The findings were recently published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Alex Pyron, the Robert F. Griggs Assistant Professor of Biology in GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, along with researchers from the City University of New York and Arizona State University, detail the cataloguing of 4,161 species of snakes and lizards, or squamates.

"Squamates include all lizards and snakes found throughout the globe, including around 9,500 species on every continent except Antarctica, and found in most oceans," said Dr. Pyron. "This is everything from cobras to garter snakes to tiny geckos to the Komodo Dragon to the Gila Monster. They range from tiny threadsnakes that can curl up on a dime to 10 feet monitor lizards and 30 foot pythons. They eat everything from ants to wildebeest."

The evolutionary family tree, or phylogeny, includes all families and subfamilies and most genus and species groups, said Dr. Pyron. While there are gaps on some branches of the tree, the structure of the tree goes a long way toward fully mapping every genus and species group.

A newly identified species of dome-headed dinosaur roughly the size of a large dog once roamed the plains of southern Alberta, a team of Canadian scientists announced Tuesday.

The discovery of the Acrotholus audeti touched off further investigation that suggested the world’s dinosaur population was more diverse than once believed.

Details of the study were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Study lead author David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said Acrotholus’ comparatively diminutive size belies its scientific importance.

The two-legged plant-eater stood no higher than an adult human’s knee and weighed only 40 kilograms, measurements similar to a German shepherd or other large-breed canine.

In a report published May 2 in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the gradual decay of the Northern Hemisphere's "subnivium," the term scientists use to describe the seasonal microenvironment beneath the snow, a habitat where life from microbes to bears take full advantage of warmer temperatures, near constant humidity and the absence of wind.

"Underneath that homogenous blanket of snow is an incredibly stable refuge where the vast majority of organisms persist through the winter," explains Jonathan Pauli, a UW-Madison professor of forest and wildlife ecology and a co-author of the new report. "The snow holds in heat radiating from the ground, plants photosynthesize, and it's a haven for insects, reptiles, amphibians and many other organisms."

[...]

As is true for ecosystem changes anywhere, a decaying subnivium would have far-reaching consequences. Reptiles and amphibians, which can survive being frozen solid, are put at risk when temperatures fluctuate, bringing them prematurely out of their winter torpor only to be lashed by late spring storms or big drops in temperature. Insects also undergo phases of freeze tolerance and the migrating birds that depend on invertebrates as a food staple may find the cupboard bare when the protective snow cover goes missing.

It turned out to be a hitherto unrecorded species: the African Common Toad or Guttural Toad (Amietophrynus gutturalis). Easily recognisable from its pale dorsal stripe.

New species of fauna turn up in Qatar all the time – this dry desert country supports a surprising range of wildlife.

Animals that can adapt to the harsh weather conditions and the lack of water do well. These include reptiles, and mammals such as the Arabian Red Fox, the Ethiopian Hedgehog and the tiny Lesser Jerboa.

But toads? What is a creature that has a damp clammy skin and needs to spend part of its life in water doing in a land that, until recently, had no surface water at all?

Since the transformation of Qatar over the last few decades and the establishment of large sewage effluent lagoons, it’s become possible for amphibians to survive, even in the scorching summer months when they bury themselves deep in the mud. But the mystery is how they got here in the first place.

The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, an endangered species that nests between South Padre Island and Chambers County, was approved as the state’s official sea turtle by the Texas Senate Thursday. The resolution had already garnered approval by the Texas House.

Students at Galveston’s Oppe Elementary School, a coastal studies magnet campus, brought the bill to Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, after studying the animal, which is the smallest sea turtle in the world.

“They were told that the best way they could help is by simply making the public aware of how important the sea turtle is,” Taylor said.

A snake slid its way into the wedding ceremony at a Jacksonville Beach hotel, twice. The first time it slithered its way to the flower girl's feet.

"And she looked down and she yelled 'snake' and threw her hands in the air and before you know it everyone was running around," said Gubbini.

Gubbini says the snake disappeared and then came back right after the rings were exchanged, but not to object, the newlyweds think it had a message.

"It was circling around us into a little circle...as it was doing that somebody was taking a snapshot and it made a heart," added Gubbini.

The snake looks like it shaped itself into a heart, an unforgettable wedding day, just like the day Gubbini says he proposed.

The European passion for frogs’ legs is driving an international massacre of the reptiles which is endangering species and harming natural environments across south-east Asia. [...]

The “Frogmageddon” has prompted questions from the European Parliament about what the European Commission is doing about the problem, and about the cruel way in which the reptiles are parted from their limbs.