Giants of the American backwaters

Welcome

It’s been clear that with the streets having

Over 40 new species found in 2020

Featuring stories this month about a remarkable way of searching for amphibians that are feared to be extinct, a new lizard found in Mexico, how a certain type of bee venom is opening a new window on treating breast cancer, how the tadpoles of frogs can vary widely in size, the ways that marine turtles ride out a hurricane and much more, starting here with some of the new species discovered so far this year. Compiled by G. Valentine

Feeding garter snakes

DO YOU NEED A HELPING HAND OR ADVICE?

REPTILE FOCUS

The web-footed gecko (Pachydactylus rangei)

A lesser-known Australian dragon

Paul Donovan describes his experiences keeping a particularly distinctive and attractive lizard that hails from Australia but is far less wellknown that the bearded dragon

A Top Ten of “living dinosaur” reports

There are numerous reports of mysterious beasts that have been likened to or even potentially identified with supposedly long-vanished forms of dinosaur. In his column this month, Dr Karl Shuker lists, in no particular order, his personal Top Ten of possible living dinosaurs of the cryptozoological kind

YOU & YOUR Reptiles

Vinnie and Blazer. From Malcolm, in East Preston,

Back from the dead -thanks to DNA

One of the tree frog species that had

Honeybee venom kills aggressive breast cancer cells

A honey bee collecting nectar. Photo courtesy Dancestrokes/www.

How turtles ride out storms

A loggerhead turtle swimming in open water. Photo

New amphibian mating system described

A study has revealed a previously undocumented mating

New tree dragon discovered in Mexico

As soon as Adam Clause saw the photo,

Links between the size of tadpoles and adult frogs

University of Arizona researchers have been studying the

The star of the East

While the Indian star tortoise (Geochelone elegans), which is found in parts of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is not uncommon in collections, there is another form of tortoise with similar shell patterning that is far less frequently seen, although its numbers are now rapidly increasing. 

Snakes & us

From ancient Aztec sculptures to large individual social media followings online today, snakes have not uncommonly both fascinated and frightened people in equal measure down through the millennia, like no other type of animal. Erica Wright, mother-to-be, snake enthusiast and author of a new book on these reptiles considers our conflicting feelings