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The genome of the western painted turtle
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The western painted turtle, Chrysemys picta belli. JCM The genome of the western painted turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii) one of the most widespread, abundant and well-studied turtles in the world, is published this week in Genome Biology. The data show that, like turtles themselves, the rate of genome evolution is extremely slow; turtle genomes evolve…
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An early Triassic European placodont
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Reconstruction of the juvenile placodont Palatodonta bleekeri. The teeth are striking compared to other placodonts. Artist Credit: Jaime Chirinos. Note that the University of Zurich press release refers to placodont reptiles as “dinosaurs,” they are not dinosaurs. They are usually considered to be sauropterygians, Triassic stem reptiles. Dental plaster dinosaurs were among the first marine…
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Geckoella jeyporensis Rediscovered
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Times of India, press release. Geckoella jeyporensis MUMBAI: Indian scientists have rediscovered a rare lizard that British colonel RH Beddome had last spotted in the Eastern Ghats in 1877. “This elusive lizard, Geckoella jeyporensis, commonly named as Jeypore ground gecko, was believed to have become extinct since it was last seen in 1877. But in…
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Evolution of microcephalic sea snakes
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Hydrophis cf gracilis. JCM An international team of scientists led by Dr Kate Sanders from the University of Adelaide, and including Dr Mike Lee from the South Australian Museum, has uncovered how some sea snakes have developed ‘shrunken heads’ — or smaller physical features than their related species. Their research is published today in the…
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Rediscovery of the Martinique dendrobatid frog Allobates chalcophis
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Allobates chalcopis Photo credit: Fey Magazine The native herpetofauna of the Lesser Antilles is made up of a relatively few families. Most of the Lesser Antilles native amphibians belong to the genus Eleutherodactylus that have direct development. Eleutherodactylus frogs radiated early in the Greater Antilles and subsequently dispersed towards the Lesser Antilles. A few amphibians dispersed over water…
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Invasive American bullfrog diet in Canada
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American bullfrogs are native to eastern North America but have been transported by people to many other parts of the globe, and other parts of North America, where they have readily established populations and become an invasive alien menace to native ecosystems. In the largest study of its kind to date, the stomach contents of…
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Attempts to clone the gastric brooding frog
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Mar. 15, 2013 — The genome of an extinct Australian frog has been revived and reactivated by a team of scientists using sophisticated cloning technology to implant a “dead” cell nucleus into a fresh egg from another frog species. The bizarre gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silus — which uniquely swallowed its eggs, brooded its young in its stomach…
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47 Turtle and Tortoise Species to Receive Greater Legal Protection
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Blanding’s Turtle. JCM The CITES meeting in Bangkok has produced a lot of news about elephants, both good and bad. But the CITES treaty covers scores of protected species of all different classes, which is still only a fraction of the species worldwide that are under threat. Today produced some good news for fans of…
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Eight new frogs described from Sri Lanka, seven are considered threatened
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Sri Lanka has a remarkably diverse herpetofauna for its size. The Peak Wilderness area, part of the Central Hills, was designated a World Heritage Site. Geographical protected area is about 240 sq.km, of which 211.75 sq.km comprises natural or semi natural vegetation; the rest is no longer forest and includes tea estates and village settlements. Much of…
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Medical risks from colubroid snakes
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Rhabdophis subminiatus, a Hazard Level 1 species. JCM Facts that don fit existing knowledge are frequently clues to a greater understanding of nature. And, the fact that snakes without front fangs could deliver venom has produced a greatly improved knowledge of snake evolution. as well as evolution in a general sense. In the late 1960’s…
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Frogs of the northern Western Ghats
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Two frogs found in Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary. Spaerotheca breviceps (left) a species found to be relatively common, and Ramanella mororata (right) a species found at only two localities in the sanctuary. Photo credit: U. Katwate. The Western Ghats of southwest India are well known foramphibian diversity, with thearae containing 187 species of amphibians, or about…
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Lizards, temperatures & the future
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Sonoran Spiny-tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura macrolopha, juvenile. JCM Two papers published early on-line suggest lizards are facing a difficult future due to climate change. Both papers examine the role of temperature on lizard life history. Grigg and Buckley (2013) phylogeny and geography constrain thermal tolerances of lizards similarly within continents, but they are variably within clades.…
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It is that time of the year: rattlesnake slaughter events
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While some progress has been made in reducing the over all number of rattlesnake round-ups. The largest of these events – the Sweetwater Oklahoma Rattlesnake Roundup- was held this weekend. One blog post writer, “This weekend is the largest rattlesnake round-up in Texas. The way the snakes are treated before they are slaughtered for public…
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Two sand-dune dwelling snakes avoid direct competion
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Sand Viper, Cerastes vipera. The Saharan sand viper, Cerastes vipera , and the crowned leafnose, Lytorhynchus diadema belong to different clades but well adapted to life in desert sand dunes. In Israel, and in all Saharan countries both coexist in sand and dune systems. The two species have several characteristics in common: they are…
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Liolaemus & Climate Change
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Liolaemus tenuis in Maipo Canyon, Chile (near San Alfonso). Photo credit: Kaldari The following pres release from the University of Lincoln describes research on the genus Liolaemus, a clade of lizards restricted to southern South America. It holds about 230 species, nine of which were described during 2012. Many of these lizards have adapted to…
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Opossums, pitvipers, & venom resistance
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Bushmasters are one of the snakes known to feed on venom-resistant opossums Opossums and pitvipers are sympatric throughout most of the New World. Opossums are were not known to feed on pit vipers and pit vipers were not known to feed on opossums. In the mid 1940 Vellard discovered that three species South American Didelphis were…
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The problem with bullfrogs in Southeast Asia
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Lithobates catesbeiana A team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the National University of Singapore (NUS), revealed in a new study, for the first time, the presence of the pathogenic chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in amphibians sampled in Singapore. And the American bullfrog may be a central player in the spread…
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