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External genitalia in amniote evolution
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When it comes to genitalia, nature enjoys variety. Snakes and lizards have two. Birds and people have one. And while the former group’s paired structures are located somewhat at the level of the limbs, ours, and the birds’, appear a bit further down. In fact, snake and lizard genitalia are derived from tissue that gives…
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An amphibious ichthyosaur
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Fossil remains show the first amphibious ichthyosaur found in China by a team led by a UC Davis scientist. Its amphibious characteristics include large flippers and flexible wrists, essential for crawling on the ground. Photo Credit: Ryosuke Motani/UC Davis The first fossil of an amphibious ichthyosaur has been discovered in China by a team led…
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Snakebite in rural Nepal, diagnosis of species responsible
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Photo credit; DA Warrell Starting with a simple DNA swab taken from fang marks on people bitten by snakes, an international research team correctly identified the species of the biting snake 100 percent of the time in a first-of-its-kind clinical study, according to data presented today at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s…
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Frogs make their offspring grow at a faster rate
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Breeding male of Rana arvalis from the study area. Photo Credit: Germán Orizaola. Gobal warming is altering the reproduction of plants and animals, notably accelerating the date when reproduction and other life processes occur. A study by the University of Uppsala (Sweden), including the participation of Spanish researcher Germán Orizaola, has discovered that some amphibians…
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The Asian keelback genus Amphiesma separated into three genera
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Amphiesma stolatum from Thailand. JCM Asia is the geographic center for the origin of most modern snake lineages. The Asian natricines known as keelbacks (Amphiesma) are widely distributed and inhabit a variety of niches and exhibit significant morphological variation. The genus keelbacks in the genus Amphiesma comprise at least 42 species of small to medium-sized…
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Giant tortoise reintroduction to Española Island, Galapagos
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An endangered population of giant tortoises has recovered on the Galapagos island of Espanola. Photo Credit: James P. Gibbs, SUNY-ESF. Some 40 years after the first captive-bred tortoises were reintroduced to the island by the Galapagos National Park Service, the endemic Española giant tortoises are reproducing and restoring some of the ecological damage caused by feral goats…
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Rapid evolution of the hind feet of the green anole
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The left hind foot of the green anole after evolution. Toe pad measurements were taken on the expanded scales at the end of the longest toe. Photo Credit: Yoel Stuart/U. of Texas at Austin Scientists working on islands in Florida have documented the rapid evolution of a native lizard species — in as little as 15…
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A new leopard frog from the east coast
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Rana (Lithobates) kauffeldi discovered by Rutgers researchers and a team of others living along the I-95 corridor from Connecticut to North Carolina will be named after the ecologist who first noticed it more than a half century ago. Photo Credit: Rutgers University. Note the authors described this frog as a member of the genus Rana, but…
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Molecular study reveals the small yellow treefrog Dendropsophus minutus to actually be 19-43 species
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This Trinidad and Tobago frog, formerly regarded as Dedropsophis minutus is now Dendopsophus goughi (Boulenger). JCM Cryptic genetic diversity is now so commonly reported in molecular studies of amphibian species that the existence of nominally widespread tropical species has been called into question. However, supposedly widespread species occurring across multiple biomes and countries are rarely comprehensively…
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Biodiversity hotspots produced multiple events
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Over 90 percent of the more than 700 species of reptiles and amphibians that live in Madagascar, like the jeweled chameleon (Furcifer campani) shown here, occur nowhere else on Earth. A study of how Madagascar’s unique biodiversity responded to environmental fluctuations in the past suggests thatthe climate change and deforestation that the island is experiencing…
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Rattlesnakes & Robotic Tech
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Top. A sidewinder. Bottom A robot model. The amazing ability of sidewinder snakes to quickly climb sandy slopes was once something biologists only vaguely understood and roboticists only dreamed of replicating. By studying the snakes in a unique bed of inclined sand and using a snake-like robot to test ideas spawned by observing the real…
