An experiment has shown green sea turtle embryos are much more likely to die when they are inside eggs that go underwater for six hours.

Scientists say the study shows the turtles, which rely on low-lying coastal habitats, are likely to feel the early impacts of rising sea levels.

"In some places it only takes a small rise in sea levels, when combined with a storm or a king tide, to inundate what had previously been secure nesting sites," said lead researcher Dr David Pike of James Cook University.

Scientists have welcomed the first results of a captive breeding program aimed at saving a group of critically endangered Fijian crested iguanas, the first such attempt to reintroduce a species in that country.

Some of the iguanas that were introduced to the Fijian island of Monuriki two months ago have been tracked down by scientists and appear to be healthy.

A total of 32 iguanas were microchipped and released, with tiny radio transmitters glued to the tails of 11 for tracking purposes. Nine were recovered on Sunday.

US Geological Survey biologist Robert Fisher reported all had increased in length and lost their excessive weight. A lean diet of native plants had evidently “sorted them out,” he said. There was no evidence of trauma or other health issues.

“A collaborative effort by Zoo Atlanta, the Central Florida Zoo’s Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation and Auburn University will result in the latest release of this iconic reptile in Conecuh National Forest in southern Alabama,” Zoo Atlanta said in a prepared statement.
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Three of the nine snakes were reared at Zoo Atlanta, which has reared around 60 eastern indigo snakes for release since the program’s inception in 2008, the zoo said.

The bulk of his hospital bill — $83,000 of it — is due to pharmacy charges. Specifically, charges for the antivenin used to treat the bite. KGTV reports that Fassler depleted the antivenin supplies at two local hospitals during his five-day visit. Nobody expects antivenin to be cheap. But $83,000?

There's currently only one commercially available antivenin for treating venomous snakebites in the United States -- CroFab, manufactured by U.K.-based BTG plc. And with a stable market of 7,000 to 8,000 snakebite victims per year and no competitors, business is pretty good. BTG's latest annual report shows CroFab sales topped out at close to 63 million British pounds, or $98 million dollars, last fiscal year. The antivenin costs hospitals roughly $2,300 per vial, according to Bloomberg, with a typical dose requiring four to six vials. In some cases multiple doses are needed, according to CroFab's promotional Web site.

BTG has fought aggressively to keep competitors off the market. A competing product, Anavip, just received FDA approval this year and likely won't be on the market until late 2018. This lack of competition is one reason that snakebite treatments rack up such huge hospital bills -- $55,000. $89,000. $143,000. In May of this year, a snakebit Missouri man died after refusing to seek medical care, saying he couldn't afford the bill.

The roughly 120 million-year-old snake, dubbed Tetrapodophis amplectus (literally, four-legged snake), likely didn't use its feet for walking. Instead, the appendages may have helped Tetrapodophis hold onto a partner while mating, or even grip unruly prey, said study co-researcher David Martill, a professor of paleobiology at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Previous research has detailed two-legged snake fossils, but this is the first known snake ancestor to sport four legs, he said. It likely evolved from terrestrial-burrowing creatures, and was a transitional animal that lived during the shift from ancient lizards to modern-day snakes, he added.

Two months ago the world’s conservationists crossed their collective fingers and waited to find out if a 100-year-old female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), the last of her gender, would—after artificial insemination—finally lay fertile eggs and save her species from extinction.

I’m sorry to say that those hopes have, at least temporarily, been dashed. The Turtle Survival Alliance reported this week that the centenarian did lay 89 eggs, but all were infertile.

That doesn’t mean the quest is over, however. The female is expected to lay one or two more clutches of eggs this year. They’ll try to inseminate here again before then.

Officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission visited the home of William Henry Jowett after receiving a tip that he was keeping two of the threatened reptile at home.

The 53-year old eventually received a misdemeanor citation after he was discovered keeping two loggerhead sea turtle hatchling. The penalties for this included up to one year imprisonment and a potential fine of up to $1,000.

