Frogs and Reptiles News

April 23, 2024

Top Headlines

Fossil Frogs Share Their Skincare Secrets

Apr. 23, 2024 — Palaeontologists have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts -- it's all down to their skin. Palaeontologists studied 45-million-year-old fossil frogs from the Geiseltal site in central Germany. ...

'Teacher Toads' Can Save Native Animals from Toxic Cane Toads

Apr. 9, 2024 — Scientists from Macquarie University have come up with an innovative way to stop cane toads killing native wildlife by training goannas to avoid eating the deadly ...

The Life Aquatic: A Game Changer for Frog Vision, but Little Difference Between Night and Day

Apr. 4, 2024 — Frogs display a remarkable diversity of species as a whole, but does the same hold true for their visual abilities? A new study sought to answer this question by collaborating with researchers in ...

Discovery Could End Global Amphibian Pandemic

Apr. 3, 2024 — A fungus devastating frogs and toads on nearly every continent may have an Achilles heel. Scientists have discovered a virus that infects the fungus, and that could be engineered to save the ...

Latest Headlines

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Combination of the Climate Crisis and Continued Deforestation May Result in Significant Damage to the Animal World

Mar. 27, 2024 — A new study states that the combination of global warming and extreme heat events, alongside the continued expansion of deforestation in the world, ...

Why Do Tree Frogs Lay Their Eggs on the Ground?

Mar. 15, 2024 — A curious aspect of tree frogs is that they often lay their eggs on the ground where the risk of predation by natural enemies is greater than in the trees where they live. A research team suggested ...

Two Coral Snakes Recorded Battling for Prey in a Scientific First

Mar. 26, 2024 — Two red-tailed coral snakes have been observed competing over a caecilian in the first documented wild case of kleptoparasitism within the family ...

Researchers Name Prehistoric Amphibian Ancestor Discovered in Smithsonian Collection After Kermit the Frog

Mar. 21, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered the fossilized skull of a 270-million-year-old ancient amphibian ancestor in the collection of the Smithsonian's National ...

Genetic Basis for the Evolution of Hair Discovered in the Clawed Frog

Mar. 18, 2024 — The development of hair was of central importance for the evolution of mammals and thus also of humans. However, the evolutionary origin of the genetic program of hair was previously unknown. ...

Rice Paddy Snake Diversification Was Driven by Geological and Environmental Factors in Thailand, Molecular Data Suggests

Mar. 12, 2024 — A new study of rice paddy snakes in Southeast Asia gives key details to their diversification and natural history, adding molecular evidence that the ...

New Study Reveals Transgenerational Effects of Pesticide Linuron on Frogs

Mar. 11, 2024 — Grand-offspring of male frogs exposed to the pesticide linuron exhibited changes in their DNA that was linked to significant physiological impacts, a study reveals. The research highlights the ...

Natural History Specimens Have Never Been So Accessible

Mar. 11, 2024 — Researchers have painstakingly taken computed topography (CT) scans of more than 13,000 individual specimens to create 3D images of more than half of all the world's animal groups, including mammals, ...

Halloween Toy Among Plastics Swallowed by Sea Turtles

Mar. 11, 2024 — A Halloween toy was among hundreds of plastic items found in the guts of dead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, a new study ...

Reptile Roadkill Reveals New Threat to Endangered Lizard Species

Mar. 7, 2024 — The chance sighting of a dead snake beside a sandy track in remote Western Australia, and the investigation of its stomach contents, has led researchers to record the first known instance of a ...

Scientists CT Scanned Thousands of Natural History Specimens, Which You Can Access for Free

Mar. 6, 2024 — Natural history museums have entered a new stage of scientific discovery and accessibility with the completion of openVertebrate (oVert), a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions to ...

Lab-Grown Liver Organoid to Speed Up Turtle Research, Making Useful Traits Easier to Harness

Mar. 5, 2024 — Researchers developed protocols for growing organoids that mimic a turtle liver, the first organoids developed for a turtle and only the second for any reptile. The discovery will aid deeper study of ...

