By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on May 31, 2013 and cumulative
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. Provides Section 19(a) Notice
By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on May 31, 2013 and cumulative
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. Provides Section 19(a) Notice
By Herp News
This notice provides stockholders of Tortoise Power and Energy Infrastructure Fund, Inc. with information regarding the distribution paid on May 31, 2013 and cumulative
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Scientists unlock secrets of the turtle's shell
A fossil stored unnoticed in a museum may hold the secret to a question that’s plagued scientists for decades: How did the turtle get his shell?
From Boston.com:
It’s a question so obvious a schoolchild can ask it, but for more than a century, consensus has eluded the paleontologists and evolutionary biologists who study the reptiles and their bony carapaces. Now, a group of scientists at Yale University and the Smithsonian Institution argue that a reptile fossil that’s been gathering dust in museum collections is actually a turtle ancestor, and that its reduced number of ribs, distribution of muscles, and T-shaped ribs could help settle the question once and for all.
In a new paper published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, they unveil the argument that a 260 million-year-old creature called Eunotosaurus africanus was a turtle ancestor, hoping to help resolve a debate that has split the scientific community for decades.
Read all about it here.
Photo: Tyler Lyson/Boston.com …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Lizard found in banana box in Devon
By Herp News
A lizard from the Caribbean is found alive at a Devon farm in a box of bananas imported from the Dominican Republic.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Frankie Tortoise Tails – I Did This!
It was a long hard day in the house cleaning and cleaning. And cleaning. Cleaning. You get the picture. And I did two loads of laundry. That’s enough.
I go into the kitchen and grab a carrot so I can have a leisurely visit with my favorite shelled wonder: Frankie. Right off I see him on the upper end near the fence. I go over to him.
Crap!
“Frankie! Did you eat the forsythia bush because it took three years to get it big enough to bloom?” I look at Frankie, “You nit-wit.”
Frankie looks at me like he knows a buffalo jumped over the fence and ate the forsythia bush. “I didn’t do that.”
I walk around back to make sure everything is clear and safe. I come across a……well it used to be a knee high pile of branches and twigs….now it’s a strewn across the grass.
“Frankie! Did you do this?”
Frankie observes the broken scatted twigs and branches.
“I didn’t do that.”
Right.
I find the bird bath turned over. I filled it this morning.
“Frankie! Did you do this?”
Frankie approaches the turned over bird bath and proceeds to walk right over it. “Nope. Didn’t do it.”
Then I see the Frankie’s kiddy pool that is supposed to last through this summer. A new rip has appeared that may just speed the end of this pool for Frankie.
“How about this? Did you rip your pool?”
Frankie ignores the obvious. “Didn’t do that.”
I should have seen it. I was looking at the pool and missed the three wooden fence segments I have….had leaning against the chain link fence so Frankie doesn’t push through wire. If that isn’t bad enough the compost barrel filled with Frankie poop was caught in the fence-falling-frenzy and is now on it’s side and all the contents spilled on the lawn. And while we are at it let’s count the wooden boards crashed and thrown down from their cinder block from being toppled over.
“How about this?”
Frankie walks past me and steps up on the nearest fence that lies partially on the ground and partially on the the compost barrel. Frankie walks to the highest point on the fallen fence (about 18 inches high).
Proud as one can be, like a man reaching the very top of Mount Everest, “I did this!” …read more
Read more here: Turtle Times
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Croaking chorus of Cuban frogs make noisy new neighbors
By Herp News
Scientists have shown the adverse impact of invasive frog species’ songs.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Endangered painted turtle tussles for survival in Abbotsford's Mill Lake
By Herp News
Abbotsford's Reptile Guy Mike Hopcraft shows off an invasive turtle, the red eared slider, that's putting serious pressure on the endangered native species at Mill Lake. The sliders, tossed into the lake as unwanted pets, are competing with the western painted turtle for food, nesting space and habitat.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Endangered painted turtle tussles for survival in Abbotsford's Mill Lake
By Herp News
Abbotsford's Reptile Guy Mike Hopcraft shows off an invasive turtle, the red eared slider, that's putting serious pressure on the endangered native species at Mill Lake. The sliders, tossed into the lake as unwanted pets, are competing with the western painted turtle for food, nesting space and habitat.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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How did the turtle get its shell?
