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Uropeltis madurensis. Photo credit SR Ganesh. Burrowing snakes remain the most difficult serpents to study and undoubtedly represent a disproportionately large percentage of undescribed taxa.  Burrowing species are found in many different clades, and a few clades contain only burrowing species. The shieldtail snakes of the family Uropeltidae are dedicated burrowers inhabiting southern India and…

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Atelopus erythropus, Photo credit A. Catenazzi Alessandro Catenazzi, Edgar Lehr, and Rudolf von May (2014) have compile a list of all amphibians and reptiles known to occur within Manú National Park, Peru as well as its buffer zone. The park is located in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Covering approximately 0.01% of the planet’s terrestrial surface,…

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BloombergBusinessweek is carrying the following story regarding the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-up. By David Mildenberg January 23, 2014In a West Texas prairie of cactus and mesquite, Riley Sawyers sprays gasoline fumes into a narrow crevice in the ground, hoping to drive slumbering rattlesnakes to the surface. His equipment isn’t fancy, just a common pesticide canister attached…

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Photo credit D. Bruce Means A press release from the CBD.ATLANTA— As the town of Whigham, Ga., prepares to host its annual “rattlesnake roundup” this weekend, the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies presented a petition with more than 50,000 signatures to the Whigham Community Club today asking that the state’s last roundup transition…

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This red-legged salamander can help scientists predict forest  habitat quality and will guide forest management decisions.  Photo Credit: Grant Connette at Wayah Bald, NC. Woodland salamanders are small, lungless amphibians that live in moist, forest habitats throughout the U.S. and the world. Salamanders often serve as vital links in forest food chains; their population size…

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The lizard families Gerrhosauridae and Cordylidae form the clade Cordyliformes. But, there is  a long history of disagreement as to whether this clade comprises a single family, Cordylidae or two families: Cordylidae and Gerrhosauridae, or one family with two subfamilies (Cordylinae and Gerrhosaurinae). In a recently published study in Zootaxa, Bates et al. (2013)  constructed…

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The Peninsula Clarion is the daily newspaper of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. By DAN BALMERPeninsula ClarionWhile feeding his dogs last Saturday, George Pierce of Kasilof noticed something out of place in his back yard — a garter snake. The frozen reptile, 1 1/2 feet in length, was coiled up uncovered by the melting snow. Pierce, who…

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The Southern Pacific rattlesnake on Catalina has a tendency to strike before rattling. Conservancy file photo. By Jerry RobertsAVALON, CATALINA ISLAND – Researchers could announce as early as this winter that the Catalina Island version of the Southern Pacific rattlesnake has enough differences from the mainland version of the serpent to declare it a separate…

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The expression of fish Hox genes in a mouse embryo. Photo Credit: Denis Duboule, UNIGE. The transition from water to land is one of the most fascinating enigmas of evolution. Especially since both fish terrestrial animals have groups of architects genes, Hoxa and Hoxd , necessary for the formation of fins, as well as that…

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An adult female Rhinella yunga from  Rio Huatziroki. Photo Credit: J. Moravec. Jan. 17, 2014 — A new species of toad was discovered hiding in the leaf litter of the Peruvian Yungas. The word is used widely by the locals to describe ecoregion of montane rainforests, and translates as “warm valley” in English. The new species…

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Amerotyphlops cf. brongersmianus The five families of sclecophoidians are the oldest group of extant snakes with an ancestor some place in the Jurassic. One family (Xenotyphlopidae) is monotypic and restricted to Madagascar, one family (Anomalepididae) is found only in the Neotropics, One is restricted to Southeast Asia and New Guinea (Gerrhopilidae), a fourth (Leptotyphlopidae)has the…

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Madagascar has a unique phylogenetic representation of reptiles that includes the enigmatic Malagasy blind snake of the family Xenotyphlopidae established by Vidal et al., 2010. The family currently contains one genus Xenotyphlops with the two species X. grandidieri Mocquard, and X. mocquardi  both are presumably endemic to the same area in northwest Madagascar.  Photo to…

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The discovery of well-preserved pelves and a partial pelvic fin from Tiktaalik roseae, a 375 million-year-old transitional species between fish and the first legged animals, reveals that the evolution of hind legs actually began as enhanced hind fins. This challenges existing theory that large, mobile hind appendages were developed only after vertebrates transitioned to land. The…

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The following article is from the Star-Telegram and is a reminder that the extinction of rattlesnake round-ups is controversial. From the quotes contained here solving the rattlesnake round-up issue is clearly an educational issue. Texas schools should be including discussions on how local wildlife is best used. and it should be accompanied with  public information campaign about the number of…

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Armillifer armillatus taken from a Python sebae.  Species in this genus are known to infect humans.  Photo credit: José Grau de Puerto Montt at en.wikipedia Parasites are an important but often overlooked part of food webs and biodiversity. One estimate places 40% of the known species as parasitic. The number of amphibians species and amphibian…

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by Sathya Achia AbrahamExperts predict that 2014 will be a big year for reptiles. Reptiles, which include snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, tuataras and amphisbaenians, are projected to become the most diverse vertebrate group in the world. As it stands now, there are approximately 10,000 bird species – the most of any vertebrates – but reptiles…

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The southeastern Coastal Plain is a center of reptile and amphibian diversity in the United States with habitat loss the primary cause of most herpetofaunal declines. Contributing to these declines has been the loss of the once dominant longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)–wiregrass (Aristida stricta) habitats, which historically covered about 30 million ha of the southeastern…

