With Guinness waiting in the wings, uber croc expert Adam Britton headed to the Philippines to get an official measurement on Lolong, the giant saltwater croc.
From GMA News:

Australian zoologist and crocodile expert Dr. Adam Britton led the National Geographic team that measured the giant.

According to Britton in a videotaped interview with GMA News, Lolong's official measurement is 20 feet,three inches.

Previous erroneous reports in media had Lolong slightly longer.

Lolong was captured in the Agusan Marsh in September after reports of missing residents. Lolong now lives in a pen in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur where the sedated reptile was measured by National Geographic representatives shooting a documentary.

Britton will recommend to Guinness World Records the recognition of Lolong as the world’s biggest saltwater crocodile. Guinness representatives will no longer fly to the Philippines to measure Lolong and will depend instead on the results of Britton’s measurement.

Don't get too comfy at the top Lolong, some Aussie researchers just ran into an up and comer while researching fish. From ABC News:

"The closer we got to the net, we saw this large log in front of the net and pretty soon this log raises its head and parts of my net are dripping out of its teeth," he said.

"This was a five-metre crocodile that was bigger than our little boat, and he had the net well and truly wrapped around his jaw.

"He just blasted right through the net and tore this gigantic hole in the net, and of course I'm not catching any nursery fish with a hole.

Our friends from St. Augustine Alligator Farm were among a group of researchers who visits Sarawak on a Croc Conservation Conference. From the Boreno Post:

Minister of Special Functions Tan Sri Datuk Adenan Satem, in his speech when officiating at the opening of the International Crocodile Conference here yesterday, assured his full support to Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) in carrying out the task and completing a comprehensive master plan.

Noting the importance of conservation as the fate of crocodiles was in the hands of humans, he said there was an urgent need to deal with the existing issues and problems.

"Unfortunately, the lives of our reptile friends depend on what we do. I, therefore hope that experts, scientists, management authorities and other stakeholders from across the world gathered here today could provide us with the recommendations, advice and assistance to come up with a long term management programme and resolution for human-crocodile co-existence," he said.

Adenan also mentioned the government’s concerns on wildlife and nature conservation, the reason why he had been given the task under the special functions to look after national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and nature reserves

One of the women who I spoke about in my International Herp Symposium talk, Marisa Tellez, had her masters thesis accepted and it is going to be published. From her current study project on American Alligators:

I know what you are thinking, “PARASITES!!!! Aren’t all parasites just blood sucking, diarrhea making, nasty little critters????” Well, not completely. Many parasites and the hosts they infect have formed a special and unique "affair" over many, many generations. This could help a host build a strong immune system, helping the host to fight off other diseases and adapt really well to changing environments (Did you know that some human autoimmune diseases are caused by the LACK OF parasites?). What's amazing about parasites is that their dependency with their host and environment make them key biological symbols of human induced environmental catastrophes. They can tell a story that us humans wouldn't even know about if it weren't for them!!! For example, the explosion of nematode parasites in fishes after the Exxon Valdez oil spill gave a clearer picture how the oil spill was affecting the whole ecosystem. So in short- even though parasites may not be cute and cuddly, they can help us understand about an organisms’ immune system and the health of the environment which is EXTREMELY important in our rapidly changing world today

You can learn more about her research project here.