By Herp News
How did the turtle get its shell? It’s a question so obvious a schoolchild can ask it, but for more than a century, consensus has eluded the scientists who study the reptiles and their bony carapaces.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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How did the turtle get its shell?
By Herp News
How did the turtle get its shell? It’s a question so obvious a schoolchild can ask it, but for more than a century, consensus has eluded the scientists who study the reptiles and their bony carapaces.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
How did the turtle get its shell?
By Herp News
How did the turtle get its shell? It’s a question so obvious a schoolchild can ask it, but for more than a century, consensus has eluded the scientists who study the reptiles and their bony carapaces.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
No products found.
How turtles got their shells: Fossil of extinct South African reptile provides clues
By Herp News
Through careful study of an ancient ancestor of modern turtles, researchers now have a clearer picture of how the turtles' most unusual shell came to be. The findings help to fill a 30- to 55-million-year gap in the turtle fossil record through study of an extinct South African reptile known as Eunotosaurus.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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How turtles got their shells: Fossil of extinct South African reptile provides clues
By Herp News
Through careful study of an ancient ancestor of modern turtles, researchers now have a clearer picture of how the turtles' most unusual shell came to be. The findings help to fill a 30- to 55-million-year gap in the turtle fossil record through study of an extinct South African reptile known as Eunotosaurus.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Reptile Guy encourages restrictions on selling turtles
By Herp News
Mike Hopcraft says red-eared slider turtles are being released into the wild, damaging ecosystems
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Reptile Guy encourages restrictions on selling turtles
By Herp News
Mike Hopcraft says red-eared slider turtles are being released into the wild, damaging ecosystems
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Scientists discover that turtles began living in shells much earlier than once thought
By Herp News
Unique among Earth’s creatures, turtles are the only animals to form a shell on the outside of their bodies through a fusion of modified ribs, vertebrae and shoulder girdle bones. The turtle shell is a unique modification, and how and when it originated has fascinated and confounded biologists for more than two centuries. Scientists have recently discovered that the beginnings of the turtle shell started 40 million years earlier than previously thought.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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How the turtles got their shells
By Herp News
Through careful study of an ancient ancestor of modern turtles, researchers now have a clearer picture of how the turtles’ most unusual shell came to be. The findings help to fill a 30- to 55-million-year gap in the turtle fossil record through study of an extinct South African reptile known as Eunotosaurus.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Lizard Spotted On Mars?
By Herp News
A blogger claims to have spotted a lizard in a photograph of Mars. While studying a picture of the Red Planet taken by the Curiosity…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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How the turtle got its shell
By Herp News
The turtle has been in no rush to give up the secret of its shell but new research led by Yale's Tyler Lyson sheds light on a structure unique in the history of life.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Saving Gorongosa: E.O. Wilson on protecting a biodiversity hotspot in Mozambique
By Herp News
If you fly over the Great African Rift Valley from its northernmost point in Ethiopia, over the great national parks of Kenya and Tanzania, and follow it south to the very end, you will arrive at Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique. Plateaus on the eastern and western sides of the park flank the lush valley in the center. Dramatic limestone cliffs, unexplored caves, wetlands, vast grasslands, rivers, lakes, and a patchwork of savanna and forest contribute to the incredible diversity of this park. What makes this place truly unique, however, is Mount Gorongosa—a towering massif that overlooks the valley below.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Saving Gorongosa: E.O. Wilson on protecting a biodiversity hotspot in Mozambique
By Herp News
If you fly over the Great African Rift Valley from its northernmost point in Ethiopia, over the great national parks of Kenya and Tanzania, and follow it south to the very end, you will arrive at Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique. Plateaus on the eastern and western sides of the park flank the lush valley in the center. Dramatic limestone cliffs, unexplored caves, wetlands, vast grasslands, rivers, lakes, and a patchwork of savanna and forest contribute to the incredible diversity of this park. What makes this place truly unique, however, is Mount Gorongosa—a towering massif that overlooks the valley below.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Tortoise Hypothesis: How The Opposition Will Re-Elect Jonathan In 2015 By Bolaji Eletta
By Herp News
By Bolaji Eletta, PhD The opposition players and activists in Nigeria are campaigning for GEJ! If my permutations on the workings of the heart of the average Nigerian is right (I have not been wrong on too many occasions), I can authoritatively declare that Goodluck Jonathan will remain President of the Republic until May 2019. My theory is hinged on what I call the Tortoise hypothesis. Tortoise …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Giant tortoise found wandering in neighborhood
By Herp News
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.– A giant reptile was spotted in an Arlington neighborhood Tuesday evening. It took some collaboration to get it to shelter, but the question now is: where did it…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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The Turtle and the Hare
By Herp News
We got modest final Q1 GDP data (the Turtle) and weaker fresh weekly claims data (the Hare). Does this stop the Taper Sooner crowd in its tracks?