Jowett reportedly obtained the animals from the canal in his backyard two months ago and decided to place these in a saltwater aquarium to show to his daughter. He said that he had plans to release the turtles but became attached to the animals.

The animals were taken from the aquarium and moved to the Loggerhead Marine Life Sanctuary Center. The turtles were later released offshore.

Crypsis is an entity’s ability to avoid detection. It can be a predator’s ability to avoid being spotted by prey, or prey’s ability to avoid being spotted by predators, or, in this case, an animal’s ability to avoid being spotted by biologists. Although I know it’s a valid term for a behavior, I can’t help but admire the ability of biologists to make their own failure to find an animal into a recognized property of the animal.

A Vietnam veteran was shot while trying to save baby sea turtles at a South Florida beach.

Stan Pannaman, 72, of Tamarac, was shot Friday night near a sea turtle nest in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

Pannaman said he and Doug Young, a fellow volunteer trying to protect the nest, were confronted by Michael McAuliffe, who approached them and said he didn't like sea turtles.

"He got more aggressive and he got up and he came towards us and he started pulling the stakes away from the nest area," Young told Local 10 News.

Reptile conservationist Gary Powell said: "If tins are disturbed outside of an official survey then it can affect the results of the research".

Disturbing protected species could result in breaking the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations Act.

Conservationists from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Dorset Wildlife Trust leave small pieces of tin and sometimes roofing felt at Upton Heath nature reserve in Corfe Mullen.

It is incredible that any creature can crawl, swim, dig, climb, capture prey and in some cases, glide through the air, all without the benefit of limbs, fins or wings. Rather than fear them, we should be in awe of their beauty, mystique and diversity.

There are over 3,400 snake species in the world, ranging from the semi-frozen tundra of northern Canada to the steamy jungles of the equator and most of the world’s oceans. As highly effective predators, snakes play a vital role in maintaining the balance of nature in each of these realms.

Snakes have a prehistoric lineage, giving us a glimpse back to a prehistoric time when the earth was ruled by reptiles; modern reptiles are literally the living, breathing cousins of dinosaurs.

The sand dunes, marshes and backwaters of the upper Mississippi River, including the Weaver Dunes of southeastern Minnesota, hold one of the largest remaining populations of the Blanding's turtle, which the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources already classifies as threatened. A population in Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nebraska, where the species is classified as at-risk, is more secure but still vulnerable.

In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week began a formal assessment of whether 20 amphibians or reptiles found in various parts of the country, including the Blanding's turtle, and one plant species should be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Such listings would give them greater protection.

The center says the fragmented, remnant populations of Blanding's turtles across their historic range aren't enough to sustain what's left of the species.

Several years ago, Dr. Leal was studying competition between two species. If he removed all of the trunk-ground anoles, he wondered, would the trunk-crown lizards extend their territory farther down the tree? He ran into a problem, however. He would take the trunk-ground lizards far from their home territory to make room for their upstairs neighbors, and then release them. But in a reptilian version of the children’s song, “The Cat Came Back,” the lizards wouldn’t stay away. “Lizards kept showing up in the territory that had just been scoured for lizards,” he said.

Dr. Leal wondered whether new anoles were appearing in empty territory or the old ones were returning. But how could a lizard that had never left home find its way back through 25 yards or so of dense rain forest?

First, he established that they do find their way back. A graduate student would take one, put it in a box, shake it to disorient the anole, walk about 80 yards or more away in a randomly chosen direction, shake the box again and let the lizard out. “The graduate students got lost,” Dr. Leal said, but not the lizards. It took them a few hours or a few days, but about 80 percent of them found their way back.

The anti-venom comes from a sharing program launched at Staten Island University Hospital by Dr. Nima Majlesi at Staten Island University Hospital, which unites the zoo, the hospital and toxicologists.

"We understand poisoning, we understand the treatment with anti-venom," said Majlesi.

