“I really love animals, especially exotic ones,” former US Open champion Thiem told the Brisbane International website. “But they said it was a really poisonous snake and it was close to the ballkids, so it was a really dangerous situation.

“It’s something that has never happened to me and is something I’ll definitely never forget.”

"Venoms never cease to surprise us. Even with so much accumulated knowledge, fresh discoveries are possible, such as unpredictable fragments that are parts of known proteins. Despite all the available technology, a great deal remains to be studied in these toxins," Alexandre Tashima, co-author of the study and professor at the Federal University of São Paulo's Medical School (EPM-UNIFESP), said in a statement.

Costa Rica, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, is home to five of the seven sea turtle species. They are natural-born fighters, as only one in every 1,000 sea turtle eggs will become an adult. Hatchlings are prey to almost everything up until that point.

Once they reach adulthood, which can take up to 30 years, their list of enemies decreases significantly. The biggest predators they face are humans.

In naming the new species, Meyer chose “helioscopus,” which roughly translates into “sun watcher,” and “dickersonae,” which honors his grandmother, Helen Dickerson, his great aunt, Shirley Dickerson, and Mary Cynthia Dickerson (no relation), who was the first curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

“Both my grandmother and great aunt were extremely important people in my life, and my great aunt passed away while I was in the early stages of working on this fossil,” Meyer says. “I was truly honored to have a chance to get to use their family name in this new species, in part as a memorial that will now persist long after I am gone.”

The serpents have been identified as coastal carpet pythons, which don’t have fangs or venom, but are known for their “100 small, sharp teeth which have the ability to cause substantial needle-like lacerations.” No matter what, they use constriction to kill their prey, so perhaps stay away. Just in case

Mr Simon Peter Mundeyi, the spokesperson of the Internal Affairs ministry, said when the strange man was asked why he had carried such a dangerous reptile (a cobra), he said it is his "brother" and that he moves around with it wherever he goes

Ecologists had long assumed snakes are antisocial loners that hang out together only for core functions such as mating and hibernation. However, in 2020, Morgan Skinner, a behavioral ecologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, and collaborators showed in laboratory experiments that captive garter snakes have “friends”—specific snakes whose company they prefer over others. Still, studies of wild snakes were lacking “because they’re so secretive and difficult to find,” Skinner says.
Then he learned that the Ontario Ministry of Transportation had funded an unprecedented long-term study of a huge population of Butler’s garter snakes (Thamnophis butleri) in Windsor, Canada. Ecologists began to monitor the flute-size slitherers in 2009 to keep them safe from nearby road construction. They regularly captured snakes in the 250-hectare study area, using identifying markings to track more than 3000 individuals over a 12-year span—about the lifetime of a garter snake.

Ninh Thuan blind skinks have a “worm-like” body that can reach about 4.6 inches in length, the study said. Their eyes are “rudimentary” and “completely covered by scales.” They are also “limbless” with only males having “rudimentary” hind limbs that form “flap-like structures” near their tails.

Justin Elden, curator of herpetology and aquatics at the Zoo, said hellbenders are cryptic, secretive creatures. Numbers might be rising faster than known.

“If there’s one there’s likely many more,” said Elden. “It’s exciting stuff, and my hope and thought is that this is the first of many that we will find.”