Fossils of Giant Sea Lizard With Dagger-Like Teeth Show How Our Oceans Have Fundamentally Changed Since the Dinosaur Era

Mar. 5, 2024 — Fossils of a strange new species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth that lived 66 million years ago, show a dramatically more biodiverse ocean ecosystem to what we see ...

8 in 10 Lizards Could Be at Risk Due to Deforestation

Mar. 5, 2024 — These reptiles move around tree trunks to seek warmth or shade. With trees disappearing, they would have trouble controlling their body temperature, a new study ...

Scientists Assemble a Richer Picture of the Plight and Resilience of the Foothill Yellow-Legged Frog

Feb. 26, 2024 — Up to only a few inches in length, with a lemon-hued belly, the foothill yellow-legged frog may seem unassuming. But its range once stretched from central Oregon to Baja California. In 2023, it was ...

Snakes Do It Faster, Better: How a Group of Scaly, Legless Lizards Hit the Evolutionary Jackpot

Feb. 22, 2024 — More than 100 million years ago, the ancestors of the first snakes were small lizards that lived alongside other small, nondescript lizards in the shadow of the ...

Snaking Toward a Universal Antivenom

Feb. 21, 2024 — Scientists discovered antibodies that protect against a host of lethal snake ...

Mystery Solved: The Oldest Fossil Reptile from the Alps Is an Historical Forgery

Feb. 16, 2024 — Palaeontological analysis shows that a renowned fossil thought to show soft tissue preservation is in fact just paint. The fossil discovered in 1931 was thought to be an important specimen for ...

A Lighthouse in the Gobi Desert

Feb. 14, 2024 — A new study explores the weight great fossil sites have on our understanding of evolutionary relationships between fossil groups and quantified the power these sites have on our understanding of ...

Simple Steps Can Cut Snakebite Deaths

Jan. 24, 2024 — Scientists have called for simple, effective steps to cut the number of people bitten by venomous ...

Student Discovers 200-Million-Year-Old Flying Reptile

Jan. 22, 2024 — Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, researchers at the have ...

Tests Can Reveal Whether an Antibody Can Turn Into a Killer

Jan. 17, 2024 — A promising antibody failed testing. This is good news for developing a broad-spectrum antidote against the world's most dangerous snake ...

Oldest Known Fossilized Skin Is 21 Million Years Older Than Previous Examples

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have identified a 3D fragment of fossilized skin that is at least 21 million years than previously described skin fossils. The skin, which belonged to an early species of Paleozoic ...

New Reptile on the Block: A New Iguana Species Discovered in China

Dec. 28, 2023 — Researchers have identified a new iguana species, Wang's garden lizard (Calotes wangi), in southern China and northern Vietnam. This species, part of the Calotes versicolor complex, was ...

Same and Different: A New Species of Pit Viper from Myanmar

Dec. 21, 2023 — Asian pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus are notoriously difficult to tell apart and continue puzzling researchers to this day. Some species groups have similar-looking species (different species ...

World's Smallest 'Fanged' Frogs Found in Indonesia

Dec. 21, 2023 — Researchers have identified a species of frog new to science. The Indonesian amphibian is the size of a quarter, unlike its two-pound cousins, and has tiny fangs. Nearly uniquely among amphibians, ...

Protein Allows Poison Dart Frogs to Accumulate Toxins Safely

Dec. 19, 2023 — A newly identified protein helps poison dart frogs accumulate and store a potent toxin in their skin which they use for self-defence against ...

Snake Skulls Show How Species Adapt to Prey

Nov. 30, 2023 — By studying the skull shapes of dipsadine snakes, researchers have found how these species of snakes in Central and South America have evolved and adapted to meet the demands of their habitats and ...

Study Gives Grandmother Gecko a Place of Honor -- And a New Name

Nov. 29, 2023 — Paleontologists have identified a new fossil lizard, found in the western United States, which they say was an ancestor of modern geckos. And they gave it a name that honors the lead ...

Poison Dart Frogs: Personality Determines Reproductive Strategies

Nov. 9, 2023 — Unlike their relatives, individuals of the poison frog Allobates femoralis are not poisonous but are captivating due to their different behavioral profiles: They successfully reproduce with different ...