Whether in the deep sea of the Antarctic, in the rainforests of Laos or in domestic, pastoral landscapes -- scientists from the ten Senckenberg institutes have discovered new species of plants and animals everywhere. They have even made new discoveries in allegedly familiar research collections -- either by studying previously unidentified material or using new research methods. "The objective always is to record and preserve the diversity of life on earth, in other words, biodiversity," explains Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Volker Mosbrugger, Director General of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung.

491new species from all parts of the globe were described in the last two years by Senckenberg scientists. The extent of new discoveries ranged from colourful island crabs to the Yellow Dyer Rain Frog and fossilised woodpeckers to the first eyeless huntsman spider. Some of the animals have barely been discovered and are already threatened with extinction.
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The head of Molecular and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide, Professor David Adelson, led the project and says it involved comparing dozens of DNA sequences from different species.

"There was an observation backs in the '80s that snakes and cows shared a segment of DNA that looked to be quite similar in sequence and that was found to be a repetitive sequence," he said.

"We basically went and scoured all of the databases for sequence, and did sequencing of our own across some species where there was no available information, and put all of that together."

Professor Adelson says the DNA sequence shared by cows and reptiles is known as Bov-B.

Around 15,000 crocodiles escaped from a farm in South Africa following heavy rain.

The crocodiles sprung from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in the far north of the country when owners were forced to open the gates to prevent a storm surge after the nearby Limpopo river rose.

A number have since been recaptured, but at least half remain on the loose, scattered far and wide.

When Colin Kaepernick was a child of just 10 years old, he got a pet tortoise. However, unlike the reptiles ...of many children which have since been flushed down the toilet, Sammy — as the tortoise is named — is still very much alive, and has grown to a whopping 115 pounds over the years.

The state of Florida this weekend unleashed a thrill-seeking public on the Burmese python, an invasive species that has set up house in the Florida Everglades and surrounding wildlife management areas over the past decade or so.

[...]

Based on results from the first weekend, a lot more people might need to sign up to appreciably diminish a python population estimated in the tens of thousands.

By 4 p.m. today, hunters had turned in a total of 11 dead snakes to the wildlife commission.

"I didn't see any snakes, much less Burmese pythons," Mark Reynolds of Seffner said this morning. "I saw plenty of alligators and birds and fish, but not a single snake of any kind."

[...]

The "harvesting" of snakes means killing them, and there are by-the-book ways to do that -- mostly a bullet into the top of the head.

Decapitating the squirming beast is not really recommended, because, biologists say, the brain of a python remains active for hours even after it is separated from the rest of the body and experiences excruciating pain during that time.