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Microhabitat use by the California Kingsnake in the Canary Islands
In this study, Maestresalas et al. (2026) characterize the shelter-use regime and the biotic and abiotic factors driving microhabitat selection by California kingsnake shelters on Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands. The intent is to help inform management. They expected that this snake, like other snakes (including closely related species), would use few shelters, even revisiting…
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Pacific Treefrogs, one, two, or three species?
Evolutionary divergence in sexual signals may lead to and maintain reproductive isolation between populations. Both selective forces—such as ecological and sexual selection—and random processes like genetic drift may influence the diversification of sexual signals. Understanding the patterns and sources of intraspecific variation in sexual signals among populations can inform the stages of differentiation and speciation.…
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Burmese Python Nest in Great Cypress Swamp
Lisa McBride, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologist, led a study to document a record-setting Burmese python nest found in Big Cypress National Preserve in 2022. McBride’s work details the python’s nesting behaviors and provides the first comprehensive photographic evidence of the brooding process in the wild. In 2022, a radio-tagged female python led researchers…
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Jurassic reptile fossil discovery blurs the line between snake and lizard
by American Museum of Natural History edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan New research has uncovered a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived about 167 million years ago and has a confusing set of features seen in snakes and geckos—two very distant relatives. One of the oldest relatively complete fossil lizards yet discovered, the Jurassic specimen…
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Discovering the lightbulb lizards of Ecuador
Alejandro Arteaga, a herpetologist in Ecuador sent out out the following email. If you have the resources for helping Alejandro I encourage you to do so. Today, I want to reveal a project I have been advancing in secret. During the past five years, my team and I have been studying an enigmatic group of…
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Uncover the Secret Lives of Snakes. Live streaming cameras look at rattlesnakes.
If you haven’t found this website yet, it’s now time to explore it with your friends and family. Dr Emily Taylor,Professor, California Polytechnic State University. Scott Boback, Associate Professor of Biology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Owen Bachhuber, Graduate Student, California Polytechnic State University. And, Max Roberts, a Graduate Student at California Polytechnic State…
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Road mortality in snakes and its impact.
Snakes are significant predators in many ecosystems, but high rates of road mortality threaten to diminish their ecological contributions. Documenting species-specific and demographic patterns of road use is crucial for understanding potential impacts, which can inform the implementation of mitigation measures. I investigated the road ecology of a snake community in the Chihuahuan Desert of…
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Genomic Insights into Snake Body Size
Body size is a critical trait that influences an animal’s physiology, behavior, and ecology. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying its evolution remain poorly understood, particularly in snakes. Snakes exhibit a remarkably wide range of body sizes and considerable ecological adaptability. Xia et al. (2025) found that among snake species, the maximum body mass exceeds the…
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New snake species described in 2024. Part 2.
A New Chironius from Ceara, Brazil Currently, the proposed diagnoses for the Chironius bicarinatus complex reflect a wide variation in color pattern and pholidosis. Sudre et al. (2024) reviewed the Chironius bicarinatus complex based on morphological and molecular data from a sample of 485 specimens covering the species distribution. Their results corroborate the recognition of C. bicarinatus and C. gouveai, and diagnose a distinct lineage…
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New snake species described in 2024. Part 1.
