New research details how a preserved fossil found in China could be the oldest record of post-natal parental care from the Middle Jurassic. The specimen, found by a farmer in China, is of an apparent family group with an adult, surrounded by six juveniles of the same species. Given that the smaller individuals are of similar sizes, the group interpreted this as indicating an adult with its offspring, apparently from the same clutch. Leer más.

We describe a new lowland forest-dwelling Cyrtodactylus from Suk Samran District, Ranong Province, southern peninsular Thailand, having a blotched dorsal pattern, a continuous series of poreless enlarged femoral and precloacal scales, 18–20 regularly arranged dorsal tubercle rows, no precloacal groove, no transversely enlarged subcaudal plates and a maximal known snout-vent length of 59.6 mm. Leer más.

The bufonid genus Adenomus, an endemic of the montane and lowland rainforests of central and south-western Sri Lanka, has been considered to comprise of three species, viz. A. kelaartii, A. dasi and A. kandianus, the last of which has been recently highlighted as ” the world’s rarest toad ” . Leer más.

I hope you’ll read and disseminate Jim Gorman’s story on the new Science paper pointing to a potential ecological catastrophe in North America should a potent chytrid fungus that attacks salamanders arrive on these shores. Leer más.