poland, where she was born Maria Sklodowska; through her marriage to and collaboration with Pierre Curie; her appointment as the first female professor at Sorbonne University after his untimely death; and the scientific work that led to her recognition by the Nobel Prize committee.

Ogilvie also candidly discusses the controversy that surrounded Marie when detractors charged that her work was actually performed by her late husband. Finally, she describes Curie’s work in founding the radium institutes to study radiation and in establishing mobile X-ray units during World War I. Eventually, her long exposure to radium led to her death from aplastic anemia in 1934. A year later, Albert Einstein published a tribute to her in memoriam, praising both her intuition and her tenacity under the most trying circumstances.

Ogilvie’s appealing narrative brings the brilliant scientist and courageous woman to life in a story that will continue to inspire future scientists. Ogilvie, now retired, is formerly a professor of the history of science and curator of the history of science collections at the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of  Searching the Stars: The Story of Caroline Herschel and Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century and editor of many dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Review Text Courtesy: http://www.prometheusbooks.com/, http://www.goodreads.com/, http://www.traderscity.com

EVENT OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2011

DARWIN DAY CELEBRATIONS 2011

Date: 12 February 2011

                                                                              
This will be Darwin's 202nd birthday, to be celebrated by the global community as a toast to the common good of all humanity. We will all want to develop events to Celebrate Darwin, Science and Humanity and come together as one human family in appreciation of verifiable knowledge that has been acquired solely through human curiosity and ingenuity. Scientific knowledge has been of great value to all of us.

By 2011 it is our hope that the Celebration of Science and Humanity will be so well established that during the reminder of the year we will all want to continue to work to make February the 12th a International day to recognize Verifiable Scientific Knowledge and to appreciate the connection of Humankind to the acquisition of this knowledge. One experiences an intellectual freedom of understanding by realizing that all living things on earth have a common evolutionary history that connects us all. So it is our expectation that we will all continue to work together to expand the CELEBRATION OF DARWIN, SCIENCE AND HUMANITY!

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin -- the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

The International Darwin Day Foundation website provides resources and publicity for individuals and institutions across the world to celebrate science and humanity every year, on, or near, February 12, Darwin's birthday. In addition to information about the life and legacy of Charles Darwin, this website provides practical examples, advice and templates for organizing and publicizing Darwin Day events. It also provides a directory of events where you can find celebrations taking place near you or register your own event for others to find.

Recognizing science as an international language accessible to all individuals and societies, the International Darwin Day Foundation provides a new global holiday that transcends separate nationalities and cultures. Darwin Day can be celebrated in many different ways: civic ceremonies with official proclamations, educational symposia, birthday parties, art shows, book discussions, lobby days, games, protests, and dinner parties. Organizers may include: academic societies, science organizations, freethought groups, religious congregations, libraries, museums, galleries, teachers and students, families and friends. In Darwin Day, we are able to recognize the diversity among us, while celebrating our common humanity and the universal understanding we share.

The International Darwin Day Foundation promotes public education about science and encourages the celebration of Science and Humanity throughout the global community.

Link: http://www.darwinday.org/about/

SPECIES OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY 2011

SUMATRAN CLOUDED LEOPARD

                                      
Class        : Mammalia
Order       : Carnivora
Family      : Felidae
Subfamily : Pantherinae
Genus       : Neofelis
Species     : Neofelis diardi diardi

This big cat is so enigmatic that researchers only realised it was a new species - distinct from clouded leopards living elsewhere in Asia - in 2007. The first footage of the cat in the wild to made public was only released last year. Now a genetic analysis has confirmed that the cat comes in two forms, one living in Sumatra, the other on Borneo.

Clouded leopards are the most elusive of all the big cats, which include lions, tigers, jaguars, snow leopards and normal spotted leopards. So far we can only speculate about the specific course of events in the evolution of the clouded leopard Joerns Fickel Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. Living across south-east Asia, into China and India, the leopards have larger cloud-like spots than ordinary leopards.

