In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society on August 26, the team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the United Arab Emirates. Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from around the world. One even fights "Iraqibacter," the bacterium responsible for drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.
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One substance isolated from the skin secretions of the Foothill Yellow-legged Frog -- a species once common in California and Oregon but now facing extinction -- shows promise for killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. MRSA is a "superbug," infamous for causing deadly outbreaks of infection among hospitalized patients. Now it is occurring in settings outside hospitals, including schools, nursing homes, and day care centers.
The skin of the mink frog, likewise, contains secretions that show promise for fighting "Iraqibacter," caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumanni.

The mini frogs (Microhyla nepenthicola) were found on the edge of a road leading to the summit of the Gunung Serapi mountain, which lies within Kubah National Park. The new species was named after the plant on which it depends to live, the Nepenthes ampullaria, one of many species of pitcher plants in Borneo, which has a globular pitcher and grows in damp, shady forests. The frogs deposit their eggs on the sides of the pitcher, and tadpoles grow in the liquid accumulated inside the plant.

With amphibian populations around the world declining quickly and a third at risk of extinction, the unprecedented search could help scientists better understand the crisis.
“The rapid and profound change to the global environment that has taken place over the last fifty years or so – in particular climate change and habitat loss – has had a devastating impact on these incredible creatures,” Conservation International’s Robin Moore, who has organized the search for IUCN’s Amphibian Specialist Group, said in a press release August 8.
“We’ve arranged this search for ‘lost’ species that we believe may have managed to hang on so that we can get some definite answers – and hopefully learn about what has allowed some tiny populations of certain species to survive when the rest of their species has been lost,” Moore said.

The first of the new batch was born on Aug. 8. The remaining dragons hatched over the following 11 days.
"These hatchlings are a result of a lot of work and dedication on the part of zoo staff," said Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians Ian Recchio. "We're excited to be among the few zoos that have successfully bred Komodo dragons. The hatchlings from this clutch will go on to help ensure the survival of the species."

The University of Washington recently announced the latest breakthrough in this field, explaining how scorpion venom can be useful in treating brain cancer. Researchers found that chlorotoxin,an amino acid found in deathstalker scorpions, can slow the cancer's spread by blocking narrow channels in the brain through which malignant, shape-shifting cells can migrate.
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(C)hlorotoxin is so successful because of its interaction with MMP-2, a common enzyme in humans notably associated with the body's response to infections. Highly invasive cancers often increase MMP-2's prevalence, (UW's Miqin Zhang) explained.
"We believe that many types of cancer actually express MMP-2," Zhang told FoxNews.com, causing the body to react and those gliomas to develop. "Chlorotoxin blocks MMP-2 or the expression of MMP-2, and thus blocks the foundation of the glioma,” Zhang told FoxNews.com.

"We're leaning toward it being something like encephalitis or West Nile Virus," Brueggen said Sunday.

Brueggen said the death is a shock to staff at the 117-year-old alligator farm.

"He's a young dragon," Brueggen said, still struggling with referring to Krakatoa in the past tense. "Something went wrong. It wasn't old age."

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Serpents Rise....as you can hear....is an instrumental entity. But, this does not mean that we are opposed to hearing what vocal possibilities exist. With this in mind....Serpents Rise invites you to "be the vocalist".

"There was no cobra in Cleopatra's death," Schäfer told Discovery News.

The author of a best-selling book in Germany, "Cleopatra," Schäfer searched historic writings for evidence to disprove the 2,000-year-old asp legend. His findings are to be featured on the German channel ZDF as part of a program on Cleopatra.

"The Roman historian Cassius Dio, writing about 200 years after Cleopatra's demise, stated that she died a quiet and pain-free death, which is not compatible with a cobra bite. Indeed, the snake's venom would have caused a painful and disfiguring death," Schäfer said.

According to German toxicologist Dietrich Mebs, a poison specialist taking part in the study, the symptoms occurring after an asp bite are very unpleasant, and include vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory failure.

"Death may occur within 45 minutes, but it may also be longer with painful edema at the bite site. At the end, the dead body does not look very nice with vomit, diarrhea, a swollen bite site," Mebs told Discovery News.

As if the latest reports of Burmese pythons, monitor lizards and Cuban tree frogs crawling around Florida are not enough to creep you out, there's a scary new invader in town.

It's an exotic lizard called a tegu, a 4-foot-long reptile from Argentina with sharp claws and a voracious appetite for meat that could possibly tip the ecological applecart. One was spotted last week in Ocala National Forest, a place teeming with campers, swimmers and hikers.

Forest officials said the black-and-white critter was likely dropped off in the forest by an overwhelmed pet owner.