The hospital understands the importance of having anti-venom stocked on the shelf, ready to help not just vulnerable zoo keepers but anyone in the tri-state region -- like those who keep venomous snakes as pets.

The lizard was named Babibasiliscus alxi, where babi means “older male cousin” in Shoshone Native American – a tribute to the local heritage. Judging from the fossils, the lizard was likely two feet long, was active during the day and likely spent most of its time in trees. Like other casqueheads, the lizard has a ridge over its skull that likely made it look fiercer to its prey. Its teeth had three points suitable for eating snakes, lizards, fish, insects and plants. The larger cheekbones suggest it also hunted large prey.

Based on phylogenetic analysis Babibasiliscus is closely related to the modern genus Laemanctus, which includes the famous Jesus Lizard. The Jesus Lizard likes to live near water, that way, when it is frightened by an approaching predator it can get to the water and run across the surface. The lizards can run on water because they have a fringe of scales on their hind toes which makes little webs that can trap bubbles of air and water beneath their feet. This keeps them from sinking into the water if they run quickly enough across. When they do stop running they don’t mind taking a little swim. It’s not clear whether Babibasiliscus also skimmed water.

At an estimated age of more than 150 years, Speed had been in geriatric decline for some time, with arthritis and other maladies. Keepers treated him with medication, hydrotherapy, physical therapy, even acupuncture.

Finally, a decision was made Friday to euthanize Speed, who had been at the zoo since 1933.

He was brought to the zoo as part of an early effort to preserve the endangered species from the Volcan Cerro Azul Island of the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador.

At a conference on Bahamian natural history, I met Shedd Aquarium’s Dr. Chuck Knapp, who oversees the conservation research program at Shedd and has spent decades researching rock iguanas in The Bahamas. At the time, I had been struggling with the decision of attending medical school. Would I make a difference working in a ‘normal career’, as in a sterile hospital wearing a white lab coat, be any different than working as a field researcher?

For me, Dr. Chuck helped to provide that answer. Without thinking twice, I accepted his invitation to accompany him on a citizen science iguana research exhibition to the Exuma Cays. My experience on that expedition–adjusting to the harsh weather and elements – proved to me that the white lab coat in some hospital was not going to be my career path. I found an unexplainable love for field research and the Exuma Cays Rock Iguana (Cyclura cychlura figgisi), in an experience that I will never forget.

The findings are “a very important contribution in addressing who turtles are related to, as well as the evolutionary origin of the turtle shell,” says Tyler Lyson, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science who was not involved with the study. “These have been two vexing questions for evolutionary biologists for the last 200 years.”

About two dozen or so fossils of the creature have been recovered, all of them from 240-million-year-old rocks deposited as sediment on the floor of a shallow, 5-kilometer-long lake in what is now southern Germany. Most of the remains include only bits of bone and are from individuals of various sizes, says Hans-Dieter Sues, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. But between the two most complete specimens yet found, he and Rainer Schoch, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany, have put together a full skeleton and most of a skull.

John Meek, curator: " This is a very rare birth for us here at The Zoo and Mez is doing very well, being carefully nursed by our diligent keepers. Mez currently weighs twelve grams and we expect him to make steady progress."

Black Tree Monitors are at risk due to habitat destruction and the illegal trade in reptiles for pets, so the breeding programme at The Zoo will ensure the conservation of the species.

The Black Tree Monitors at The Zoo originated from Pilsen Zoo in the Czech Republic over five years ago and have very specific humidity conditions to encourage them to lay their eggs. The female Monitor has already laid a further six eggs which are currently under incubation and they should hatch sometime in the next few months.

Owner Stephen Evans, 34 has bred bearded dragon lizards for 17 years and made the discovery this morning after checking a clutch of eggs.

Originally, he thought there were two lizards in one egg but says he was shocked to discover it was actually a conjoined twin.

He told the Liverpool Echo: "Last night I'd checked the incubator, we'd seen two heads and assumed they were twins, which can sometimes happen.