Reptiles, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 25, 2020

'Shocked' scientists find brain parasites in baby lizards still in shells

A newfound species of parasitic worm wiggles its way into the brains of baby lizards long before the reptiles hatch. How do the nematodes break into developing lizard brains? They sneak in through the lizard mothers' ovaries, a surprising new study finds. Parasitic nematodes that prey on mammals can sometimes...

May 8, 2020

Florida lizard breaks world poop record, dies constipated

A greasy, sandy diet left a northern curly-tailed lizard with a belly distended by a heavy ball of unpassable poop. The mass was so large that it made up nearly 80% of the animal's body weight — a record-breaking body-to-poop ratio, according to a Florida biologist. As the lizard gulped...

Jul 16, 2020

Lizards with multiple tails are more common than anyone knew

Lizards that lose and regrow their tails can go overboard and grow back more than one tail — and sometimes they sprout as many as six. Those haywire multiple tails appear a lot more often than you might think, scientists recently discovered. Numerous reports from around the world mention multi-tailed...

Nov 3, 2020

'Lost' chameleon rediscovered after a century in hiding. And it's spectacular.

More than a century after it was last seen, a spectacularly colorful chameleon is back. Conservationists announced the rediscovery of the Voeltzkow's chameleon (Furcifer voeltzkowi) on Oct. 30 in the journal Salamandra. The animal, endemic to Madagascar, was last seen in 1913 — and until now, no one had ever...

Jan 12, 2021

Desert geckos glow neon green in the moonlight, scientists discover

A desert gecko from Namibia has brilliant glow-in-the-dark markings that shine neon green by the light of the moon. The mechanism that produces its glow has never been seen before in land animals with backbones. Web-footed geckos (Pachydactylus rangei) have translucent skin with large, yellowish markings: stripes on their sides...

Jan 25, 2021

Man tried to smuggle chameleons in socks and empty ice-cream tubs

A man attempted to smuggle 74 protected chameleons through an Austrian airport by hiding the animals in socks and empty ice cream containers in his luggage. The man was caught at customs control in Vienna after traveling from Tanzania via Ethiopia, The Associated Press reported. After authorities confiscated the colorful...

Jun 15, 2021

'Strange beast' in amber is a very weird lizard

A fossil locked in a piece of amber dating to about 99 million years ago belongs to a newfound and highly bizarre species of extinct lizard. The fossil also helped scientists revise the lineage of another amber-locked discovery, also dating to that part of the Cretaceous period (145.5 million to...

Aug 2, 2021

One of world's rarest chameleons, once feared extinct, found in African rainforest

Scientists have found one of the world's rarest chameleons clinging to survival after fearing it had become extinct since its initial discovery in the 1990s because of massive deforestation, a new study finds. Researchers discovered a population of Chapman's pygmy chameleons (Rhampholeon chapmanorum) surviving in small patches of rainforest in...

Aug 29, 2022

Mummified, spread-eagled Triassic 'shovel lizards' look like roadkill and likely died in a drought

About 251 million years ago, groups of pig-size herbivores with tusks and beaks huddled together, died, shriveled up and then fossilized looking like squashed roadkill, with impressions of their pebbly skin still present in the rocks around them. These strange layers of fossils suggest that recurring drought was a big...

Sep 21, 2022

Lizards: From tiny geckos to giant Komodo dragons

Lizards are a diverse and ancient group of reptiles that live around the world today. There are thousands of lizard species, and each has special adaptations and traits. There are lizards with frills, lizards with horns, and lizards with wings. Most lizards have four legs, but some get by on...

Dec 2, 2022

Ancient lizard with teeth like butcher knives 're-calibrates the whole shebang' of reptile evolution

A palm-size lizard with teeth as sharp as butcher knives is so old that it shifts the origins of modern lizards and snakes back by 35 million years, a new study reveals. Paleontologists found the fossilized remains of the tiny, razor-toothed reptile embedded in a rock hidden in storage at...

May 31, 2023

This psychedelic-eyed gecko isn't what we thought it was

Researchers in Australia have discovered a new species of gecko with beautiful psychedelic eyes. The stunning lizards evaded detection for decades due to their similarities with a closely related species. The new species, called the lesser thorn-tailed gecko (Strophurus spinula), is about 2.4 inches (6.1 centimeters) long and has a...

Oct 30, 2023

Newly discovered Cretaceous sea monster named after world-ending Norse serpent

Scientists have named an ancient species of giant sea lizard with angry eyebrows and a stumpy tail after Jörmungandr, a sea serpent from Norse mythology. The fearsome creature, Jǫrmungandr walhallaensis, lived 80 million years ago in an ancient sea in what is now North Dakota. If you put flippers on...

Nov 4, 2023

Earless monitor lizards: The 'Holy Grail' of reptiles that looks like a mini dragon

Name: Earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis) Where it lives: Borneo, near streams in lowland rainforests What it eats: Earthworms, crabs and fish Why it's awesome: Earless monitor lizards are dragon-like reptiles that are so rare they're dubbed the Holy Grail of herpetology — the study of reptiles and amphibians. The...

Nov 10, 2023

Surprise discovery of snake-like lizard feared extinct leaves scientists amazed

Researchers in Australia have rediscovered a secretive lizard with tiny legs that they thought may be extinct after it evaded detection for more than 40 years. A team from the Queensland Museum and James Cook University spotted Lyon's grassland striped skinks (Austroablepharus barrylyoni) — which haven't been seen since 1981...