Gallery: Lost Worlds Survive in Living Fossils
Piotr Naskrecki01papuan-forest-dragon
Plant and animal species that have remained almost unchanged for the past few million years live in the forests, the deserts, the seas and even our own backyards. As our living ancestors, they give us a view of lost worlds. And because they preserve ancient pieces of genetic code, living relics should be a priority for conservation, says Piotr Naskrecki. Naskrecki, a photographer and biologist, is the author of [*Relics: Travels in Nature’s Time Machine*](http://www.amazon.com/Relics-Travels-Natures-Time-Machine/dp/0226568709), to be published in November. The book catalogs Naskrecki’s travels to areas of the world that act as sanctuaries, harboring life that has remained essentially unchanged for eons. “This book grew as a side project from my fascination with these old lineages,” Naskrecki said. “But as a conservation biologist, I feel they deserve a spotlight, as capsules that preserve ancient diversity.” We asked Naskrecki to share some of his favorite photos *Images: [Piotr Naskrecki](http://www.naskrecki.com/).* __Above__: Papuan Forest Dragon -------------------- Living among the trees of Papua New Guinea, forest dragons — like *Hypsilurus dilophus,* pictured here — are sit-and-wait predators. Scanning for insects and small invertebrates, they remain still until the time to strike is perfect. These lizards, distantly related to dinosaurs, are part of Papuan forest fauna, which preserves fragments of Sahul, the continent that existed before New Guinea and Australia became two separate islands. Because they were once part of the same land mass, Australia and Papua New Guinea share many similar plants and animals, such as marsupial or monotreme mammals. But while Australia lost most of its natural rainforests, and became a far drier place, Papua New Guinea retains the ancient Sahul-like woods, and many of the original inhabitants.
Piotr Naskrecki02father-frog-unnamed
Father Frog, Unnamed -------------------- A male of a yet-unnamed *Oreophryne* frog species from Papua New Guinea guards his clutch of eggs. The island of New Guinea sits on karst formations, geological layers made primarily of water-soluble calcium, making surface water hard to find. Amphibians need water for their development. This frog gets around the requirement for lakes and ponds by developing in big, watery eggs. Instead of leaving them alone, parents remain with the eggs, protecting them and moistening them regularly.
03plants-and-insects-of-the-southern-cape
Plants and Insects of the Southern Cape --------------------------------------- The southern tip of the African continent has a magnetic pull on biologists. This small area, only about 35,000 square miles, has so many unique plants that botanists consider it its own floral kingdom: Capensis, or the Cape Florisitic Region. To compare, the floral kingdom of Holarctis contains most of North America, all of Europe, northern Asia and parts of northern Africa. The Cape’s soil is truly ancient: nearly half a billion years old, derived from pre-[Carboniferous rocks](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Carboniferous). The surface of the Cape was once united with South America, Australia and Antarctica. Until the Miocene ended about six million years ago, it was a lush, humid land, filled with wide-leafed tropical plants. When the climate changed, Antarctica began building up ice, ocean currents shifted, and the region grew cool and dry. As the tropical plants largely died back, the mountaintop plants, which had always endured cooler, drier conditions, descended from the peaks and spilled over into the valleys. There they proliferated and diversified into many ecological nooks. Today, the region has more than 9,000 plant species. Three in four of these are found nowhere else. The Cape’s botanical variety gives insects many options for food and shelter. Grasshoppers are especially numerous and diverse. Many of the grasshoppers perfectly match the color and shape of the plants they eat or — in the case of this female karoo rockhopper, *Porthetis carinata* — the rocks they inhabit. This insect is nearly the size of a mouse. To protect herself from desiccation, she has a hard waterproof cuticle and can tightly seal her spiracles, tiny openings on every segment of her body through which she breathes.
Piotr Naskrecki04west-african-tree-frog-in-atewa
West African Tree Frog in Atewa ------------------------------- Photographed in Atewa, an evergreen forest reserve in Ghana, West Africa, the granular skin of this *Leptopelis occidentalis* tree frog helps it breathe. This skin is as important as its lungs, for without a humid, moist environment the frog would suffocate. Though it looks remarkably similar to North American tree frogs, it's only distantly related. Before the Cretaceous, 150 million years ago, South America and Africa were connected as part of the supercontinent Gondwana. A crack spread between the two landmasses, and South America drifted away. Following the breakup, Africa became less and less humid with every glacial period. Rainforests retreated, and the savannas spread. Atewa, however, has remained a humid forest, little changed since the Miocene, ten and a half million years ago. The forest, recognized for its exceptional diversity, was declared a reserve in 1926, when Ghana was still a British colony. The forest is seriously in danger today, writes Naskrecki, pillaged by hunters and illegal logging. It also sits on rich aluminum-rich bauxite reserves, and has been the site of past, and possibly future, mining.
Copyright Piotr Naskrecki05giant-leaf-frog-in-the-forests-of-guyana
Giant Leaf Frog in the Forests of Guyana ---------------------------------------- The rainforests of Guyana in South America rest on one of the oldest geological formations: the Precambrian Guiana Shield, once connected to West Africa as part of Gondwana. These rainforests are some of the biologically richest and least-disturbed places on the planet. Shown here, *Phyllomedusa bicolor*, a female giant leaf frog, eyes an approaching male. After getting down to business, the pair will produce a large clutch of fertilized eggs. These they’ll glue to leaves overhanging a forest stream. When the tadpoles hatch after eight to 10 days, they will fall into the water to finish their development.