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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A Striped Visitor
I derive great pleasure from feeding wild birds. The squirrel-proof hanging feeder has been in the same place in a tall crepe myrtle shrub outside my office window for years, and many common and a few uncommon birds visit it daily or occasionally.
One day, a couple of years ago, I swiveled my chair to watch the feeder, wondered why there was no bird activity, and saw that the feeder had a second watcher. Coiled in a tree crotch within easy striking distance of the feeder was a 30 inch long yellow rat snake, Pantherophis obsoletus quadrivittatus. I guess he was hoping for a bird dinner but the sharp-eyed avians had spotted the snake and temporarily boycotted the feeder.
Well, my freezer is never without a couple hundred mice, so I chose and thawed one of appropriate size, grabbed some forceps and mouse and visited the snake-shrub. Although I moved slowly, as I neared the shrub the snake began flickering its tongue and drew its head back into its coils.
Continue reading “A Striped Visitor” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Brittney Griner poses with giant reptile on ESPN The Magazine
By Herp News
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) celebrates after dunking the ball during the second half against the Chicago Sky at US Airways Center. / Casey Sapio, USA TODAY Sports
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Brittney Griner poses with giant reptile on ESPN The Magazine
By Herp News
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) celebrates after dunking the ball during the second half against the Chicago Sky at US Airways Center. / Casey Sapio, USA TODAY Sports
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Lizard Spotted On Mars?
By Herp News
A blogger claims to have spotted a lizard in a photograph of Mars. While studying a picture of the Red Planet taken by the Curiosity…
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Vancouver Aquarium breeds, releases endangered frogs
We actually found some good news about amphibians. No, really.
From the Vancouver, Canada, Globe and Mail:
Scientists at the Vancouver Aquarium have sprung into action, as part of an effort to prevent an endangered frog population from becoming extinct in eastern British Columbia.
The Rocky Mountain population of northern leopard frogs plummeted by the millions in the 1970s, and only two populations are now known to exist near Creston, in B.C.’s West Kootenay region.
The aquarium announced Thursday its scientists have, for the first time in Canada, bred the species in an aquarium setting and created an assurance — or backup — population.
Dennis Thoney, the aquarium’s director of animal operations, said officials plan to release about 2,000 tadpoles Monday in the Columbia Marshes near the east Kootenay city of Cranbrook, while maintaining a population at the aquarium.
Read more here. And try to smile.
