The Monitor

February, 2009

From the Editor's Desk

Newsletter Material

This is YOUR club. The more you give into it, the more you will get out of it. Your opinions, suggesions and submissions are welcome. You may submit articles by the Monday or Tuesday THE WEEK BEFORE a meeting to luvcatz7@tampabay.rr.com

President: Peter Richardson
Vice-President: Michele Patton
Secretary: Carrie Gardner Treasurer: Doreen E. Saccardo
Chairman of the Board: John Soto
Editor: Carrie Gardner
Co-Editor: Doreen Saccardo
Field Trip Chair: Doreen Saccardo
Webmaster: Carrie Gardner
Administrative Assistant Alexander Peters

NEXT MEETING:
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
BIG AUCTION
6:00 p.m.
Moccasin Lake Nature Park
Clearwater, FL 727-462-6024
~~~~~~~~DON'T MISS IT~~~~~~~~

Alton of Smelt Feed and Pet Supply is donating a #15.00 gift certificate every month for our raffle. His store is located at 4116 East 7th Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605, 813-248-2359

Web Page info: Calendar page is updated all the time as is Adoptions and Advertisements.

If you would like to receive updates on the website via email, please scroll down to the bottom of the home page and join Yahoo! Groups. Choose to receive email or daily digest. I send out an email to the list every time a change is made.

If you have photos you would like added to the "Club Photos" page, please email Carrie to have them added. *The Club Photos page is still up, but I haven't put any recent photographs up because I'm trying to come up with a more conveinent way of displaying the photos*

Carrie's Notes

Hidey Ho fellow herpers!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

I have a new email address...
luvcatz7@tampabay.rr.com

RED-EARED SLIDERS: No more permits are being issued to own red-eared sliders. The state is encouraging euthanasia. HOWEVER, thanks to Pete Richardson, there is a place where they can be shipped. This is from The Turtle and Tortoise Club's July Issue: "Stacey Vajanyi and I (Marvin Bennett) have been collecting red-eared sliders from pet owners who could not or choose not to keep them anymore. These pet owners have paid us a small fee to ship these turtles to Oklahoma, ‘their home range,'. It is good to see the previous owners doing the right thing instead of dropping them in their local lakes. This is a program set up by myself and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission." If you have or know of someone who is wanting a new home for their red-eared slider, please contact Marvin Bennett at 407-851-0198 or Stacey Vajanyi 321-961-0050.

Senator Bill Nelson is coming down on the side of the people who would like to ban large pythons. He has taken the USGS map to heart and is in the process of contacting the other states where "Burmese pythons can live" together with the ban. Please feel free to write or e-mail Senator Nelson, as I have done!

HOWEVER, there has been a new study done on the potential range of the Burmese python. Released in August, the new study, done by Alex Pyron and other City University of New York researchers suggests that the Burmese is unlikely to spread beyond Southern Florida. Both this study and the USGS study used climate data from India and Southeast Asia and global warming, but the new study factored in more variables than the USGS study's two variables. The new study used 19 variables measuring climatic extremes, averages and seasonal variation. The results show that the USGS models were excessively broad and didn't represent an accurate picture (ya think?). I haven't checked out the site yet, but you can find it on www.plosone.org.

FWC MEETINGS

You are invited...the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Division of Law Enforcement, will be holding two public meetings to discuss and receive comments on proposed changes to captive wildlife regulations.

February 24, 2009; 6:30 p.m. in Gainesville, FL
February 25, 2009; 7:00 p.m. in Kissimmee, FL

Additional meeting information, agenda, and copies of proposed rules to be discussed are available at http://www.myfwc.com/calendar.htm, or by calling 850-488-6253.

Ciao,
Carrie

Doreen's Column

Hi there~~

****Xan Peters spoke in January 2009 about dinosaurs. He put on a good presentation. We differ in one area. I don't believe that we all evolved from a piece of slime out of the ocean. God made every animal after their own kind and he differentiated humans from animals by giving us a soul and the ability to reason. If you are interested in references, please get with me and I would be happy to provide them. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS SOLELY MY OPINION AND NOT THAT OF THE CLUB.

****When you see me this month, I will be in sneakers, but my foot is still swelling and I still get irritable because of it. (Beware)!

*****February, 2009 will be our BIG auction. This is where we will have ALL kinds of items. This would be the time to go through your reptile room and get rid of anything that you are not using THAT IS IN GOOD condition. Please don't bring junk. If it is broke, throw it out. If it is an electrical appliance that is not UL approved or made before 1752, please put it in your garage sale instead.

*****March 7 and 8, 2009 The Tampa Reptile Mania Show will take place at the Fairgrounds. We always get a table at this show. Try to be there some part of the weekend. We get our table free by volunteering for Alex and Brett. This is well worth it because you get to see the show, talk to the vendors and try to make the best deals. Let me know if you plan to attend and what days so I can have a rough idea of scheduling.

*****Kirk Burness is looking to acquire a Chinese Box Turtle (Yellowed Margined Box Turtle) so if any member have any adults or your for sale or trade, let him know.

Also, he has acquired a 50 pound (OMG)!{his words, not mine} of Purina Aqua Max which is supposedly ideal for box turtles and aquatics in general. He would love to sell it off cheap to members to offset the cost. Please contact him by email at kirkburness@hotmail.com on either of the above two points.

