Reptiles

Unsurprisingly, some giant tortoises take issue with humans trying to watch them breed.

Tortoise Defends His Lady in a Super Slow Chase

Here’s what happens when you interrupt two giant reptiles just trying to get in a bit of quality time together

Geckos have amazingly-structured feet, but new research indicates that the lizards' skin also possesses exceptional properties.

Water Drops Leap Off Gecko Skin Thanks to Tiny Spines

Specialized hydrophobic structures on gecko skin encourage dewdrops to be swept away by the wind or to collide and shoot off one another like pool balls

L. larvaepartus (male, left, and female) from Indonesia is the only frog ever discovered to birth live tadpoles.

This Exotic Frog Skips the Eggs, Gives Birth to Live Tadpoles

The species is one of just a handful of frogs that use internal fertilization, and the only one found that births tadpoles

Thanks to millions of microscopic hair-like structures, a gecko's foot can resist pulling forces up to 20 times the lizard's own weight.

Geckos Have a Surprisingly Strong Death Grip

Gecko toes remain firmly stuck in place even after the animal dies, implying that the lizards do not actively control their clinginess

Now a Person Can Scramble Up a Wall Just Like a Gecko

Or use the same material to catch wayward space trash

India Once Released 25,000 Flesh-Eating Turtles Into the Ganges

A plan to clean up corpses failed due to lack of planning

A juvenile reticulated python in Malaysia

A Zoo Python Had Six Babies in a "Virgin Birth"

The 20-foot-long reptile hadn't had a chance to meet a mate, but she still laid 61 eggs

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This Photographer Set Out on a Quest to Rediscover the World's Lost Species of Frogs

Some of the subjects are new to science, others haven't been seen in 15 to 160 years

An endangered green sea turtle in Hawaii that has contracted fibropapillomatosis.

Pollution From Hawaii Is Giving Sea Turtles Gross, Deadly Tumors

Nitrogen runoff gets into the turtles' food and causes tumors on their faces, flippers and organs

The "skylight" appears as a light pink splotch atop this leatherback sea turtle's head.

Leatherback Sea Turtles Can Measure Sunlight Through Their Skulls

The anatomical skylight allows the turtles to synch up with the seasons

An artist's rendering of Caiuajara dobruskii surrounded by its young in the ancient Brazilian desert.

New Desert-Dwelling Pterosaur Unearthed in Brazil

A massive bone bed is already yielding insights into the flying reptile's lifestyle

Baby Turtles Coordinate Hatching By Talking to One Another Through Their Egg Shells

A number of turtle species make sounds, but this is the first evidence that babies do so before they've even hatched

A Deadly Fungus Is Wiping Out Frogs and Toads—But Some Can Develop Resistance

Scientists hope it might be possible to develop a vaccine to the fungus, based on the frog and toad's immunity

The Clarion nightsnake, brought into the scientific light at last.

Written Off as a Figment, the Mysterious Clarión Nightsnake Reemerges after Nearly 80 Years

The snake was discovered on a remote Mexican island in the 1930s, but the notes of the famous naturalist who documented it were later called into question

Butterflies And Bees Drink Crocodile Tears

To the delight of winged invertebrates, crocodiles cry when they eat

A baby loggerhead sea turtle with a solar-powered tag attached to its shell swims in the Gulf Stream just after release off the southeast Florida coast in 2009. NMSF permit 1551 applies to all images featured in this article.

Where Do Newly Hatched Baby Sea Turtles Go?

Special satellite tags that track baby sea turtles show that some ride the North Atlantic Gyre while others float in the Sargasso Sea

Conservationist Are Resorting to Branding Endangered Tortoises

If the tortoises' shells are marred with numbers and letters, they'll be less appealing to poachers

Ancient Reptiles Kept Switching Between Laying Eggs And Giving Birth to Live Babies

Colder temperatures seem key to triggering the switch to live births

This flashy male chameleon is deadly beautiful to his competitors.

The More Rainbow Bright a Chameleon, the Greater His Battle Prowess

Male chameleons quickest on the color-changing draw and sporting the brightest palette tend beat out duller competitors

A friendly garter snake

Mating Snakes Engage in a Literal Battle of the Sexes

Male and female red-sided garter snakes have antagonistic genitals, evolved to further the interests of their respective gender

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