He has dedicated his free time over the past three years studying a set of nine rock pools on the shore of Loch Alsh, near Reraig.

His Loch Alsh studies have unearthed an unexpected breeding population of palmate newts and has been monitoring their numbers.

It is an unusual find because the newts generally live in freshwater, rather than the more challenging conditions of the sea loch.

His work has been noticed by the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust who have invited him to present his findings to the experts at the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Symposium in Edinburgh this weekend.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the number of loggerhead turtle nests remained high and the number of leatherback turtle nests reached a record this year.

Researchers surveyed more than 800 miles of Florida beaches for two reports that document the number of nests and nesting trends.

"Pythons are an old, ancient species. We've seen this in more advanced species like garter snakes," said Booth, adding that the discovery helps scientists learn more about the snakes' evolutionary family tree.

It's still a mystery as to why parthenogenesis happens, though Booth hypothesizes that geographic isolation from males and captivity may have a lot to do with it.

In Thelma's case, her virgin birth may have been triggered by ideal living conditions, zoo curator McMahan speculates.

Taking an integrative approach to taxonomy (versus the traditional and still-common practice of relying solely on morphology), Scherz examined genetics, morphology, and a technique that’s still cutting-edge for distinguishing species: CT scans. Wrapping the frog in alcohol-drenched paper (don’t worry, it was long dead) and shooting X-ray beams at it while rotating its position, Scherz was able create 3-D computer images of its skeleton while not destroying any of the tissue.

The non-invasive method allowed Scherz to see subtle but crucial skeletal features (such as the length of a segment of the thumb bone) that were critical for recognizing the rhombus frog as a new, unique species.

The CT technology also enabled him to see the frog’s last meal (or perhaps last several), revealing a millipede, six ants, a spider, a fly, and at least three different species of beetle in its stomach and large intestine. It’s no wonder Scherz named it vaventy, the Malagasy word for “huge,” in the paper describing the find, published in Zootaxa.