The United States is home to more varieties of turtle than any other country in the world. But unregulated global trade is rapidly depleting our native turtles. Millions of wild-caught freshwater turtles are exported to Asian food and medicinal markets each year. Leer más.

Poison dart frogs are one of the planet’s most brightly colored animals. Depending on the species, they can be yellow, copper, gold, red, blue, green, black or a combination of those colors. Their showy colors and startling designs help warn predators of the danger they impose — a defense mechanism known as “aposematic coloration.” Within their skin, they store natural venom that can paralyze, or even kill, a predator. Leer más.

LOS ANGELES — A man was sentenced to nearly two years in prison Monday for smuggling dozens of live turtles and tortoises from Japan into the U.S. by hiding them in snack food boxes. Leer más.

The harlequin mantella, Mantella cowani, is one of the most threatened amphibians of Madagascar. Restricted to a few residual forest fragments of Madagascar’s highlands, it was until a few years ago collected for the pet-trade. Leer más.

It takes a gutsy insect to sneak up on a huge dinosaur while it sleeps, crawl onto its soft underbelly and give it a bite that might have felt like a needle going in — but giant “flea-like” animals, possibly the oldest of their type ever discovered, probably did just that. Leer más.