Tuataras and UV

Tuataras need UV for healthy bone growth and stability. (News source, and here.)

Not really news for herpetoculturists, but apparently the media isn't quite up to speed.

Toad News

An Australian man has searched East Timor for rumored cane toads, and only found Asian toads. (News source.)

Cane toad "sausages" are being made in Queensland, and laced with harmless but noxious chemicals, to feed to quolls, in the hope that they don't try to eat live toads. (News source.)

Toad survival traits are making the news after a recent study.

Frog News

Some video and notes on how Tungara frogs whip up their frothy nests, here.

A PNG frog undergoes a significant ontogenetic color change. (News source.)

An endangered frog's eggs are being frozen for conservation purposes. (News source.)

Reptile Biology Notes

Research on alligator respiration suggests they "breathe like birds." (News source.)

The "tentacles" on a tentacled snake are very sensitive to the touch, allowing the snake to find prey in murky water. (News source.)

Salamander News

Sonoma County, CA, is the center of a heated exchange over setting land aside for protection of the California tiger salamander. (News source.)

The Jefferson salamander is getting political in Guelph (Ontario). (News source.)

Axolotls can regenerate lung tissue. (News source.)

Some Frog News

The first protein-based toxin in an amphibian has been discovered, in a treefrog. Most amphibian toxins are obtained from other sources like prey. (News source.)

An interesting photo gallery of treefrogs from Vietnam, here.

Mountain chicken frog tadpoles have some very strange cannibalistic behavior. (News source.)

A new Costa Rica treefrog shows distinctive coloration differences between adults and juveniles, and between genders. (News source.)

Titanoboa Speculation

A researcher thinks the fossil giant snake could have kept itself warm even in a cooler climate than originally speculated. (News source.)

Lizard Locomotion

Researchers have now shown that neon blue tailed tree lizards (Holaspis guentheri) actually do glide when leaping from trees, because of their light weight, which makes their Mass to Surface Area ratio the same as that of the gliding gecko. (Eurekalert.)

Sandfish (a desert lizard) swim like snakes through the sand. (Eurekalert.)

Rip Van Frog

Researchers are investigating how some burrowing frogs can sleep in mud for months or years. (News source.)

Alabama Coral Snake

A coral snake was found in central Alabama for the first time in 40 years. (News source.)

Amphibian News

Frog deformations may be the result of dragonfly nymphs, according to some researchers. (News source.)

A pic here of a recently discovered transparent frog in Ecuador.

A fish-surfing frog photographed in the UK, here.

Axolotls are being studied for limb regeneration research. (News source.)

Tentacled Snakes

An interesting study here on how tentacled snakes capture prey.

Other Turtle News

Ravens are on a hit list for killing endangered desert tortoises. (News source.)

A device for fishing nets that might protect sea turtles better is not enthusiastically welcomed by fishermen. (News source.)

Researchers found a leatherback sea turtle tagged in Nova Scotia has turned up in Colombia waters. (News source.)

Elephant Dung as Microhabitat

Three species of frogs in Sri Lanka have been reported taking advantage of elephant dung as a temporary home. (News source.)

How Snakes Slither

It's all in the scales, according to this report.

Eggs and Gender

In one lizard species, egg size helps determine the gender of the hatchling. (Eurekalert)

Weird Frog

An Indian man found a frog that changes color from white to yellow. (News source.)

Leatherbacks

An article on these sea turtles, here.

Lizard News

A new chameleon has been described from Tanzania. (News source.)

Lizards sunbathe for both warmth and vitamin D regulation. (News source.)

Amphibian News

An environmental group thought they were helping salamanders that migrated across a Massachusetts road, by removing a long tube laid next to a new road. Turns out it was stopping silt from running into an important vernal pond. Actually, sounds like the group doesn't know that much about salamanders if they think a small tube is going to prevent them from moving across a road... The town wants the environmental group to pay for repairs. (News source.)

And, a profile here on a Maryland herpetoculturist who specializes in dart frogs.

Immunity for Frogs?

"Recent preliminary evidence, described in the April issue of BioScience, suggests also that individual amphibians can sometimes develop resistance to chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd)." (Eurekalert.)

Tortoise News

Australian loggerhead turtles ride the ocean currents to the waters off South America. (News source.)

Some conservationists argue that the Red List of endangered animals includes species that are actually safe from extinction (including several sea turtles) which takes conservation focus and dollars away from species that truly do need the help. (News source.)

Racers in Canada

A Canadian researcher is studying eastern yellow-bellied racers in Saskatchewan. (News source.)

"Oldest" Tortoise Might Be Mistake

A historian on St. Helena suggests that a recently named "oldest tortoise" might be a case of mistaken identity. (News source.)

Fox Snake Study

A grad student in Michigan is continuing his research into fox snakes. (News source.)

Turtles/Tortoises

A new study on territorialism in the loggerhead sea turtles of the Mediterranean, here.

The oldest living tortoise appears to be living on St. Helena, brought there from the Seychelles. (News source.)

Cane Toad Changes

The rapid morphological changes discovered along the leading edge of the cane toad's invasive population in Australia has also brought on detrimental effects (spinal arthritis) not seen before in amphibians. (News source.)

