Queensland Environment Minister Vicki Darling on Thursday said the Girrigun Aboriginal Corporation, which covers two clan groups in the Townsville region, had agreed to suspend hunting of both species indefinitely.

The clans are entitled to hunt both species under the Native Title Act but agreed to stop after widespread flooding across Queensland last summer damaged sea grass beds - the major food source for both animals - along the coastline.

The agreement comes two weeks after traditional owners' groups from Bundaberg to Gladstone agreed to self-imposed bans on hunting both species

The study's authors estimate that 4,600 sea turtles die each year in U.S. coastal waters.

Before measures to reduce bycatch were put in place, total sea turtle takes surpassed 300,000 annually. Of these, 70,000 turtles were killed.

The study used data collected from 1990 to 2007 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to determine bycatch rates across more than 20 fisheries operating in Atlantic waters from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border, and in the Pacific Ocean, along the West coast and around Hawaii.

It found that overall turtle bycatch rates, including both fatal and nonfatal run-ins, have fallen about 60 percent since 1990.

The 60-million-year-old freshwater relative to modern crocodiles is the first known land animal from the Paleocene New World tropics specialized for eating fish, meaning it competed with Titanoboa for food. But the giant snake could have consumed its competition, too, researchers say.

"The younger individuals were definitely not safe from Titanoboa, but the biggest of these species would have been a bit much for the 42-foot snake to handle," said lead author Alex Hastings, a graduate student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and UF's department of geological sciences.

The new species is a dyrosaurid, commonly believed to be primarily ocean-dwelling, coastal reptiles. The new adult specimens challenge previous theories the animals only would have entered freshwater environments as babies before returning to sea.

Focusing on the African grey foam nest tree frog (Chiromantis xerampelina), the researchers sought to understand why females behave promiscuously, despite the risk of disease, injury and predation.

"One hypothesis for female promiscuity is that females can increase the genetic diversity of their offspring and, in so doing, increase the chance that at least some offspring survive and reproduce," Dr Byrne said.

Dr Byrne said the argument for mating with multiple partners (polyandry) was that it increased genetic diversity cushions against fluctuating selective forces in challenging environments.
"The frog's offspring are developing in an environment that's highly unpredictable in terms of rainfall, food availability and predation risk," said Dr Byrne.

"If the environment is fluctuating, it is very difficult for females to predict which male partner will provide genes that give her offspring the best chance of performing well in the future".

The last positive sighting of a sand lizard at this site was in the 1960s.

Once commonly found on sand dunes and heathland, the lizards became endangered due to gradual destruction of their habitats.

The captive bred sand lizards, reared at Marwell Zoo, have been released at Hengistbury Head as part of a long-term conservation project to restore the species status.

During the 20th Century a 90% loss of sand lizards was recorded in Dorset.