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SerpentResearch.Com

Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History

John C Murphy

Author: JCM

  • Twenty-six new species of Malagasy microhylid frogs – many are microendemics

    Stumpffia davidattenboroughi. Photo credit G. M. Rosa The genus Stumpffia Boettger, 1881 was first described based on the species Stumpffia psologlossa a small frog from Nosy Be Island, Benavony, and Manongarivo on the adjacent mainland…

  • Viviparous sea snakes in the Indian Ocean

    Hydrophis curtus The presence of the viviparous sea snakes in the Indian Ocean poses a unique question in this regard due to their evolutionary origins in Australasia (Australia and New Guinea). In a new…

  • The eye covering on snakes

    The eye of all snakes is covered by a transparent spectacle that originates from the fusion of the eyelids during embryonic development. It is generally believed that the spectacle arose as an evolutionary adaptation to…

  • River valleys and snake genetics

    Pituophis catenifer sayi The genetic population structure of snakes can vary markedly based on a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Some snake species show only very modest levels of subdivision or none at…

  • The origin of Australian squamates

    Eastern Tiger Snake, Notechis scutatus Deadly snakes are among Australia’s most iconic animals. Now a new study led by The Australian National University (ANU) has helped explain how they descended from creatures that have…

  • Marine Snake Diversity in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea

    Bar graph showing the species composition and relative abundance  for 852 marine snakes collected as by-catch from otter trawlers  operating on the  trawling grounds at Sungai Buloh. The snakes  were collected in 1971 and…

  • The Rediscover of Jackson’s Climbing Salamander (Bolitoglossa jacksoni)

    The Search for Lost Species initiative is today celebrating the incredible and unexpected rediscovery of the first of its top 25 “most wanted” lost species, the Jackson’s Climbing Salamander (Bolitoglossa jacksoni), lost to science…

  • Western Rat Snakes and Resource Selection

     Western Ratsnakes (Pantherophis obsoletus) Predicting the effects of global climate change on species interactions has remained difficult because regional climate models and the microclimates experienced by organisms are not always in sync. In a new paper…

  • A new, hybrid, all female whiptail that is tetraploid

    The Desert Grasslands Whiptail, Aspidoscelis inornatus.  In a new paper, Cole et al. (2017) describe the second known tetraploid amniote that reproduces by parthenogenetic cloning. This all-female species of whiptail lizard originated in the laboratory from…