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Australia sea snakes and the absence of Laticauda
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Hydrophis czeblukovi a species found in Australian waters. Globally there are about 70 species of sea snake (aquatic elapids, in the subfamilies Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae), inhabiting tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, from the east coast of Africa in the west to the Gulf of Panama in the east. Most…
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New genera of homalopsid snakes
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Until recently these two snakes were both in the genus Enhydris. Both are adults, both have smooth scales and their internasals in contact. Yet they have different ancestors within the family homalopsidae as suggested by their dramatically different body shapes. JCM The colubroid snake family Homalopsidae also known as the Australasian rear-fanged water snakes contained…
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A new high altitude pit viper from Sumatra
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Top. Trimeresurus gunaleni. Below its habitat Vogel et al. (2014) investigated morphological variation in 126 specimens from at least 67 populations of Trimeresurus sumatranus. They found two distinct taxa: Trimeresurus sumatranus (Raffles) and Trimeresurus gunaleni sp. nov. They selected a neotype for Trimeresurus sumatranus and restricted its type locality to the vicinity of Bengkulu, Bengkulu Province,…
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Gene duplication and the evolution of snake venom toxins
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Gene duplication is a rare event in eukaryotic genomes and has been suggested as the major source of novel genetic material. Estimates of the rate of gene duplication in vertebrates vary from 1 gene per 100 to 1 gene per 1000 per million years and the most common fate for a duplicate gene is the…
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A new burrow-using, fanged frog from Sarawak
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Limnonectes cintalubang, new species (KUHE 47859) Borneo is famous for its diverse endemic amphibians and the diversity can be expected to increase with the discovery of cryptic taxa. Frogs of the Limmnoectes kuhlii complex have enlarged head with fang-like processes on lower jaw in males, thus they are commonly called fanged frogs. Usually they have…
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A phylogeny of snake combat and mating behaviors
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A small study suggests snakes may have developed courtship and male-to-male combat behavior, such as moving undulations, neck biting, and spur-poking, over time, according to a study published September 24, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Phil Senter from Fayetteville State University and colleagues. Behaviors involved in courtship and male-to-male combat have been…
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Cosumnes River Preserve restoration to protect Thamnophis gigas
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The restored marsh and Thamnophis gigas. Photo credit CDFW The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has completed an emergency restoration project at the Cosumnes River Preserve to help save a state and federal threatened species, the giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas). Snake Marsh at the Cosumnes River Preserve is home to a genetically…
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Side-blotch lizard thermoregulation & climate change
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Top: A side-blotch lizard. Photo Credit M. Goller. Below Thermograms of temperature microhabitats in the overall landscape (A–B) and analysis of lizard and environmental temperature (C–D). Measurement of lizard average temperature (line) and perch temperature (outline) is seen in (C). (D) Determination of maximum lizard temperature (box) and environmental maximum and minimum from the entire visible substrate available to the lizard. Only the rock surface (arrows indicate…
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Varanus olivaceus picks fruit from trees
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Varanus olivaceus feeding in a Microcos tree – Polillo, May 2005. From video by Simon Normanton/ Steel Spyda. Daniel Bennett (2014) used camera traps and direct observation to investigate the foraging behavior of the butaan, . This lizard is an obligatory frugivorous monitor lizard restricted to Luzon, Polillo and Catenduanes islands in the northern Philippines.…
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Nidovirus in Ball Pythons
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Researchers have identified a novel virus that could be the source of a severe, sometimes fatal respiratory disease that has been observed in captive ball pythons since the 1990s. The work is published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Investigators observed the virus, which they named ball…
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Could ecdysis in wild reptiles be influenced by environmental conditions?