In 2024, 33 species of new snakes were described. In previous years, 51 snakes were described in 2023, 48 in 2022, 66 in 2021, and 68 in 2020. Here is a summary for 2024. A new species of Achalinus (Xenodermatidae) described from southwest Hunan Province, China. This new species is genetically distinct amongst its congeners with…
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A Scuba-diving Lizard
Many small invertebrates utilize bubbles to facilitate underwater respiration, but until recently, there was no evidence that vertebrate animals do the same. Only one group of vertebrates, semi-aquatic Anolis lizards, has evolved the ability to use air trapped in bubbles. These lizards dive underwater when threatened, and while underwater, they rebreathe a bubble of air over their…
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Flystrike and Monitor Lizards
The following is based on: Tomma G. 2024. Giant Australian lizards may help protect sheep from deadly fly-borne diseases. Science July 11. Some blowflies have an unnerving reproduction method, akin to extraterrestrial parasites from a sci-fi horror film: they deposit their eggs on the bodies of animals, sometimes in open wounds, sometimes on their fur…
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A new giant fossil snake from northwest India’s Eocene
The snake family Madtsoiidae is an extinct clade of primarily Gondwanan terrestrial snakes, with a temporal range spanning approximately 100 million years from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Pleistocene. Their geographic range during the Late Cretaceous encompassed Madagascar, South America, India, Africa, and the European archipelago. The Cenozoic forms are primarily found in North…
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Plastic in Sea Turtles
Marine wildlife ingests plastic pollution, making them a reservoir for plastic debris and an important part of “where is all the plastic?”. To date, estimates of how much plastic pollution resides within marine animals globally are missing, making it difficult to reconcile the fate of plastic pollution in the global ocean. To help fill this…
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Invasive Snakes in Puerto Rico – its more than Reticulated Pythons
The following article was published on VOX on 21 May. Click on this link to see the entire story and images. The author is Benji Jones. Night had fallen in Cabo Rojo, a wildlife refuge along Puerto Rico’s southwestern coast, by the time we started our hike. Insects hummed from the grasses, green lizards slept…
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Conserving the Axolotl
The following article is based on Smith (2023) and Sanchez (2024). Links to the complete articles are in the references section. Xochimilco is a sizable, semirural neighborhood located south of Mexico City. Chinampas, or farmland plots, are surrounded by a massive network of canals. The Xochimilcas, a group of Náhuatl-speaking people who were among the…
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The Controversy Over a Second Species of Giant Anaconda
The Green Anaconda, Eunectes murinus, has long been Amazonia’s most iconic animal. It is widely regarded as the largest snake in existence. However, in a groundbreaking development, Rivas et al. published a paper in February 2024, unveiling a second species of giant anaconda, Eunectes akajima. This discovery, while not entirely unexpected due to the cryptic nature…
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Aquatic Snakes, Diversity and Natural History
This book is available as a high quality PDF on the Herpetological Conservation International website. Aquatic Snakes, Diversity and Natural History covers about 420 snake species with text written by over a dozen co-authors and images supplied by about 120 photographers. The book is currently available as a PDF and will eventually be available as…
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Sand-dwellers and Climate Change
Lizards and snakes living in sandy soils in dry habitats and tolerating high temperatures have been considered beneficiaries of global warming as suitable habitats expand due to climate change. However, a study by Brazilian researchers shows this is not necessarily the case, according to an article published in the Journal of Arid Environments. “We concluded that climate change…
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Prehistoric Amphibian Ancestor Is Named for Kermit the Frog
The species seemed to have bug eyes and a smile, so a team of researchers named it Kermitops gratus in honor of the banjo-playing Muppet. Michael Levenson, NYT One crawled across the rain-drenched ground of what is now Texas more than 270 million years ago, possibly feasting on fast-moving insects. The other endeared himself to…
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The Rapid Evolution of Snakes
About 128 million years ago, a surge of adaptation caused snakes to explode in diversity and evolve up to three times faster than lizards. Since they initially descended from lizards, snakes were minor ecological players that slithered around the periphery of ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs more than 100 million years ago. But now, there are…
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Advances in Snakebite Treatment
The following is based on Wilcox C. 2024. Powerful new antivenom raises hopes for a universal solution to lethal snakebites. Science News 21 Feb 2024. A significant step toward developing an antivenom that could be applied to any of the 200 or so dangerous venomous snake species in the world, researchers have found a strong…
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Recently described snakes and changes in taxonomy – February 2024
A new species of endemic snake from the Lost World The Pantepui is a remote, biodiverse region of ~400 000 km2 in northern South America it contains at least five endemic reptile genera and several ancient vertebrate lineages. Kok and Means (2024) describe a new endemic snake genus and species, Paikwaophis kruki (Dipsadidae: Xenodontinae), recently collected…
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A new krait from Thailand
The Asian elapid genus Bungarus are commonly called kraits. They are terrestrial in forests and some agricultural habitats. They feed on other snakes but will take other small vertebrates. Their bodies are dorsolaterally compressed, which makes a cross-section of their body triangular. Their venom is highly neurotoxic, and they are responsible for human bites in…
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The Reticulated Python, an invasive species in Iraq?
