Reptiles, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2004

Before Crocodiles, the Hairless Coyote

A team of paleontologists has found a missing link between the crocodile family and its small and graceful landlubber ancestors. The reptile looked like a hairless coyote with scales, says Catherine A. Forster, a paleontologist at Stony Brook University, who is part of a team that analyzed the recently found...

Oct 31, 2005

Amateur's Find is Missing Link in Ancient Lizards

When amateur fossil hunter Van Turner discovered a small vertebra at a construction site near Dallas 16 years ago, he knew the creature was unlike anything in the fossil record. Scientists now know the significance of Turner's fossil as the origin of an extinct line of lizards with an evolutionary...

May 31, 2005

Super Geckos Excel without Sex

Geckos that forego sex and instead clone themselves are able to run farther and faster than relatives that reproduce the more conventional way. This is extraordinary, said Kellar Autumn from Lewis & Clark College in Oregon. The traditional theory is that when a species gives up sex and reproduces through...

Nov 30, 2006

Baby Marine Reptile Buried by Volcano

A massive volcanic blast may have killed and preserved a baby marine reptile, whose skeleton, one of the most complete example of its kind ever found, was recovered from the frozen ground of Antarctica. Plesiosaurs, ancient marine reptiles with paddle-like fins, swam through the Southern Ocean approximately 70 million years...

Mar 31, 2006

Millions of Years Ago, Snakes Were Hip

Once upon a time, snakes had legs. A new discovery reveals at least one had hips, too. The newfound fossil could help scientists piece together the murky evolutionary history of snakes. Until now, the prevailing thought was that early snakes were already lacking legs when they slithered out of water...

Aug 31, 2007

Suspect's Family Blames Murders on Snake Bite

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Relatives of a man accused of killing six people in Texas and Pennsylvania apologized to their families Monday, said the suspect had psychological problems and suggested a rattlesnake bite may have set him off. We feel it's a psychological stupor he was in, an uncle, Ed...

Aug 31, 2007

Stephen Colbert's Favorite Turtle Missing After Great Race

Shortly after snagging 2nd place in the Great Turtle Race, the leatherback turtle Stephanie Coburtle went missing and she has been offline for more than 100 days, it was announced today. The female leatherback is named after comedian Stephen Colbert, who commented on his turtle on a video played at...

Jun 30, 2007

Tale of Huge Reptiles Fishing While Flying Called False

Prehistoric flying reptiles known as pterosaurs are often pictured as skimming along the surface of water during flight with their mouths open, fishing on the wing. Now scientists find this romantic Age of Dinosaurs vision unlikely. Any pterosaur trying this feeding method might have taken a nasty crash. Pterosaurs, or...

Nov 30, 2008

Dwarf Crocodiles Split into 3 Species

Looking at the genes of the African dwarf crocodile, researchers found that the group comprises three distinct species rather than one. This finding ends a long debate about the taxonomy of this group, previously thought to consist of two closely related subspecies, and also defines a new, distinct species from...

Oct 31, 2008

Image Gallery: Snakes of the World

Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake (Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)Found only in Florida, the Atlantic Salt Marsh Snake is threatened by waterfront development that eats into its habitat. Broad-banded Copperhead (Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)The copperhead is the most common venomous snake in the Eastern United States....

Jul 31, 2008

World's Smallest Snake Discovered on Barbados

As slim as a spaghetti noodle and able to fit snugly on a U.S. quarter, a new species of snake has been found hiding out in a forest on Barbados. The reptilian runt is now the world's smallest snake. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State, discovered the snake,...

Jun 30, 2008

Snake Venom Changes with Age, Location

Like people with an accent, snakes from different regions pack different venom. A new study finds that antivenoms, the drugs created to combat snake bites in humans, need to take these chemical differences into account. Scientists have known for many decades that venom of snakes of the same species can...

Jan 31, 2008

Crikey! How Crocs Digest Animals Whole

Crocodiles are ferocious creatures that will eat snakes, buffalo, cattle and even people. New research explains crocodiles' spectacular method of digesting large meals that lets them eat 23 percent of their body weight at once, bones and all. If people could gorge like crocodiles, a 130-pound woman could down a...

Nov 30, 2009

Turtles Act Like Chameleons

Freshwater turtles’ skin and shells often match the color of their habitat’s substrate, which may help them deceive predators and prey alike. But what happens if turtles change abodes, from a black swamp, say, to a sandy-bottomed pond? John W. Rowe, of Alma College in Michigan, and three colleagues collected...

Oct 31, 2009

Teensy Chameleon Is New Species

A tiny chameleon species with a scaly horn atop its snout and blue dots on its limbs has been discovered in Tanzanian forests. It would sit quite easily on one finger, said Andrew Marshall of the University of York and Flamingo Land, adding the chameleon's body spans just 2.8 inches...