Photo: Adult Northern leopard frogs. (Vancouver Aquarium) …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Sharp-eyed blogger (with an excitable imagination) claims to have spotted a LIZARD on Mars
By Herp News
A science blogger with a keen sense of vision claims to have spotted a lizard meandering around Mars.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Sharp-eyed blogger claims to have spotted LIZARD on Mars
By Herp News
A science blogger with a keen sense of vision claims to have spotted a lizard meandering around Mars.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Turtle recovering after stuck between rocks on Palm Beach
By Herp News
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Rescue workers found a loggerhead turtle stuck in between the rocks on Palm Beach Island. The 200 pound turtle was found on the northern end at the Palm Beach Inlet at the Jetty. Palm Beach Fire Rescue was called in to free the trapped animal. …
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Featured video: giant anteater wallowing and scratching like a dog
By Herp News
Scientists have recently taken rare and incredible footage of a giant anteater with a camera trap in the Barba Azul Nature Reserve of Bolivia. This footage captures a giant anteater wallowing in a pit of mud. The animal lies down, rolling around and scratching itself, for a period of, what seems to be, over a minute.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Are you a keeper?
With each passing year, as the various exporting countries close or open their seasons and/or shipping quotas the herps we see in the pet trade change. Availability of some changes from abundance to rarity, of others from rarity to abundance.
Two examples are the Colombian horned frog, Ceratophrys calcarata, and wild caught examples of the coveted red-tailed boa, Boa constrictor constrictor.
The former, once available in the thousands each breeding season, have not been available for decades and likewise for the boa, although far fewer numbers were involved.
Those among us who are keepers (yes, I am one) owe each and every animal, be their cost mere pennies or thousands of dollars, the best of conditions and care. Research each species before acquisition, and then acquire only those that you can care for adequately and with relative ease.
Continue reading “Are you a keeper?” …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Snowy tigers and giant owls: conservation against the odds in Russia’s Far East
By Herp News
-WCS-Russia.150.jpg?w=250)
The Russian Far East is one of the wildest places on Earth: where giant tigers roam snow-covered forests and the world’s biggest owls stalk frozen rivers. Bordering northern China and North Korea, the forests of Primorye are known for the diversity of habitats, including coastal forests along the Sea of Japan, vast coniferous forests in the Sikhote-Alin mountains, and even steppe. These diverse ecosystems also makes the forests a hotspot for endangered species, including Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), Blakiston’s fish owls (Bubo blakistoni), and one of the world’s rarest big cats, Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis), which number only 30-50 animals.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Loggerhead turtle released after treatment for plastic ingestion
After treatment at Marathon’s Turtle Hospital for digestive tract impaction, a loggerhead sea turtle was returned to the ocean off of the Florida Keys on Friday.
From Nature World News:
The roughly 6-pound, foot-long animal nicknamed “Charley” was first located by a fisherman who spotted it floating in a patch of weeds 22 miles off of the Middle Keys.
Upon examination veterinarians discovered that Charley had ingested a small piece of plastic, causing its digestive system to become impacted.
Richie Maroetti, Turtle Hospital founder and director, said in a statement that turtles sometimes confuse plastic with one of their favorite food sources: jellyfish.
“It plugged up her bowel and she started to float,” Moretti said. “We gave her some antibiotics and gave her a little Metamucil and she’s just much better.”
Ultimately, however, Charley’s struggle is symptomatic of a much larger problem, Moretti warns.
“We just gotta keep plastic out of our ocean,” he said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Photo : Florida Keys & Key West News Flash …read more
Read more here: King Snake
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Turning up the temperature might save frogs’ lives
By Herp News
Over the past 30 years, amphibians worldwide have been infected with a lethal skin disease known as the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). “The disease can cause rapid mortality, with infected frogs of susceptible species dying within weeks of infection in the laboratory.” Jodi Rowley, a herpetologist with the Australian Museum told mongabay.com. “This disease has now been associated with declines and extinctions in hundreds of species of amphibians worldwide, and is a serious threat to global amphibian biodiversity.”
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Over 500 scientists warn we ‘are causing alarming levels of harm to our planet’
By Herp News
A new consensus statement by 520 scientists from around the world warns that global environmental harm is putting at risk the happiness and well-being of this and future generations.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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Racers come out for their shells for a bit of nosh
By Herp News
A tortoise emerged triumphant from one of Oxford’s weird and wonderful traditions over the weekend.
Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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