Al-Sheikhlyet al. (2023) discuss reports of Iraq’s Reticulated Python, Malayopython reticulatus. The following is edited content from the Jordan Journal of Natural History article. Unverified reports of a “giant snake” surfaced in Iraq in the early 1980s. Local people reported a massive snake known as “Afa’ah” that was arboreal in the northern mountains and was…
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Successful Skinks
Geckos and skinks are lizard lineages that have been remarkably successful, as measured by the number of species recognized as well as , the size of their geographic range, the variety of habitats, ecological niches, and the diversity of their morphological and life-history features. The range, ecology, morphology, and life history of the varied lineage…
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The Plateau Spot-tailed Earless Lizard – no longer listed as endangered
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — A lizard species historically known to thrive across the Edwards Plateau in Central and West Texas is no longer listed under the Endangered Species Act since a petition was filed in 2010. According to a press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Plateau Spot-tailed Earless…
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Hunting the HUNTERS
The following article appeared in the Florida Weekly Bonita Springs edition. Pythons are slithering into more areas of Florida, but scientists take innovative strides to stop them.By StaffDecember 14, 2023 BY ROGER WILLIAMSrwilliams@floridaweekly.com It’s breeding season again, not just eating season. Now entering his 11th year of a consuming battle against the most potent and…
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Loss of Biodiversity in Singapore
Planning for conservation requires accurate estimates of tropical extinction rates to assess the effects of human activity on biodiversity. Despite losing most of its tropical primary forest since 1819, Singapore has an incredibly detailed biodiversity record. Chisholm et al. (2023) assembled the largest database of biodiversity records for Singapore to date, containing over 50,000 individual…
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The California Kingsnake: An Invasive Threat in the Canary Islands
Information on the biology and ecology of invasive predators can be crucial to developing control strategies and action plans. Still, particularly home range, activity patterns, or habitat use can facilitate more effective trapping. This strategic information becomes even more relevant to organisms that are difficult to manage, like snakes, which show extremely low detectability, secretive…
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Amphibians on the Edge: Climate Change and Other Threats to Survival
In the world of biodiversity, Earth’s amphibians play a crucial role. From the magnificent Wallace’s Flying Frog to the Trinidad’s Bromeliad dwelling tree frog and the huge Chinese Giant Salamander these fascinating animals have captured the imaginations of naturalists for centuries. Unfortunately, the latest research paints a grim picture for amphibians worldwide. A new research…
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Diets and Niches for Four Sceloporus Species in the Chiricahua Sky Islands
Niche partitioning is a concept at the heart of understanding biodiversity. The concept refers to the process by which natural selection drives competing species into different patterns of resource use in various niches. Two recent papers by Westeen et al. (2023a, b) look at several species of spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus) in the Chiricahua sky…
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Natural History collections are more important now than they were 10 years ago.
