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Reptiles

This monitor lizard is definitely not thinking of eating poisonous toads.

New Research

Scientists Trained Monitor Lizards Not to Chow Down on Poisonous Toads

And they did it by feeding them smaller and less-poisonous toads

This photo of two short-nosed sea snakes alerted researchers to the species' survival, even though they were thought to be extinct for 15 years.

New Research

They’re Back: Supposedly Extinct Sea Snakes Have Been Found in Australia

Nearly 15 years later and about 1,000 miles away from the last sighting, the snakes could be making a comeback

Cool Finds

Yet Another Highly-Venomous Snake Discovered in Australia

The Kimberley death adder is one of the most venomous snakes in the world

Boa constrictors seem to deliver death not through suffocation, but by cutting off blood flow to the heart and brain.

New Research

Boa Constrictors Kill By Stopping Blood Circulation

The popular belief that boas and other constricting snakes deal death by suffocation seems to be a flawed assumption

In a new video released by the WWF, viewers can glide through the Great Barrier Reef on the back of a sea turtle.

Cool Finds

Researchers Strapped a Go-Pro to a Sea Turtle, and Here’s What They Got

See the Great Barrier Reef from a turtle’s view

The ancestor of all living snakes, depicted on the prowl in the South American forests it likely inhabited 110 million years ago, likely possessed a pair of tiny hind limbs and hunted at night.

The Mother of All Snakes Looked Surprisingly Modern

New research indicates why the slithery beast’s body appears pretty much as it did 110 million years ago

A female specimen of the newly discovered Alto Tambo woodlizard.

New Research

New Dwarf Dragons Have Been Found in the Andes

It seems that every time herpetologists wander into the Andean cloud forests, they emerge with colorful lizard species in tow

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

Cool Finds

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.

New Research

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.

New Research

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.

New Research

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

New Research

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

Or use the same material to catch wayward space trash

Cool Finds

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

Cool Finds

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

None

Cool Finds

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.

New Research

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.

New Research

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 Research

New Desert-Dwelling Pterosaur Unearthed in Brazil

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

New Research

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

New Research

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

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