Piotr Naskrecki06female-dead-leaf-preying-mantis
Female Dead-Leaf Preying Mantis ------------------------------- Also part of the Guiana Shield menagerie, this female *Acanthops soukana* preying mantis is so perfectly camouflaged she uses sex pheromones to be located come mating season. Unable to fly, she spends her entire life suspended upside-down, waiting for prey to pass by. Males have large, leaf-like wings, which they use to follow the females’ come-hither scents.
Piotr Naskrecki07giant-cockroach
Giant Cockroach --------------- Naskrecki came across this giant cockroach in the rainforests of southern Guyana. The bodies of *Blaberus giganteus*, he writes, are “one of the crowning achievements of nature’s mechanical engineering.” Compared to other insects their body parts are not very specialized. But they are able to adapt to almost any set of environmental conditions. Long after humans are gone from the planet, they’ll likely still be here.
Piotr Naskrecki08ice-crawlers-one-side-of-notoptera
Ice Crawlers, One Side of Notoptera ----------------------------------- Dating back 250 million years to the Permian, the ancestors of ice crawlers had two pairs of large wings and fed on the pollen of conifers. For millions of years they behaved like modern plant-hopping insects, such as butterflies, and were found in tropical regions all over the globe. When flowering plants appeared they began to die off, out-competed by new insects that specialized in pollen. According to some entomologists, there used to be 44 families of ice crawler-like insects. Today only one family is known. Instead of dying out entirely, these insects found an entirely new lifestyle. They shed their wings and crawled into the cracks of glaciers, caves or deep in the soil — places where little else lived. They can only live within a narrow temperature range: They freeze below -9 degrees Celsius, but if you touch one, the warmth of your hand may kill it. They’ll eat nearly anything, from dead insects to old plant material. Long-lived for insects, ice-crawlers can live for up to 10 years.
Piotr Naskrecki09heelwalkers-the-warm-notopterans
Heelwalkers, the Warm Notopterans --------------------------------- “There is a twist to the story of the ice crawlers,” said Naskrecki. For many years entomologists assumed there were no other members of this lineage. But in 2002 a team of German and Danish scientists found an equivalent group of insects in Namibia. Instead of going into a cold habitats, these insects, the heelwalkers, specialized in exactly the opposite. They live in hot, dry, inhospitable areas along the west coast of Africa. Put under the umbrella of the order Notoptera, the heelwalkers, genus *Sclerophasma*, were also given their own suborder and family.
Piotr Naskrecki10horseshoe-crabs-ocean-ancients
Horseshoe Crabs, Ocean Ancients ------------------------------- Two hundred and forty-five million years ago, when dinosaurs were new on the earth, horseshoe crabs were already ancient relics, having originated 445 million years ago in the Ordovician. Living horseshoe crab species are probably only a few million years old, but their bodies are essentially indistinguishable from those that lived during the time of dinosaurs. These relatives of arachnids can live both in fresh and salt water. They lay their eggs on land, likely because most Earthly predators once lived in the sea. Like scorpions their carapace fluoresces a pale green color in ultra-violet light, which probably helps them find each other by moonlight. Horseshoe crabs mate only under full moons during spring. The fluorescent covering wears off easily if scratched. The scratched-up crab in the lower left corner of this photo has possibly survived an attack by a shark or sea turtle. The brighter crab on the right is blemish-free, and has probably recently molted.
Piotr Naskrecki11oldtime-songster-the-wyoming-grig
Oldtime Songster, the Wyoming Grig ---------------------------------- Found among the high-elevation sagebrush of Wyoming, the sagebrush grig, or *Cyphoderris strepitans*, is one of the oldest insects living today. They date from the Triassic age, some 250 million years ago. Grigs now survive in a few places in the Rockies and the Sichuan Province of China. They're direct descendants of the family that some entomologists believe first developed complex courtship songs, and are the only modern insects that can sing at subfreezing temperatures.
Piotr Naskrecki12vernal-pool-fairy-shrimp-2
Vernal Pool Fairy Shrimp ------------------------ Fairy shrimp, or *Eubranchipus vernalis*, are small crustaceans that date back to the Cambrian period, essentially unchanged in the past half-billion years. “One of the reasons they’ve been successful and able to live for so long,” said Naskrecki, “is that their biology essentially accounts for any kind of natural disaster they could encounter.” Their eggs can survive both boiling water and liquid nitrogen. They can live in a dormant state for eight years. They can be blown by wind to essentially anywhere in the world. They even turn up in Utah’s Great Salt Lake and in Africa’s deserts. “These were the hardest pictures to take. I had to be able to go into the vernal pools, but they are very shallow and easy to disturb,” Naskrecki said. He built an underwater enclosure for his camera and hooked it up to a video feed. Sitting outside the vernal pools, he monitored the video feed for any movement. “It was technically quite involved, but it allowed me to capture this world as it appears. I found this amazing, colorful community just teeming with life.”