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Anecdotal reports that ecdysis in the Southeast Asian tropical viper Calloselasma rhodostoma occurs when humidity is high. Humidity may be important during ecdysis to prevent dehydration, a risk of the increased activity required for shedding and potentially increased rates of cutaneous water loss. However, little is known about the role of humidity in ecdysis cycles…
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Minnesota prairie snakes
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The following is from the Bemidji Pioneer Elizabeth Baier, MPR.org | 91.3 FM Jeff LeClere, a herpetologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, holds an American racer snake Wednesday morning his team trapped and tagged. Alex Kolyer | MPR news Kellogg — In a sandy tract of grassland where the Zumbro River empties into the…
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Marine crocodilians and sea surface temperatures
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A dyrosaurid, a marine crocodilian, swimming in the warm surface waters during the end of the Cretaceous period. Illustration credit: Guillaume Suan. The ancestors of today’s crocodiles colonized the seas during warm phases and became extinct during cold phases, according to a new Anglo-French study which establishes a link between marine crocodilian diversity and the…
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The identity of the long confused snake Elapotinus picteti
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Top left: The snake Elapotinus pictei, Bottom left: a scan of its skull showing the rear fangs. Right a map of its distribution showing is association with rainforest. Adapted from Kucharzewski et al. The snake Elapotinus pictetiJan, 1862 has been an enigma, it was described without locality data. The genus and species were both based…
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A new snake from Trinidad, and its significance to the big picture
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There is no doubt that there are many, many more species of amphibians and reptiles than previously thought. Peter Uetz, maintains the Reptile Database website, and he recently announced that in 2014, the number of known reptile species passed the 10,000 mark – and the year has not yet ended. In an email Uetz wrote the number…
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Vocal communication in Amazon River Turtles
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An adult Giant South American river turtle. The turtle is the largest member of the side-necked turtle family and grows up to nearly three feet in length. Photo credit: C. Ferrara/Wildlife Conservation Society Turtles are well known for their longevity and protective shells, but it turns out these reptiles use sound to stick together and…
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Boid taxonomy revisited
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Two phylogenetic trees from recent papers that included boid snakes. In a new paper Pyron et al. (2014) discuss and alter the taxonomy of boid snakes. The family Boidae previously comprised five subfamilies: Sanziniinae, Charininae, Erycinae, Candoiinae, and Boinae. These subfamilies are distinct both morphologically and biogeographically, with Sanziniinae being restricted to Madagascar; Charininae…
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Reptiles replace dogs as most popular pets
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Reptile shows display many species, often unexpected species. such as this Varanus salvadorii. JCM The following story was published on-line at the Hexam Courant By Joseph Tulip, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 The archetypal English family home wouldn’t be complete without a four-legged friend, a bird in a cage to converse with or perhaps a fluffy…
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Geckos use toe hairs to turn stickiness on and off
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Geckos’ feet are nonsticky by default, but they can activate “stickiness” through application of a small shear force. Photo credit: Image by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, If you’ve ever spent any time watching a gecko, you may have wondered about their uncanny ability to adhere to any surface – including upside down on ceilings. It turns out…
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Sperm storage in the coastal taipan
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Hatching Coastal Taipans. Photo credit: Luke Allen A snake curator studying in Darwin may have solved a puzzle that has confused experts for years. Just how can some female snakes store sperm after mating, sometimes for months, before using it to fertilize their eggs? The rare phenomenon has been recorded in snakes in different parts…
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Suizo Report — Godzilla and her pups
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Howdy Herpers, 08/05/14 Sorry that it has been such a long time since I’ve written all you little people in my life. What with being president of the Tucson Herp Society, running a machine shop, and carrying the full brunt of organizing a radio telemetry study, I don’t even have time to pick my nose any…
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Amphibians as travlers
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Pseudophilautus poppiae, a microendemic shrub frog from Southern Sri Lanka that only occurs in a few hectares of cloud forest. Photo credit: Alex Pyron There are more than 7,000 known species of amphibians that can be found in nearly every type of ecosystem on six continents. But there have been few attempts to understand exactly…
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Selective logging damages mammal and amphibian diversity
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This is a tree downed by logging in Madagascar. Photo credit: Zuzana Burivalova The selective logging of trees in otherwise intact tropical forests can take a serious toll on the number of animal species living there. Mammals and amphibians are particularly sensitive to the effects of high-intensity logging, according to researchers in the Cell Press journal Current…
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A tiny, new microhylid from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
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This image shows the male holotype of the new species Chiasmocleis quilombola. Phoyo Credit: João F. R. Tonini The Atlantic Forest is a hotspot of biodiversity and one of the most species richness biome of anurans (frogs, tree-frogs, and toads) in the world. However, current levels of diversity might be still underestimated. In the past…
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A feeding aggregation of Boa constrictors
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Boa constrictor (individual 1) predating Rufous-bellied Thrush on a trumpet tree. The black arrow indicates the bird’s wing and the white arrow points out a conspecific (individual 2) on a parallel branch. Photo Gilson da Rocha Santos. Sit-and-wait predators remain motionless for long periods of time, waiting for prey to come within range of their reach.…
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Divergence in Shaw’s Vivipiparous Sea Snake
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Hydrophis curtus Species are not evenly distributed on earth and regions that are exceptionally rich in endemic species suffering habitat loss are commonly referred to as biodiversity hotspots. The Indo-Australian archipelago has unusual high levels of biodiversity threatened by increasingly human generated activities. The region supports the one of world’s highest diversity of marine fish,…
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Alaskan wood frogs spend most of their life frozen
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An Alaska wood frog creates a hibernacula from duff and leaf litter in a spruce forest on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in preparation for the long winter freeze. Photo Credit: Photographer: Uwe Anders Freezing and thawing might not be good for the average steak, but it seems to help wood frogs each fall…
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The earliest reptile?