“We're taking this very seriously,” said Carrie Sekerak, a forest-wildlife biologist. “A tegu is known to go inside gopher-tortoise burrows and dig out mice and tortoise eggs. ... It can tip the balance suddenly.”

And now that the hunt has been completed, the grand total of pythons bagged during the entire six-week season is…zero.

The FWC is spinning this as good news, which I suppose it is if you happen to be a Burmese python living in the wild.

We are reviewing a petition to add all traded live amphibians or their eggs to our list of injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act unless certified as free of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (chytrid fungus). The importation and introduction of live amphibians infected with chytrid fungus into U.S. natural ecosystems may pose a threat to the interests of U.S. agriculture, fisheries, and commerce, as well as to the welfare and survival of wildlife and wildlife resources. For live amphibians or their eggs infected with chytrid fungus, an injurious wildlife listing would prohibit the importation into, or transportation between, States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any U.S. territory or possession by any means, without a permit. Permits may be issued for scientific, medical, educational, or zoological purposes.

Staff Sgt. Aaron Christensen, a self-described reptile nut who grew up exploring the woods and coastlines of Oregon, leads the charge at night. Unlike most soldiers on their first deployment, he was just as fired up about the wildlife in the Afghan countryside as he was about potentially battling Taliban insurgents.

"I knew we had our job to do, but I was thinking in the back of my mind that I hope to see some of the cool things I have only seen in pictures or at exotic reptile shows," said Christensen, who has owned cobras, rattlesnakes, lizards and a small alligator as pets. He even has two of his pet snakes tattooed on his left biceps.

The 30-year-old native of Portland, Oregon, has not been disappointed with what he and his fellow soldiers have found around the 200-foot (60- meter) rock and mud hill where their base is located. It is teeming with a wealth of snakes, scorpions, spiders and other wildlife.

"I found a black widow spider, and the body alone was the size of my fingernail," said Sgt. James Wilkes, the platoon's 23-year-old radio operator. "It was ridiculous."

Christensen's most exciting discoveries have been the world's most dangerous scorpion, the death stalker, and one of Asia's deadliest snakes, the saw scaled viper.

While shopping in the store, [the plaintiff] felt a sharp sting in her forearm. When she pulled her arm back from the plants, a large, black snake was attached to her arm. The snake had bitten deeply into her arm and attached itself to her with its fangs. The snake was long enough that it hung down below her knee.

The presence of other species of reptiles and amphibians, collectively referred to as herpetofauna, or "herps," can sometimes be difficult to confirm. However, documenting the diversity of herps can serve as testament to the quality of the habitat.
With their thin, highly permeable, mucous-covered skin, amphibians, which spend part of their lives in water and part on land, are sensitive to the slightest changes in the aquatic and terrestrial habitats in which they live.
They are considered biological indicators of the health of the environment. The increasing challenges that amphibians and reptiles face often result from human-induced causes such as environmental pollution, habitat loss, introduced species, and over-harvesting or collecting. Worldwide declines in amphibian and reptile populations have been occurring at an accelerated rate over the past 20 years, raising concerns for their continued success and survival.

Here is a quick paleontology quiz. Which group of animals included large, air-breathing predators up to 50 feet long that bore live young, dominated their world for more than 100 million years and were ultimately exterminated by an asteroid 65 million years ago?

Easy, right?

Did you say dinosaurs? Sorry, wrong answer. But it was a trickier question than it may have appeared.

After a grueling two-week expedition to Malaysia last August with his son, a budding herpetologist, they discovered two new species: lesbian lizards and psychedelic geckos, both natives of South Vietnam.

Got your attention? Grismer, who lives in Temecula, grins impishly during an interview at the college lab he shares with his 7-year-old half-blind pit bull, Tank. Grismer still is as passionate about "herping," as he calls it, as he was when as a toddler he began nabbing lizards.

The lesbian, or asexual lizards, are 18 inches long and produce perfect clones. The mature females arouse one another and pretend to mate, which causes them to ovulate and lay eggs. The spectacular 5-inch psychedelic geckos seem to be painted fluorescent lavender, orange and yellow and glow in the dark.

Why the new massive lizard has remained undiscovered by scientists until now is a mystery, especially as many biologists work in the northern Philippines.

The researchers say it may be because the lizard is naturally reclusive, being a highly secretive animal that never leaves the forest or crosses open country.

It could also be because few scientific expeditions have characterised the reptiles living in the Sierra Madre forests.

The new species of monitor lives at least 150km away from its nearest relative, another lizard called V. olivaceus, which also lives in trees and eats fruit.