*****I was speaking to someone who wants to rescue a couple of ball pythons. If anyone has any they would like to find a good home for, let me know and I will give you his phone number.

*****John Soto received an invitation for a March for Parks on Saturday, March 14, 2009 from Noon to 4:00 PM at the Starkey Wilderness Park, 10500 Wilderness Park Boulevard, New Port Richey. I will not be able to make it that day, but if you want to go out and represent the club, please get with John.

*****Saturday, 21 March 2009 (1:00-4:00 pm) Pasco County Parks & Recreation and Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park present: Natural History and Conservation of Florida Turtles presented by George Heinrich at Starkey Environmental Education Center, 10500 Wilderness Park Blvd., New Port Richey, FL 34655. This workshop is being offered free of charge. Limited space is available, so please register early. To register or for more information, please call (727) 834-3474.

*****March 27 to 29, 2009 in Gainesville will be the 32nd Annual Herpetological Conference and the 6th Annual Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference. There are always a lot of excellent speakers at these conferences. Check out their website for details.

*****Also, we have been invited to participate in an Earth Day Celebration on Sunday, April 19, 2009 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Lowery Park Bank Shell. John Soto will be representing the club. I may be able to get there after church. Please get with John or me about this. John has attended several years in a row and it is quite enjoyable.

*****Natural History and Conservation of Florida Turtles
17th Annual Summer Workshop for Formal and Non-formal Educators 8 - 11 June 2009: Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, St. Petersburg, Florida for more information, please call (727) 834-3474 and speak to George Heinrich.

*****I just want to add continuing thanks to Carrie for keeping up with the website, I know that takes a lot of work with many frustrations. But she does an excellent job and it shows. Thanks Carrie.

I don't have any paying members whose birthday is in February. I do have a lot of names in my birthday book, but they have not paid their dues.

Happy Birthday to you anyway!

*****I know we have new people attending our meetings, but I have not received any new birthdays. You can drop me an email iguanadoreen@hotmail.com and let me know so I can add the list.

*****Thank you to all who do their part for this club. That is what makes our society the GREATEST in the WORLD!!

*****Have a herpy day!! Doreen~~

Speaker Recap By Carrie

Last month's speaker was Xan Peters on dinosaurs. I was very impressed with his knowledge of a very difficult subject - at least for me. Which means that I am NOT responsible for any dinosaur or dinosaur-era spelling errors!

Looking at contemporary drawings of dinosaurs, you will notice that they are not so much like reptiles as they are like birds. There are no four-legged carnivores, in fact. They stand up right and keep their legs under their body, which allows for more efficient breathing and faster speeds. Early scientists thought that they were giant lizards based on their teeth. In reality, Richard Owen, an early paleontologist, realized the different pelvic structure and started drawing them erect. Herbivores were often four-legged. In fact, the iguanadons were the first to have cheeks and to swallow stones to aid in the break up of food before digestion. These are gizzard stones, and many birds still use them today, as well as crocodilians.

There are many misconceptions about dinosaurs, some most popularized by "Jurassic Park." The brontosaurus in not a brontosaurus, but an apatosaur (Jurassic Park got that right by the way), however, they can't lift their heads to eat from trees. The length of their head and their tail served as a counterbalance. To consume the large amounts of food they would have to eat, they would kind of "vacuum" it up. Velociraptors were 6 feet long and two feet high, and those claws that allegedly ripped open the bellies of their prey were not as long as the movie or book implied . . . not the menacing creatures from the movie. Xan mentioned giving them a kick if they threatened you. My personal feeling is that they were bigger than modern iguanas, and I'm afraid to do that to them! The tyrannosaurus rex is believed to have hunted in packs as well, and not territorial. Of course, many drawings and theories are based on incomplete fossil records. And there is no way to know how they looked or what their behaviors were from the fossil record. Those short tiny arms they have are believed to have been for communication, since they were too short to even scratch their chin. Theories can be made based on modern animals and how they behave in regards to being a prey animal or a predator. Many species of dinosaurs are now thought to have wings. As far as the age of the earth, dinosaurs came in quite late. There are many eras before the Mesozoic era, where they really took prominence.