Until 2006, all clouded leopards were thought to belong to a single species. However, genetic studies revealed that there are actually two quite distinct clouded leopard species. As well as the better known clouded leopard living on the Asian mainland (Neofelis nebulosa), scientists determined that a separate clouded leopard species lives on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The two species are thought to have diverged over one million years ago.

This leopard is now known as the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), though it was previously and erroneously called the Bornean clouded leopard. Since 2008, it has been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In 2010, a team of scientists working in the Dermakot Forest Reserve in Malaysia released the first footage of the cat in the wild to be made public. Led by Mr Andreas Wilting of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, Germany, the researchers captured images of a Sunda clouded leopard walking along a road. Now Mr Wilting and colleagues have published new research which reveals even more about this mysterious cat.

They sampled 15 Sunda clouded leopards living on Borneo and 16 living in Sumatra, conducting molecular and genetic studies to reveal their origin. The researchers also examined the skulls of 28 further Sunda clouded leopards and the fur coats of 20 specimens held in museums, as well as the coats of cats photographed on both islands.

"Although we suspected that Sunda clouded leopards on Borneo and Sumatra have likely been geographically separated since the last Ice Age, it was not known whether this long isolation had caused them to split up into separate sub-species," explains Wilting. But his team's analysis confirms that the latest "new" species of cat to be discovered actually comes in two forms, a Bornean subspecies N. d. borneensis and the Sumatran subspecies N. d. diardi . Their results are published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.11.007 ).

The differences aren't obvious: the Sunda clouded leopards on Borneo and Sumatra look alike. Both cats have similar patterned coats as they live in similar jungle habitats, the researchers suspect. But as well as being genetically distinct, the clouded leopards on both islands are also morphologically different, having unique features in their skulls and teeth. It is unclear what caused the Sunda clouded leopard to evolve into two forms.

"So far we can only speculate about the specific course of events in the evolution of the clouded leopard," says team member Joerns Fickel, also at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. But the researchers think that a volcanic eruption on Sumatra 75,000 years ago may have wiped out most clouded leopards. One group survived in China and colonised the rest of mainland Asia. Another hung on in Borneo, becoming the Sunda clouded leopard. This evolved into two types after a group colonised Sumatra via glacial land bridges, and then became cut off as sea levels rose.

Tests have proven a long-held belief that Borneo's rare Sunda clouded leopard is really a different subspecies from its Indonesian relative, researchers said Sunday.The two subspecies of Sunda leopard -- which was only identified as a species in its own right in 2007 -- must now be managed differently, said a report by Andreas Wilting from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research and researchers from the Sabah wildlife and forestry departments.

"The Sunda clouded leopard in Borneo and Sumatra is a different species from clouded leopards across the Asian mainland," Wilting said."We suspected the leopards on Borneo and Sumatra have likely been geographically separated since the last Ice Age, and we now know the long isolation has resulted in a split into separate subspecies," he added."The potential that they could evolve into full separate species, given that they are separate subspecies, means that captive breeders will now be better informed to keep the subspecies apart to allow them to evolve fully."

Wilting said that molecular analysis, genetic testing and skull morphology studies on fur and bone samples of the leopard from natural history museums worldwide showed the species followed different evolutionary paths.The researchers say natural disasters were likely responsible for the split, with only two populations of the leopards in Borneo and southern China surviving the Toba volcanic eruption in Sumatra about 75,000 years ago.

"The ones on Borneo could have recolonised Sumatra via glacial land bridges and subsequently developed into a different subspecies as sea levels rose after the last Ice Age, isolating the two islands," said co-author Joerns Fickel.Wilting said both subspecies are classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature because the big cats occur in small numbers and need big home ranges for their survival.

Researchers say the subspecies is the biggest predator on Borneo, a resource-rich island split between Malaysia and Indonesia where wildlife habitats are under pressure from logging and plantations.Last February, researchers were able for the first time to capture the leopard on film at the Dermakot Forest Reserve on Borneo.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9369000/9369238.stm

Link: Wilting A, Christiansen P, Kitchener AC, Kemp YJ, Ambu L, Fickel. Geographical variation in and evolutionary history of the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) with the description of a new subspecies from Borneo. Journal of  Molecular Phylogenetics and  Evolution.
2010 November 11.