The West African Gaboon viper, one of the largest in Africa and a master of camouflage, has dark spots in the geometrical pattern of its skin that are deep, velvety black and reflect very little light.

Interwoven with white- and brown-coloured scales that are very reflective, this creates a high contrast that renders the snake difficult to spot on the richly-patterned rainforest floor.

A team of German scientists set out to find the secret behind the black spots' ultra darkness, and found the scale surface was made up of tightly-packed, leaf-like microstructures covered in turn with nanometre-sized ridges.
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One nanometre is equivalent to a billionth of a metre.

Writing in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the team theorised that the microstructures and nanostructures, which protrude at slightly different angles, scatter and trap incoming light.

"The structure based velvet black effect could also be potentially transferred to other materials," the scientists wrote.

“It did a really huge number on an entire genus of frogs in Central America,” said Marm Kilpatrick, a disease ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). The fungus probably caused several species of this harlequin frog (Atelopus) to go extinct, he added.

Chytrid is also largely responsible for endangering California’s mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa).

"It's the single biggest threat to vertebrate diversity in the world," Kilpatrick said.

The fungus, which seems to attack only amphibians, causes a thickening of the infected amphibian’s skin, preventing the animal from breathing properly and interfering with its electrolyte balance. The infection can eventually lead to cardiac arrest, although some frog species are better able to cope with it than others.

A new study delving into how this fungus spreads has now linked chytrid outbreaks in California—one of the more recent areas experiencing huge amphibian die-offs—to the spread of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).

And the study’s implications could extend far beyond California, providing scientists with a potential road map showing how a devastating infection continues to spread around the world.

The gorgeous new species was discovered by scientists during two expeditions in 2010 aimed at studying the fauna of Texiguat Wildlife Refuge, one of the most endemism-rich and diverse highland forests in Mesoamerica. This beautiful, but highly toxic, snake represents the 15th endemic species occurring in the region. Texiguat Wildlife Refuge was created in 1987 to protect populations of wildlife such as the famous but elusive jaguar and Central America tapir, as well as howler and white-faced monkeys, sloths, and a variety of endemic amphibians, reptiles, and plants.

To draw attention to the dedication and sacrifice of many grassroots conservationists in Honduras and Central America, the new species was named in honor of Mario Guifarro of Olancho. Guifarro was a former hunter and gold miner who became an outspoken conservationist when he saw the vast rainforests of eastern Honduras being destroyed and converted to cattle ranches. After years of threats and multiple attempts on his life, Guifarro was ambushed and murdered on 15 September 2007 while on a mission to delimit a biosphere reserve for the indigenous Tawahka.

To uncover the chemical mechanisms of tooth renewal Professor Cheng-Ming Chuong and colleagues studied repetitive tooth formation in American alligators.

Most vertebrates can renew teeth throughout their lives whereas humans’ are naturally replaced only once.

Alligators have an average of 80 teeth in their mouth at any one time - and 50 sets of replacements to last their lifetime.

Alligators have well-organised teeth with traits similar to those of mammals - such as secondary palates and implantation in sockets of the dental bones - and are capable of lifelong tooth renewal.

Through a combination of molecular aqnalysis and scanning techniques the researchers showed each alligator tooth is a complex unit of three components in different developmental stages.

These are structured to facilitate replacement once they are dislodged, says the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Early on the alligator dental lamina forms a bulge at its tip that houses stem cells. Molecular analysis revealed that the initiation of the tooth cycle corresponds with the dynamic expression of an array of signaling chemicals.

The researchers believe the findings could help adults who have lost teeth or have ones that appear in addition to the regular number - a common condition called supernumerary teeth.

Keehn is focusing on research she was recently awarded the Regent’s Scholar Award for, which involves studying the effects of renewable energy on reptile populations and the ecosystem in general. Because she believes the transition to renewable energy is inevitable, Keehn began focusing on how renewable energy facilities affect surrounding ecosystems because the facilities take up mass quantities of habitat.

Though she hasn’t started her fieldwork yet, Keehn plans to soon so she can begin to understand how these huge facilities affect bird populations, plants, insects, reptiles and all other organisms involved.

“Because of the scale of impact from these situations, you aren’t going to lose species entirely, but it will impact our environment and affect the way things interact,” Keehn said.

Mayo, according to court documents, eventually confessed he'd brought the two-foot-long snake home with him, but said the other snakes on the plane belonged to others on the fire crew. Furthermore, he denied the claim that he had been told to release the snakes. And he revealed, according to the documents, "his snake had a baby in Fairbanks, but the young snake died.

"BLM agents took possession of the (mother) snake," leaving Mayo snakeless.

Then began the American-taxpayer-funded prosecution and defense of the out-of-work firefighter. Public defender Haden on Wednesday admitted she's been involved with few cases of less significance.

"I did have a client once who was charged with goose molestation on the (military) base," she said. "You can't pet a goose."

She also noted that "every case is significant to the person charged." There is no argument there. There is no telling what might have happened to Mayo without legal representation. He might have been headed for federal prison.

Lucky for him, Haden negotiated a plea deal with federal prosecutors, and Mayo is to be sentenced in Fairbanks on Friday.

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.