One dinosaur that was accurately portrayed in "Jurassic Park" (at least the book) were pterodactyls. These animals had huge wing spans and a claw much like bats do today. Their feet were too short to walk on, so they would walk on their claws or feet that came from their wings. Bats do this . . . at least in zoos, when they're hanging from netting. They primarily use their claws on their wings or arms to move themselves along. Lowry Park has an exhibit of flying fruit bats from Australia and my friends and I spent a great deal of time watching them walk across the netting and interact.

All dinosaurs appear to have evolved from the heloraptor. Mammals appeared at the same time but were unable to take a foothold and the dinosaurs got the upper hand. Due to more misconceptions about them, they are in fact endothermal (or warm-blooded) and not ectothermal (or cold-blooded). I don't know why they were called reptiles or "giant lizards" in the first place, but they obviously had to be endothermic. Dinosaur fossils are found all over the world, even in cold climates. Moreover, they would need an endothermic heart to pump that much blood in large animals. Not all the animals are large. There are many species of small dinosaurs.

In fact there are 700 claimed species of dinosaurs. This could be disputed easily though, by who discovers the fossil, if a fossil found in Egypt is the same as the one found in Somalia, name changes, the merging of some species and the separating of others. Deja vu you say? It sounds a lot like how taxonomists classify animals to me. It's enough to drive you insane!

Dinosaur intelligence is highly speculative. The best way to get an idea is to compare brain cases of the fossils to the animals today. Velicoraptors are not intelligent enough to open doors to freezers (ala Jurassic Park). Generally, dinosaurs with elongated brain (the example given was crocodilians, however recent studies have shown that crocodilians do have a smaller version of a frontal lobe to their brain, and can therefore learn) were thought to act more on instinct. Animals with rounder brains were thought to think more like birds with a greater thinking capacity . . . which can be very intelligent.

So what caused dinosaurs to go extinct? There are many theories, of course, and it is possible that it is a combination of all of them. First off, Earth's atmosphere could've changed to a less hospitable environment due to volcanic activity. Another is the meteor hit in the Yucatan Peninsula could've caused debris and gases to also enter the Earth's atmosphere and maybe the concept of Pangea (one continuous continent) caused water shortages. With the herbivores needing a great amount of food to eat, and the atmosphere inhospitable to plant growth, it is entirely possible that herbivores were the first to die off. With no one to hunt, the carnivores would've been next. The animals that survived numbered about 20 species . . . including the crocodilians, turtles/tortoises, and sharks.

The void left by the extinction of the dinosaurs gave birds a chance to get a foothold for a time. When the forests gave way to plains and savannahs, mammals finally got the upper hand.

Why were mammals successful where dinosaurs weren't? Probably the size of the dinosaurs were a factor, especially when the atmosphere started to change. They needed huge quantities of food to survive. Eventually the Earth couldn't support these animals. It left a void that allowed the wonderful array of birds, reptiles, and finally mammals to flourish.

Michele's Musings

Lizards Tails

Amazingly, many lizards can cast off their tails at will when suddenly threatened. This spontaneous loss of a not-so-vital body part is called "autotomy". If a predator suddenly grabs a lizard by its tail, neck or waist, the tail breaks off immediately. The place where the tail breaks is predetermined by a weak point in the vertebrae. The muscles in the tail near this crack are arranged so they will separate neatly. The muscles will stick out of the broken piece of tail. The detached tail continues to twitch, giving the predator the impression that it is holding onto a fighting animal. The severed tail continues to wiggle on the ground for a few minutes, to tempt the predator to release the lizard and pounce on this exciting-looking item. The tailless lizard then dashes for freedom.

Regeneration

The regenerated tail of a lizard has no bones and does not bear the stripes or other markings of the original tail. A newly grown tail for most lizards can be dropped again and again. The only limit is the time required to grow another tail. Skinks and geckos are especially quick to autotomize their tails, and glass lizards get their name from the fact that their tails break off unusually easy and in several pieces.

The purpose of blue tails

Blue tails may be part of a defensive strategy called deflective coloration. According to this theory, the bright color attracts predators to a part of the lizard's body that is disposable. In the conflicting theory, the blue color serves as a warning to predators that the tail is poisonous. It is not known for certain why the color blue is more prominent in the tails of hatchlings than in those of adults, but it may be that the hatchlings are more vulnerable to predation. Many Florida skinks have bright blue tails when young. Some Floridians regard all of these blue-tailed juveniles as dangerous, even referring to them as "scorpions". Actually, there is some evidence that the blue tails are poisonous if eaten.

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