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The skull of Gephyrostegus bohemicus. University of Lincoln Paleontologists from the Natural History Museum and academics from Lincoln, Cambridge and Solvakia have recreated the cranial structure of a 308-million-year-old lizard-like vertebrate that could be the earliest example of a reptile and explain the origin of all vertebrates that belong to reptiles, birds and mammals. Dr…
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Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola in the eastern massasauga
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Researchers have developed a faster and more accurate way to test for infection with Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, a fungus that is killing snakes in the Midwest and eastern United States. The test also allows scientists to monitor the progression of the infection in living snakes. The researchers reported on the test at the 2014 Mycological…
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Divergence within Boa constrictor imperator
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Boa constrictor imperator, Belize. JCM The Boa constrictor species complex has the widest distribution of any boid, with a latitudinal range from Mexico (30° N) to Argentina (35° S), and inhabiting a variety of environments Some geographically delimited populations have been recognized as subspecies, which exhibit extensive variation in morphological and ecological traits. Despite their…
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Moving Massasaugas
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Relocating animals is a commonly used conservation technique. In the case of venomous snakes, relocation is often prompted by the potential for negative human-snake interactions. However, other reasons to relocate snakes include the re-establishment of extirpated populations, the establishment of new populations of imperiled species in more suitable locations, and augmentation of imperiled populations. …
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World Snake Day
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http://www.oriannesociety.org/
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A new arrangement for the blind snake superfamily Typhlopoidea
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The blindsnake superfamily Typhlopoidea is a diverse and widespread part of the global snake fauna. The superfamily Typhlopoidea now contains three families: Gerrhopilidae, Typhlopidae, and Xenotyphlopidae. Gerrhopilidae inhabits South and Southeast Asia and the East Indies. Xenotyphlopidae occurs only in northeastern Madagascar. But, Typhlopidae is widespread, containing at least 257 species. Typhlopids have major radiations…
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Two new montane rattlesnakes from Mexico
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Members of the Mexican dusky rattlesnake species group (Crotalus triseriatus Group) are widely distributed across the highlands of Mexico and the southwestern USA. Currently the group contains five species. The nominate species, C. triseriatus, contains the subspecies C. t. triseriatus and C. t. armstrongi, which inhabit mixed pine-oak forests across the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Crotalus…
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Frog adaptations to an invasive crayfish
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The common frog is one of the amphibians with the highest distribution in the Iberian Peninsula. It reproduces preferably in permanent areas of water where it comes into contact with the red swamp crayfish, which preys on its larvae. Research carried out by the Spaniard Germán Orizaola from the University of Uppsala (Sweden) confirms that…
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A Kuroiwa’s leopard gecko subspecies described post-extinction
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A member of the Goniurisaurus kuroiwae Group Kuroiwa’s Leopard Gecko, Goniurosaurus kuroiwae is a eublepharid gecko endemic to the central part of the Ryukyu Archipelago of Japan, in the subtropical northwestern Pacific. It is isolated from the rest of its congeners occurring in southeastern continental China, northern Vietnam, and adjacent coastal islands, and the species represents…
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Skull morphology of some highly aquatic South American xenodontines
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In all recently published molecular phylogenies, the South American Xenodontinae form a clade that comprises several monophyletic units (tribes), one of which consists of the three genera of the tribe Hydropsini (Helicops, Hydrops and Pseudoeryx. Complete information on the bony skull is available for nearly a third (29 genera) of the Dipsadidae genera, whereas fragmentary…
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One opinion on the ban to import five constricting snakes left out of the 2012 decision
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The following is an editorial opinion from News-pess.com. What’s your reaction to taking a trip to the Everglades National Park, one of the jewels showcasing America’s natural beauty, and seeing a giant constrictor snake stretched across the road in the evening light? If it’s one of revulsion and sadness that these creatures don’t belong here,…
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Chironius phylogeny
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Chironius carinatus. JCM Fourteen colubrid genera are known from South America: including Chironius Fitzinger, 1826. This is one of the largest genera, with 16 species known to date. Its distribution ranges from the northern coast of Honduras to Uruguay and northeastern Argentina; and they are present in the Lesser Antilles. Chironius are long, slender, oviparous…
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