Gecko Pollination Problem

An invasive ant on the island of Mauritius is disrupting the nectar-feeding habits of a native Phelsuma gecko, which is integral to the pollination cycle of a rare plant. (News source.)

Lizard Research

Robo-lizards help researchers studying the communication of anoles in Puerto Rico. (Eurekalert.)

Researchers are investigating speciation in some isolated Australian desert geckos. (News source.)

Galapagos land iguanas are under threat, as some populations show low genetic diversity. (Eurekalert.)

Turtles Adjust

Sea turtles are adjusting their nesting dates to warmer climate conditions. (News source.)

Sea Snakes Drink Freshwater

New research suggests that sea snakes don't drink saltwater, after all. (News source.)

Embryo Behavior

Red-eyed treefrog embryos rotate inside their eggs to get more oxygen. (New source.)

Deer Help Snakes

Turns out, snakes, salamanders, and other creatures are more abundant in areas with a deer population. (News source.)

Sandfish Swimming

Interesting findings on how a sandfish actually "swims" through sand. (Eurekalert.)

Tadpoles vs Insecticide

A common insecticide, malathion, can decimate populations of slow-maturing tadpoles by wiping out links in their food chain. (News source.)

Horned Lizard Tactics

Horned lizards that specialize on harvester ants (with strong mandibles and stings) have specialized mucus-producing tissue in their throat, which allows them to quickly coat and swallow the noxious insects. (News source.)

Snake Vision

A study on the vision of watersnakes found that the snakes can see just as well as dogs and cats. (News source.)

Fang Research

Interesting developmental biology research into the formation of snake fangs here.

Cane Toad Snake Snack

A cane toad was photographed chowing down on a keelback in Australia. (News source.)

Frog News

Dead frogs were the clue to busting a cigarette smuggler in Malaysia... (News source.)

And, an article on female frog's picking out their mates call here.

Live Fast, Die Young

An unusual species of Madagascar chameleon, Furcifer labordi, lives only 4 to 5 months after hatching. (Eurekalert)

Boreal Toad Anomaly

The boreal toads in Colorado are dying off from the chytrid fungus, but it doesn't seem to be killing the populations in Wyoming or Montana (despite being present). Researchers are investigating the apparent immunity... (News source.)

Crocodilian News

A Texas man tries to find a new home for his 5-foot illegal alligator. (News source.)

China is reporting (for some reason) the sighting of some Chinese alligators in the wild. (News source.)

Two gharials were spotted 30km from the Tata Steel Zoological Park (in India ), where they escaped during flooding. (News source.)

An Australian man was fortunate enough to fight off an attack by a 15-foot saltwater crocodile. (News source.)

Baby Nile crocodiles synchronize their hatching by chattering to each other beforehand. (News source.)

Manitoba Garters

An article here describing a trip to the Manitoba garter snake dens.

Bipedal Lizards

A study here shows that bipedalism in lizards is based on the reptile shifting its center of gravity during acceleration...

Clawed Frog

"'Amphibian horror' isn't a movie genre, but on this evidence perhaps it should be. Harvard biologists have described a bizarre, hairy frog with cat-like extendable claws.
"Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog's toe pads, probably when it is threatened."

Details at New Scientist.

Silvery Salamanders

Some info here on the strange genetic history of the silvery salamander in Illinois.

Reproductive Plasticity

Here is a study on a neotropical treefrog that can lay its eggs in water or on land...

Ultrasonic Frogs

The female concave-eared torrent frog, Odorrana tormota, uses ultrasonic chirps to attract males over the sounds of rushing water and waterfalls in central China. (Eurekalert.)

Rapid Changes in Podarcis

The Italian wall lizard, Podarcis sicula, was introduced to a small island in the Adriatic in 1971, and show a variety of significant changes in the current population. (News source.)

Komodo Research

Research on Komodo dragon skulls shows that while the bite force is low and the skull is comparatively lightweight, but sharp teeth and unique biting methods driven by strong neck musculature make for an effective predator. (Eurekalert.)

Lungless Frog

A rare aquatic frog, Barbourula kalimantanensis, from Borneo has been confirmed as the only known (so far) lungless frog. The frog "lives in cold, fast-flowing water, they noted, so loss of lungs might be an adaptation to a combination of factors: a higher oxygen environment, the species’s presumed low metabolic rate, severe flattening of their bodies that increases the surface area of their skin, and selection for negative buoyancy—meaning that the frogs would rather sink than float." (Eurekalert)

Gator Blood Fights Disease

Proteins from the blood of alligators may find their way into human medicine. Medical researchers are looking for ways to harness gators' strong immunological resistance in future medical treatments. (News source.)

Gator News

Shifting lungs allows alligators to be agile and quick underwater. (News source.)

Two suspects in the vandalism at St. Augustine Alligator Farm have been caught. (News source.)

Crocodile News

Here's an article at LiveScience on crocodilian digestion.

Chinese parents won a lawsuit against a crocodile farm where their child was killed by a croc. The boy and some friends had snuck over a fence to a staging area, then slung rocks at the reptiles and hit them with sticks. One croc lunged at the boy, and pulled him underwater, where he was eaten. The keeper was not at his station, and other conditions brought the court in the parent's favor. (News source.)

No Camouflage for Chameleons

New research proposes that the color changing in chameleons is strictly for mating displays, and has no camouflaging purpose. (News source.)