Invasive alien American bullfrog populations are commonly identified as a pernicious influence on the survival of native species due to their adaptability, proliferation and consequent ecological impacts through competition and predation. However, it has been difficult to determine conclusively their destructive influence due to the fragmentary and geographically dispersed nature of the historical database. An expanding meta-population of invasive American bullfrogs, Rana catesbeiana (= Lithobates catesbeianus), became established on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada in the mid- to late 1980s. Leer más.
As part of a «Lazarus Project» to try to bring the Australian gastric-brooding frog back from extinction a UNSW-led team has succeeded in producing early stage cloned embryos containing the DNA of the frog, which died out 30 year ago. The unpublished research is presented publicly for the first time at the TEDx DeExtinction conference in Washington today. Gastric-brooding frogs were unique in incubating their young in their stomachs. Leer más.
Pressing Problems: Distribution, Threats, and Conservation Status of the Monitor Lizards (Varanidae: Varanus spp.) of Southeast Asia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago Monograph 3. André Koch, Thomas Ziegler, Wolfgang Böhme, Evy Arida and Mark Auliya. Para descargar la monografía presionar en el siguiente enlace.
The genome of an extinct Australian frog has been revived and reactivated by a team of scientists using sophisticated cloning technology to implant a «dead» cell nucleus into a fresh egg from another frog species. Leer más.
Científicos de la University of New South Wales de Australia (UNSW Australia) han logrado revivir y reactivar núcleos celulares muertos de una rana australiana extinta en 1981, dentro de los huevos de otra especie de rana que aún existe. Las células de la rana desaparecida comenzaron a dividirse y a crecer hasta alcanzar la fase embrional. Los resultados obtenidos podrían ayudar a la recuperación de numerosos tipos de anfibios que hoy están desapareciendo. Leer más.
