Aurochs

Italian scientists are trying to recreate the extinct giant cattle, the aurochs. (News source.)

Inbreeding

Some are speculating that the sighting of a brown-and-white giant panda indicates inbreeding in the population. (News source.)

Research on thylacine specimens suggest that inbreeding was high prior to their extinction. (News source.)

New Cockroach, Probably

Two high school students working with DNA sequencing databases have discovered what is probably a new species of cockroach in New York. (News source.)

Pink Grasshopper

Andrew Gable has a posting on his blog about a rare mutation of a grasshopper found in the UK. I've seen records of pink katydids here in the US; that might make an interesting book, Mutants in the Insect Kingdom.

Feline Recaps

Notes on the Florida panther that traveled to Georgia before it was shot last year here, and here.

Notes on "black panther" sightings in California here, with photographs of a dark bobcat here.

Notes on Australian "coupan" sightings here.

Fun with Genetics

An interesting article in Wired on the T. rex protein research.

Lampreys lose about 20% of their genes as they develop. (News source.)

White Elephant Seal

A leucistic southern elephant seal has been reported from a sub-Antarctic beach. (News source.)

Wolverine Results

"A wolverine first photographed by a remote-controlled camera on the Tahoe National Forest in February 2008 is most closely related to Rocky Mountain populations..." (Eurekalert)

Genetics and Pine Martens

Pine martens in Wales are genetically distinct from those in the rest of the UK. Still the same species, though. (News source.)

Pink Elephant

A probable albino elephant calf in Botswana is getting attention... (News source.)

UK: Blue Morph Pheasant

Just an odd color morph of a pheasant noted in Lincolnshire. (News source)

Clone Colony

A 12-meter patch of amoebic clones (Dictyostelium discoideum) was found in a Texas cow pasture. It's the largest such colony to have been discovered. (Eurekalert)

Piebald Moose

Story here on an odd moose encountered in Alaska.

DNA Article

An article here on investigating ancient bones (from Homo floresiensis to moas) through clues in the DNA.

Pink Dolphin

An albino bottlenose dolphin (with a distinctive pink hue) has shown up in Louisiana's Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary. (News source, and here.)

Black Wolves

Some interesting genetic research regarding a black mutant gene found in North American wolves, and its origin. (Eurekalert)

Rocky Mountain Hybrids

Caribou in the Rockies are an unusual hybrid of the tundra and woodland caribou. (Eurekalert.)

Thylacine DNA

A gene-sequencing study on the Tasmanian tiger is set to be published soon. (News source.)

New Crocodiles

The African dwarf crocodile has been split into three species, after genetic investigation. These are now Osteolaemus tetraspis, from Central Africa's Ogooué Basin, Osteolaemus osborni, from the Congo Basin, and an as-yet unnamed species from West Africa. Details here.

Dingos Disappearing

Purebred dingos are becoming scarce, as domestic canine hybridization is polluting the gene pool. (News source.)

White Raccoon

A rare white-furred raccoon in Florida has the woman who feeds it worried that hunters might come along and kill it. (Apparently, she's less concerned about the dangers of habituating the animal to human presence by feeding it.) (News source.)

Warbler Wars

An interesting case of the Townsend's warblers apparently taking over hermit warblers range through interbreeding has been shown genetically (Eurekalert).

White Lions

Sanbona Wildlife Reserve may hold the only free-roaming white lions in the world. (News source.)

Bar Coding Life

A cautionary note has been published, suggesting that those involved in creating "DNA bar codes" need to be very careful in their techniques to accurately choose the correct marker from the mitochondria, rather than non-functional copies from the nucleus. Inaccuracy could lead to mistaken "new species." (Eurekalert.)

Big Bacteria Stores Genome Aplenty

The large (up to 600 micrometers) bacteria Epulopiscium, found in the gut of the unicornfish, carries up to 200,000 copies of its genome, far more than is found in any other organism. (News source.)

Scot Polar Bear to be Tested

An Ice Age polar bear skull found in a cave in the Scottish Highlands in 1927 is undergoing genetic tests to determine how it relates to modern day ursines. (News source.)

White Killer Whale

NOAA scientists ran across a white killer whale while in the Aleutian Islands. Photos here, here, and here. (News source.)

Black Sheep

The famed Black Sheep of St. Kilda are losing their distinctive coloration, giving scientists opportunity to study their population's genetics. (News source.)

New Giraffes?

A study of "cryptic species," which look similar phenotypically, but carry different genetic lineages, suggests there may be up to six different species of giraffes in Africa, which have very little interbreeding. (News source.)