Raorchestes flaviventris, a species of rhacophorid bush frog described from the Western Ghats by George Albert Boulenger in 1882, has never been reported from the region since its description. However, we herewith report a record of the species after almost 132 years and redescribe the species and also clarify confusions that prevailed over the taxonomic status of the species and its closely-related congeners, along with shedding light on literature regarding its distribution. Also, the recently described R. emeraldi Vijayakumar et al., 2014, which we suggest to be the same species, becomes a junior subjective synonym of R. flaviventris. Leer más.

Los hongos quitridios son organismos primitivos, habitan suelos húmedos o aguas dulces y la mayoría son saprófitos, aunque otros son parásitos de algas, plantas, animales invertebrados. Dentro de este grupo, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, el hongo que produce la quitridiomicosis en anfibios, y el recientemente descubierto Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, que produce la enfermedad exclusivamente en salamandras y tritones, son los únicos que parasitan vertebrados. Leer más.

The enormous, solitary leatherback sea turtle spends most of its long life at sea. After hatching and dispersing across the world’s oceans, only the female leatherbacks return to their natal beaches to lay clutches of eggs in the sand. A new study offers fresh insights into their nesting choices and will help efforts to prevent the extinction of this globally endangered giant of the sea, researchers said. Leer más.

The Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot is a recognized center of rhacophorid diversity as demonstrated by several recent studies. The endemic genus Ghatixalus is represented by two species from two separate high-elevation regions within the Ghats. Here, we describe a third species that can be distinguished by morphological and larval characters, as well as by its phylogenetic placement. Leer más.

Among the 5,000 existing species of mammals, more than 100 have their genome sequenced, whereas the genomes of only 9 species of reptiles (among 10,000 species) are available to the scientific community. This is the reason why a team of researchers has produced a large database including, among others, the newly-sequenced genome of the corn snake, a species increasingly used to understand the evolution of reptiles. Within the same laboratory, the researchers have discovered the exact mutation that causes albinism in that species. Leer más.