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The Bornean earless monitor lizard in Kalimantan
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The Bornean herpetofauna has about 146 amphibians and 254 reptiles – excluding sea snakes and sea turtles. Perhaps the most unusual member of the herpetofauna is the Bornean earless monitor lizard, Lanthanotus borneensis Steindachner 1877; an odd lizard looking lizard with an ancient history. Until now Lanthanotus has been known only from the coastal lowlands…
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Impact of Harvesting on the Map Turtle
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida researchers studying river turtles in Missouri found populations of the northern map turtle have not recovered from harvesting in the 1970s. Scientists used data collected by Florida Museum of Natural History herpetology curator Max Nickerson in 1969 and 1980 as a baseline, then surveyed the same stretch of river…
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Giant Salamanders and peramorphosis
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Giant salamanders (Cyptobranchidae) can live for a century, grow to two meters in length, and have an ancestry that extends back more than 56 million years. Fossils giant salamanders are frequently found in Eurasia and they show little variation from their modern descendants. The early giant salamanders had a body size and lifestyle similar to…
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A second look at frog reproductive modes
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A New Guinea microhylid with eggs.Photo credit David Bickford STONY BROOK, NY, September 10, 2012 – All tadpoles grow into frogs, but not all frogs start out as tadpoles, reveals a new study on 720 species of frogs to be published in the journal Evolution. The study, “Phylogenetic analyses reveal unexpected patterns in the evolution…
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Did advanced snakes evolve from a scolecophidian?
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A scolecophidian, Epictia tenella. JCM STONY BROOK, NY, September 18, 2012 – A new study, published online in Biology Letters on September 19, has utilized a massive molecular dataset to reconstruct the evolutionary history of lizards and snakes. The results reveal a surprising finding about the evolution of snakes: that most snakes we see living…
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On the trail of herbal snakebite antidote
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Puff Adder, Bitis arietans. JCM PLANT MEDICINE A PhD student at the University of Copenhagen has drawn on nature’s own pharmacy to help improve the treatment of snakebites in Africa. Marianne Molander from the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has been working within a Danish team that has examined various plants…
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Snakes & Spiders in Guam
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Boiga irregularis, USGS Photograph In one of the first studies to examine how the loss of forest birds is effecting Guam’s island ecosystem, biologists from Rice University, the University of Washington and the University of Guam found that the Pacific island’s jungles have as many as 40 times more spiders than are found on nearby…
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The Bockadams of the genus Cerberus
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Thinking about herpetological field work in Thailand brings back a lot of memories. One of the most vivid is arriving at small village on the Gulf of Thailand side of the peninsula and being greeted by two local men with burlap bags filled with snakes, they had more than 50 snakes in the genus Cerberus.…
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Suizo Report — Paradise in Paradise
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Howdy Herpers, 09/10/12 I’ve got to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. When we started to ramp up on tigers and black-tails, I had no idea that so few would lead us to so much! As we speak, we have three parings going on. Pairing number one is the big guy, CM12 hanging out…
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The fangless homalopsid snakes of eastern Indonesia
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Snakes in the family Homalopsidae have been long considered semiaquatic or aquatic forms with live birth and rear-fangs. In 2011, Brachyorrhos was confirmed as a member of the family (Murphy et al. 2011), but Brachyorrhos is terrestrial, feeds on worms, and has no rear fangs. The DNA evidence suggested Brachyorrhos was the most basal member…
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A Revision of the Lizards in the Family Teiidae
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Dracaena guianensis and its unusual teeth, used for crushing mollusk shells. JCM Genera in the New World lizard family Teiidae were spread out over several families before 1885 when Boulenger consolidated them and organized them into four groups; Group I included macroteiids that shared nasals not separated medially by a frontonasal, well-developed limbs and a moderate to large body.…
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A Visual Depiction of Vertebrate Biodiversity Distribution
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The following is a post placedon the savingspecies.org website yesterday (September 5) its author Clinton Jenkins is a Research Scholar in the Biology Department at North Carolina State University. Clinton specializes in using spatial analysis and remote-sensing technologies to answer conservation questions and identify priorities for action. The images are remarkable because they visually portray…
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Altering the Planet, Loss of tropical forests reduces rain
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Amphibians and reptiles are adapted to rainfall, and use the rain or lack of it as cues for a variety of behaviors. Deforestation can have a significant effect on tropical rainfall, new research confirms. The findings have potentially devastating impacts for people living in and near the Amazon and Congo forests. A team from the…
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First Invasive Python Found on Key Largo
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The following story was posted on KeysNet.com. It provides evidence that the introduced pythons are expanding their range into the Florida Keys. A python found on Key Largo late Friday did not go quietly. At about 11 feet long, the python apparently is the largest invasive-exotic snake yet captured in the Florida Keys. “The officers…
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Suzio Report: One From Mart Feldner
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Howdy Herpers, As Marty suggests below, on the evening of 1 September, I left him and Hans-Werner Herrmann with a receiver, and turned them loose. I chose the wrong night to be “uncooperative,” because one of the coolest events I’ve ever heard of involving a ringtail and a black-tailed rattlesnake occurred. Marty was kind enough…
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Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History
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