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The bird snakes (Pseustes & Spilotes) rearranged
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The genus Pseustes Fitzinger, 1843 is composed of three known species, Pseustes poecilonotus, P. shropshirei and P. sulphureus. Pseuestes sulphureus may be the largest sized colubrid snake in the New World, although Drymarchon corias has a similar or possible greater size. But, both species may exceed 3 meters in total length. Pseustes has been classified…
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Four-lined Snake Phylogeography
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Elaphe quaturolineata, Photo credit: Carlo Catoni The four-lined snake, Elaphe quatuorlineata, has a fragmented distribution, restricted in continental regions of Europe and islands in the Italian and Balkan peninsulas. Within E. quatuorlineata, several subspecies have been recognized (E. q. parensis from Paros Island, central Aegean; E. q. scyrensis from Skyros Island, northern Aegean; and E. q.…
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Concern and a Search for the African Python In Florida
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The African Python, Python sebae NaplesNews.com is reporting that Wildlife officials conducted a survey Friday just west of Miami in an area where 30 of the African pythons (Python sebae) have been captured over the past few years. The area is close to shopping centers, a major Indian gambling casino and residential neighborhoods, and not…
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An increase in the number of species of African crocodiles
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A slender-snouted crocodile in Gabon. Photo Credit: Matt Shirley, UF/IFAS) Dec. 18, 2013 — African crocodiles, long thought of as just three known species, are among the most iconic creatures on that continent. But recent University of Florida research now finds that there are at least seven distinct African crocodile species. The UF team’s latest…
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Ancestral squamate viviparous?
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The ancestor of snakes and lizards likely gave birth to live young, rather than laid eggs, and over time species have switched back and forth in their preferred reproductive mode, according to research published in print in Ecology Letters Dec. 17. “This is a very unusual and controversial finding, and a major overturn of an…
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Zoonotic pathogens in Crotalus viridis, is there potential for spillover?
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Can handling rattlesnakes lead to a spillover of a zoonotic organisms to humans? In his 2012 book Spillover, David Quammen examines zoonotic diseases, pathogens that jump from other animals to humans. The list of diseases that impact humans and have reservoirs in other species is lengthy and sobering. HIV, malaria, SARS, hantavirius, influenza, etc. Quammen…
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Xantusid phylogeny
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Xantusia henshawi The night lizards of the clade Xantusiidae are small-bodied, cryptic lizards endemic to the New World. The clade is characterized by several features that are of phylogenetic interest. (1) monophyletic status of extant taxa Cricosaura, Lepidophyma, and Xantusia; (2) a species endemic to Cuba (Cricosaura typica) of disputed age; (3) origins of the…
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Air flow in lizards and their relatives
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The upper image is a colorized CT scan showing different airways in the lung of a monitor lizard. The bottom image shows how air flows in a mostly one-way loop through the lizard’s lung, as measured by sensors implanted as part of a University of Utah study. Note how the air flows through adjacent lateral…
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Lampropeltis triangulum now seven species
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A new early on-line study examines reports unrecognized diversity in the milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum) Coalescent species delimitation indicates that L. triangulum is not monophyletic and that there are multiple species of milksnake, which increases the known species diversity in the genus Lampropeltis by 40%. Both genealogical and temporal discordance occurs between gene trees and the…
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New molecular study provides insights into boa and python evolution
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Henophidian snakes (boas, pythons, and their relatives) are one of the most spectacular groups of reptiles and constitute a vast diversity of morphologies, behaviors, body sizes and ecologies. This group include both the shortest (the black-bellied dwarf boa, Tropidophis nigriventris, about 250 mm in total length) and longest (reticulated python, about 10 m in total…
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Crocodilians Lure Prey
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Dec. 4, 2013 — Turns out the crocodile can be a shrewd hunter himself. A University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researcher has found that some crocodiles use lures to hunt their prey. A mugger crocodile balances twigs on its nose to tempt birds collecting small branches to build nests with, at Madras Crocodile Bank, Tamil Nadu…
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Two snake genomes
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The Burmese python’s ability to ramp up its metabolism and enlarge its organs to swallow and digest prey whole can be traced to unusually rapid evolution and specialized adaptations of its genes and the way they work, an international team of biologists says in a new paper. Lead author Todd Castoe, an assistant professor of…
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