Together with an international team, Senckenberg scientist Uwe Fritz described a new species of mata mata turtle based on genetic analyses. Until now, it had been assumed that the genus Chelus only contained a single species. Leer más.
Relocated in small groups to experimental islands, lizards rapidly and repeatedly developed new chemical signals for communicating with each other. Free from the risk of predators and intent to attract potential mates, male lizards produce a novel chemical calling card, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis. Leer más.
When I hear or read Salmonella, I think of my mom explaining to my 7-year-old self why I shouldn’t eat raw chicken (to be clear, I never expressed interest in doing this, but lesson learned nonetheless). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most instances of Salmonella bacteria making people sick do in fact result from transmission by food. But Salmonella infection can come from other sources, including direct contact with living animals, particularly reptiles (including birds which, in case you haven’t heard, are reptiles). So I was only a little surprised when I came across a recent paper in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Science, based in Japan, documenting the prevalence of Salmonella in the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, on Okinawa Island, Japan. Leer más.
Geostatistical models were produced for eight out of 10 species detected, of which five species were associated with lower stream orders and only one species with higher stream orders. Six species showed negative responses to one or both crayfish species, even after accounting for environmental effects and spatial dependencies. Most amphibian species were found to retain large expanses of potential habitat in stream headwaters, but current refuges will likely contract under plausible scenarios of crayfish expansion. Leer más.
The geological and paleoenvironmental setting and the vertebrate taxonomy of the fossiliferous, Cenomanian-age deltaic sediments in eastern Morocco, generally referred to as the «Kem Kem beds», are reviewed. These strata are recognized here as the Kem Kem Group, which is composed of the lower Gara Sbaa and upper Douira formations. Both formations have yielded a similar fossil vertebrate assemblage of predominantly isolated elements pertaining to cartilaginous and bony fishes, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs, as well as invertebrate, plant, and trace fossils. Leer más.
