Divulgación: El tritón alpino

El tritón alpino Mesotriton alpestris es un anfibio típico de montaña, aunque se le puede encontrar en altitudes más bajas. En la Montaña Palentina se encuentra en lugares que sobrepasan los 2200 metros de altitud como es el caso del Lago las Lomas. Su típica coloración ventral anaranjada con manchas oscuras en la garganta, la parte inferior de los miembros y en los márgenes del vientre lo hace inconfundible frente al resto de tritones.

Hundreds of New Species Discovered in Papua New Guinea

More than 20 new frog species were identified during Conservation International’s expedition.
Living nearly 100 feet above the forest floor, this frog was more often heard than seen. During the night, the males of the species would emit loud, croaking noises. The individual pictured here is actually the only one the researchers were able to see.
DNA analysis is still needed to confirm whether this amphibian is in fact a new species.

Lizards Have Family Values

Lizards get a bad rap when it comes to their families: They lay their eggs and never look back. But that’s not the case for desert night lizards, which have been found investing time and energy in their young and forming families — a strategy that was thought exclusive to mammals and birds.

“Birds, mammals and reptiles are so different in so many ways,” said Alison Davis, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley. Reptiles aren’t even warm-blooded, she notes, yet here they are forming families just like their warmer cousins.

Footprint Fossils Offer Earliest Evidence of Dinosaurs’ Ancestors

The tracks, described in a report published Wednesday by the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, push back the first appearance of this dinosaur lineage to about 250 million years ago.

“They are the oldest fossils of the dinosaur lineage of any type anywhere in the world,” said Stephen Brusatte, a graduate student at Columbia University and lead author of the journal article.

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