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This is a story from a student journalists at the 2013 SICB Meeting in San Francisco.By Katrina Jones, The Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University Around 400 million years ago, animals underwent a transition that changed the history of life on Earth: vertebrates ventured onto land. The evolution of four-legged tetrapods from…

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King cobras, Ophiophagus hannah, are the largest living elapids, and the largest of the front-fanged venomous snakes. Their large body size and diet of other snakes might suggest that they would have a large home range, but many other snake species  are quite sedentary. In a new study Sahas Barve of the Agumbe Rainforest Research…

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Frogs and toads are packets of proteins and calories to many predators. In response anurans have evolved a plethora of defenses against their predators, many of these defenses are chemical. Dendrobatid frogs may kill a potential predators with its defensive toxins, but many species of anurans seem to produce toxins that are sub-lethal. Anuran skin…

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Artist’s reconstruction of Pachyrhachis problematicus. Three fossil marine snakes with hind-limbs Pachyrhachis problematicus, Eupodophis descouensi, and Haasiophis terrasanctus. are known from the upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the Middle East. All of them were collected from the region that formed the ancient Tethys Sea. The first species was described in 1979 and a reduced limb lizard,but later…

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Treerunners are diurnal, medium sized lizards that sit in the open on vertical surfaces, and are often in small colonies that include adults of both sexes and juveniles. The sounds they make scurrying on the bark of trees or rock outcrops draws attention to their presence and thus, they are common in museum collections. The…

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A 10-year study shows some good news for frogs and toads on national wildlife refuges. The rate of abnormalities such as shortened or missing legs was less than 2 percent overall — indicating that the malformations first reported in the mid-1990s were rarer than feared. But much higher rates were found in local “hotspots,” suggesting…

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Rhinoderma darwinnii. (Photo Credit: Copyright Claudio Soto-Azat) Deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis has caused the extinction of Darwin’s frogs, believe scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Chile.Although habitat disturbance is recognised as the main threat to the two existing species of Darwin’s frogs (the northern Rhinoderma rufum endemic to…

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The ability of skin and organs to stretch is important in determining the size of prey a snake can swallow. Snake skin consists of a keratinized epidermis divided into thick scale regions and thinner, folded interscale regions that are underlain by a dermis containing a complex array of fibrous connective tissues. In a new study…

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Instead of eyelids, snakes have a clear scale  called a spectacle. It works like a window, covering  and protecting their eyes. When presented with a  threat, the fight-or-flight response changes the spectacle’s  blood flow pattern, reducing blood flow for longer  periods than at rest, up to several minutes. Nov. 4, 2013 — A new study…

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Was the evolution of high-quality vision in our ancestors driven by the threat of snakes? Work by neuroscientists in Japan and Brazil is supporting the theory originally put forward by Lynne Isbell, professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. In a paper published Oct. 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy…

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A James Cook University-National Geographic expedition to Cape York Peninsula in north-east Australia has found three vertebrate species new to science and isolated for millions of years — a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a golden-coloured skink and a boulder-dwelling frog. Saltuarius eximius Earlier this year Dr Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and National Geographic…

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Using the invasive Cuban treefrog, Osteopilius septentrionalisRohr et al. studied the effects of atrazine on frogs exposed to Bd. The combination of the herbicide atrazine and a fungal disease is particularly deadly to frogs. USF Biologist Jason Rohr said  new findings show that early-life exposure to atrazine increases frog mortality but only when the frogs…

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A fungus that is killing frogs and other amphibians around the world releases a toxic factor that disables the amphibian immune response, Vanderbilt University investigators report Oct. 18 in the journal Science. The findings represent “a step forward in understanding a long-standing puzzle — why the amphibian immune system seems to be so inept at…

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Bothrops jacaraca juvenile. Photo credit: Fernando Tatagiba Snake venoms are complex mixtures but it is important that we understand them so that we can develop effective antivenoms. For snakes of the viper family, a number of studies have illustrated that the picture is complicated by the fact that the venom composition can vary between members…

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Preliminary studies suggest that Schneider’s Bockadam (also known as the dog-faced water snake), Cerberus schneiderii, is one of the most abundant aquatic snakes in mangrove ecosystems across most of Southeast Asia, A new study of this snake at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Singapore supports these studies. The brackish man-made ponds at this site…

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Howdy Herpers,                                                         10/3/13 “And when I die, and when I’m gone, there will be one child born in a world to carry on, ……to carry on.” Blood, Sweat and Tears, Columbia Records, 1969 We’re going to go Hollywood with this report. At times, the snakes on our plot demonstrate drama on that sort of scale.…

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Top: Vellberg jaw. Bottom: restoration image.  Illustration Credit: Marc Jones. Two new fossil jaws discovered in Vellberg, Germany provide the first direct evidence that the ancestors of lizards, snakes and tuatara (known collectively as lepidosaurs) were alive during the Middle Triassic period — around 240 million years ago. The new fossil finds predate all other…

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The second annual Trinidad Bioblitz has come and gone.  This year it was held in the very biodiverese Arima Valley, with the base camp at the Asa Wright Nature Center. The preliminary tally of species was – Vertebrates 139, Invertebrates 247, Fungus 30, Diatoms 7, Plants 317 for a grand total of 740 species! Teams…

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