Breviceps ombelanonga • A New Species of Rain Frog (Brevicipitidae, Breviceps) endemic to Angola
Recent molecular phylogenetic work has found that Breviceps Merrem, 1820 comprises two major clades, one of which, the B. mossambicus group, is widely distributed across southern sub-Saharan Africa. This group is notable for harboring abundant cryptic diversity. Of the four most recently described Breviceps species, three are members of this group, and at least five additional lineages await formal description. Leer más.
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- Publicado: 31 Octubre 2020
Croaking Science: Amphibians in the ‘Anthropause’
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense human tragedy as it has spread around the world straining healthcare services and paralysing economic systems. Quarantine restrictions imposed by governments in order to slow the spread of the virus, have caused extraordinary disruption to our globalised society but have created rare opportunities for some wildlife species (Zellmer et al. 2020). Leer más.
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- Publicado: 31 Octubre 2020
Sea turtle nesting season winding down in Florida, some numbers are up and it's unexpected
Florida's sea turtle nesting surveying comes to a close on Halloween and like everything else in 2020, the season was a bit weird. The number of green sea turtle nests on central and southern Brevard County, Florida beaches monitored by University of Central biologists were way up during a year they should have been down based on nearly 40 years of historical data. Leer más.
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- Publicado: 31 Octubre 2020
Anfibios Españoles
Esta exposición sobre los anfibios españoles de la Asociación Herpetológica Española en la que colabora el Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, combina de forma magistral el rigor científico con un lenguaje divulgativo accesible a toda la ciudadanía y estamos convencidos de que su presentación en la provincia de Málaga va a potenciar y situar en un contexto nacional los esfuerzos realizados por el ente provincial por dar a conocer entre la población la comunidad de anfibios malagueñas.. Ir al enlace
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- Publicado: 28 Octubre 2020
ADDRESSING PATTERNS OF VENOM VARIATION IN WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN VIPERS
Snake venoms are complex secretions of bioactive molecules able to disrupt the physiological equilibrium of the organism in which they are injected, known to be used for both predatory and defensive purposes. Several studies have found evidence of adaptation in the composition of snake venoms to diet, reinforcing their role as targets for natural selection, and explaining their geographic variation with different prey preferences. However, other factors (e.g. phylogenetic relationships) might be relevant in shaping the composition of snake venoms, determining the presence of similarities or differences in quantity and/or type of venom components. Vipers (Family Viperidae) are one of the most diverse groups of venomous snakes worldwide, infamous for the generally high potency of their venoms. Leer más.
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- Publicado: 28 Octubre 2020
Presence of low virulence chytrid fungi could protect European amphibians from more deadly strains
Wildlife diseases are contributing to the current Earth's sixth mass extinction; one disease, chytridiomycosis, has caused mass amphibian die-offs. While global spread of a hypervirulent lineage of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BdGPL) causes unprecedented loss of vertebrate diversity by decimating amphibian populations, its impact on amphibian communities is highly variable across regions. Here, we combine field data with in vitro and in vivo trials that demonstrate the presence of a markedly diverse variety of low virulence isolates of BdGPL in northern European amphibian communities. Leer más.
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- Publicado: 28 Octubre 2020