Los investigadores reciben esta semana en Madrid el Premio Fundación BBVA en Actuaciones de Conservación de la Biodiversidad, en la categoría de Latinoamérica, para el Instituto Smithsonian, por su trabajo en el rescate de anfibios en Panamá. Leer más.

Linnaeus’s 1758 Systema Naturae, the starting point of zoological nomenclature, described 118 species of reptiles, including 74 snakes (not counting the limbless lizards and amphibians he included in the same group). It took over 100 years for the number of described species of snakes to reach 1000, an event that probably passed without much notice amid the American Civil War. Since that time, new snake species descriptions have been added at the rate of about 15 a year, although molecular taxonomy has increased this pace over the last few decades. The trends for snakes and for reptiles as a whole have been similar, and on July 9th, 2014, a team of American, German, Lao, and Vietnamese scientists described a new species of gecko from Laos, which the journal Herpetological Review reported as the 10,000th reptile species. Leer más.

A little background before I jump to the review. I love the Smoky Mountains! They are one of my favorite places on Earth. Not only are they ancient and beautiful but the Appalachian Mountain chain they belong to is believed to be the birthplace for Plethodontid salamanders (the lungless salamanders) and they hold the highest diversity of salamanders in the world. Plus the first time I went herping was in the Smoky Mountains during an undergraduate trip for Dendrology class. During the day we learned about trees and during the night we scoured the streams for salamanders. Leer más.

It may not be pretty but scientists say the eastern hellbender needs protection. Leer más.