Our knowledge of the biodiversity of Asia and Australasia continues to expand with more focused studies on the systematics of various groups and their biogeography. Historically, fluctuating sea levels and cyclic connection and separation of now-disjunct landmasses have been invoked to explain the accumulation of biodiversity via species pump mechanisms. However, recent research has shown…
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Discovering the lightbulb lizards of Ecuador
Alejandro Arteaga, a herpetologist in Ecuador sent out out the following email. If you have the resources for helping Alejandro I encourage you to do so. Today, I want to reveal a project I have been advancing in secret. During the past five years, my team and I have been studying an enigmatic group of…
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A new genus and species of snake from the Lost World (Guyana)
The Pantepui is a remote, biodiverse region made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost World. In a recent article, Kok and Means (2023) describe the new species, Paikwaophis kruki (Dipsadidae: Xenodontinae). It was recently collected in the Pantepui cloud forest that sits at the base of the steep cliffs of Roraima-tepui and Wei-Assipu-tepui…
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Frogs are younger than previously thought
In evolutionary and ecological research across various organisms, the utilization of large-scale, time-calibrated phylogenies derived from supermatrix studies has gained paramount importance. Nonetheless, a notable issue persists with the existing supermatrix-based estimates when it comes to frogs, a subset of anuran amphibians. This predicament arises because these phylogenetic trees rely on a rather limited set…
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Social Western Diamondbacks
Social behavior in snakes is under-studied and, as a result, poorly known. Using social network analysis, Tetzlaff et al. (2023) examined social behavior in the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, from 2001 to 2015. They used behavioral observations via radiotelemetry and genotypic data from a long-term (>10 years) study of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.
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Time to first shed
An intriguing example is the puff adder (Bitis arietans), which sheds its skin shortly after birth. These viper species use chemical camouflage to evade detection by predators. Although their shed skin is easily detectable, these snakes move to new locations immediately after shedding to maintain camouflage.
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Cryptid Rhabdophis in the nuchalis group
Cryptic diversity has been underestimated, but many examples have been documented in the scientific literature in recent decades. Researchers often highlight the importance of establishing a stable classification and strong evolutionary relationships for preserving organisms, yet they rarely emphasize the significance of accurately defining taxonomy. The Rhabdophis nuchalis group, which includes species like R. nuchalis,…
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Rediscovery of a rare, aquatic Philippine Snake
The single-occurrence records of O. alcalai demonstrate the significance of microhabitat-specific refugia for rare, secretive, and enigmatic natricid snakes that often inhabit aquatic and terrestrial environments. Mindanao’s Lowland habitats (< 900 meters elevation) are among the most threatened and degraded habitats due to agricultural and urban sprawl.
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An endemic, highly aquatic homalopsid snake from Sulawesi
A recent paper (Hamidy et al 2023) describes a new homalopsid snake species, Hypsiscopus indonesiensis. The new snake is restricted to Lake Towuti on the island of Sulawesi. Hypsiscopus indonesiensis were collected from a shady area with a water depth of about 10–15 cm and one m from the land. The new species is assigned…
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Snake genome reveals burrowing past and re-adaptation to surface life
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, has led a study that achieved chromosome-level assembly for 14 snakes, creating a detailed genomic reference for snake evolution. The research team published their findings in the journal Cell in a paper titled “Large-scale snake genome analyses provide insights into vertebrate development,” where they highlighted numerous discoveries made using…
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A new species of Hynobius Salamander from China
There are currently six described species on the Chinese mainland and five on Taiwan island, all of which are terrestrial, partially fossorial, and undergo larval development in water bodies. However, one Hynobius salamander collected in Fujian in 1978 has not been observed since, suggesting possible local extinctions. To investigate the taxonomic status of this salamander,…
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Venom in the Blunt-headed Treesnakes
Biological specialization refers to the process by which organisms adapt to occupy specific ecological niches, reducing the available niche space and increasing the efficient utilization of resources. This specialization often occurs through natural selection, which drives phenotypic changes that align with the constraints of the niche.
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The Kingsnake and the Rattlesnake – predator and prey
The feeding behavior of kingsnakes preying on rattlesnakes is a well-known example of a predator-prey relationship among snakes. Recently, my neighbor drew my attention to what he believed to be a snake coiled up near a sidewalk. Upon closer examination, I discovered that there were two snakes present. One was a typically patterned Green Valley…
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