Jamie Steer • Jan 22, 2019 •
Introduced species can cause significant changes in their receiving environments. For any new species, a wide range of effects can be contemplated – both positive and negative. In the absence of evidence, caution is surely needed. Introduced by accident in the mid-1960s, ‘plague skinks’ (Lampropholis delicata) have been known for all but about the last eight years as ‘rainbow … Read More
Guest Author • May 12, 2017 •
By Marc Emyr Huw Jones, University of Adelaide Have you ever heard of the tuatara? It’s a reptile that decapitates birds with its saw-like jaws, lives to about 100 years old, and can remain active in near-freezing temperatures. It’s also the sole survivor of a lineage as old as the first dinosaurs. May 2017 marks 150 … Read More
Hilary Miller • Nov 04, 2010 •
Two studies on reproduction in reptiles have made me go “wow, thats cool” this week. Firstly, the report of a boa constrictor giving birth to two litters of offspring without the need for a father. This sort of “virgin birth” is called parthenogenesis, and is not that uncommon in itself, having been previously observed in […] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Apr 22, 2010 •
Here’s one from the good news but bad news file: The good news is that a Duvaucel’s gecko (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii) has been found on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in nearly 100 years. The bad news is that it was found dead in a mouse trap. Duvaucels geckos are the largest of [...] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Apr 08, 2010 •
In Biology Letters this week is the report of a new giant monitor lizard discovered in the Phillipines. Varanus bitatawa is 2m long, brightly coloured and has a double penis, and lives high up in the trees on the island of Luzon. It always amazes me when new species of large vertebrates are discovered in [...] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Oct 18, 2009 •
Most New Zealanders can name at least a dozen or so species of native bird, but how many can do the same for our native reptiles? If you starting counting and only got as far as 1. tuatara, you’re probably not alone. Although we are missing some of the major groups of reptiles (like snakes and [...] … Read More
Hilary Miller • Sep 17, 2009 •
This from a letter to Nature, in the latest edition: Could Nature have been unknowingly publishing papers for the past 80 years about crocodilian gastroliths (stomach stones) instead of stones concluded to be 2.5-million-year-old hominid tools? This possibility could cast doubt, for example, on the nature of the Oldowan specimens described by Michael Haslam and colleagues in their [...] … Read More