Category: Herpetology

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

• Ancient Megalithic Structure Older Than The Egyptian Pyramids Discovered In The Peruvian Andes. “Dated to around 2,750 B.C., using radiocarbon dating techniques, the circular stone plaza was built using massive vertical stones placed in upright positions. This construction method is similar to other ancient sites from the ancient world, like Stonehenge, which is approximately the same age as the newly discovered stone plaza. However, the researchers say it is a construction style “previously unseen” in the Andes.”

Astronomy

• Life on Mars could have thrived near active volcanoes and an ancient mile-deep lake. “…crustal changes behind these newly discovered volcanic features are analogous to a step that Earth took on its own evolutionary pathway toward plate tectonics more than 2.5 billion years ago.”

Entomology

• People and pollution responsible for downfall of nighttime pollination, study says. Pollution reduces the scent signals from flowers.

Geology

• What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? Scientists now have an answer. Low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions for 57 million years.
• Volcano That Blasted Seawater into the Stratosphere May Have Damaged Ozone Layer.
• A Huge Italian Volcano Could Be Ready to Erupt. “Italy’s Campi Flegrei volcano has caused thousands of recent earthquakes and pushed up the ground, worrying 1.3 million residents.”

Herpetology

• ‘Magnificent creatures’: New photos show largest anaconda ever recorded. 20.8 feet long. Impressive.

Ichthyology

• New Species of Rare Fish Discovered in Japan Has Everyone Captivated. It is the Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt.
• Meet Methuselah, The World’s Oldest Living Aquarium Fish. She is at least 93 years old.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

• Stunning rock art site reveals that humans settled the Colombian Amazon 13,000 years ago.

Astronomy

• Water Detected on The Surface of Asteroids For The First Time Ever. “Data captured by SOFIA – the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy which retired in 2022 – has revealed water on asteroids Iris and Massalia.”
• The universe is much older than scientists previously believed, study finds. This calculation arrives at an age of 26.7 billion years.

Entomology

• Winged ‘fairy’ creature preserved inside amber belongs to ‘enigmatic’ new species. Japanese amber. Specimen found in 1993.
• When the double brood of cicadas will come out – and what to expect. Lots of interesting information (including reference to periodical cicadas in India and Fiji).

Geology

• New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in China. This animal lived between 72 and 66 million years ago (late Cretaceous).

Herpetology

• New Crocodile Species Discovered — and Its Last Meal Was a Dinosaur. From Cretaceous formation in Australia.

Ichthyology

• 380 million year old fossil fish breathed through holes on top of head. Fossil discovered in Australia (roughly 200 km west of Alice Springs).

Things that make us go hmmm…

• Houston Zoo makes ‘world’s tiniest neck brace’ for rare insect. Peruvian jumping stick. Brace made with a Q-tip.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments. We look forward to your insights as to what else we should be discussing on a weekly basis.

We wish all reading this a Happy New Year and hope your year is off to a great start. We organized articles we found interesting by category (many correspond to existing sections of our academy (and are in bold).

Anthropology

• Viking dentistry was surprisingly advanced.

Astronomy

• NASA is using both Mars and Earth to test future Mars helicopter designs. “On Mars, you have the real off-world conditions you could never truly re-create here on Earth.”

Entomology

• Earliest-Known Fossil Mosquito Found in Lebanese Amber. The males of this species also appear to have fed on blood.
• As insect populations decline, some plants are becoming self-pollinating. This study was based on field pansies near Paris, France.

Geology

• 407-Million-Years-Old Microfossils Reveal Earliest-Known Disease-Causing Fungus. During the early Devonian Epoch.
• Most rare earths on Earth? Wyoming mine could soon be ranked number one for critical minerals. “Beyond raw volume, the Halleck Creek deposits are additionally valuable because of their unique composition and relative purity,…”

Herpetology

• Ongoing harlequin toad declines suggest the amphibian extinction crisis is still an emergency. Most species are threatened with extinction.
• Tiny fanged frog discovered in Southeast Asia (Sulawesi)
• Women in herpetology project highlights 50 stories from around the world.

Ichthyology

• Validation of the Use of Otoliths to Estimate Age and Growth of Larval Lake Whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis.

Things that make us go hmmm…

• Humans see brown eyed dogs as less threatening. We may have influenced the evolution of dog eye color.

Here are some of the articles we encountered recently. We organized them by category (many correspond to existing sections of our academy (and are in bold).

Anthropology

• Mesopotamian Bricks Reveal Anomaly In Earth’s Magnetic Field 3,000 Years Ago. Researchers examined 32 clay bricks inscribed with the names of 12 kings. Iron oxide grains in the tablets retain the direction and strength of the magnetic field when the bricks were fired. We encourage you to read the article to learn more.
• America’s native population arises from a single wave of Asian migration, suggest dental anthropologists. “For more than 50 years, dental anthropologists have studied variation in the shape of human teeth to study the patterns of migration that people took as they populated the world.” Results from these studies indicate that Native Americans came from one population which split from East Asian populations at one time.

Astronomy

• Sky This Month: December 2023. Jupiter is near its best for the year. Much more information is found in this article.

Entomology

• Beetle elytra: evolution, modifications and biological functions. This article is a synopsis of information concerning the hardened fore wings of beetles. Yes, very in depth, but a good overview of our present state of knowledge.
• Tap-dancing spider rediscovered after disappearing for 92 years. In Portugal of all places.

Geology

• Drones capture new clues about how water shapes mountain ranges over time. Penn State scientists used drones to map rock properties in central Taiwan.
• New unified theory shows how past landscapes drove the evolution of Earth’s rich diversity of life. This article discusses sediment “pulses” which affect the amount of biodiversity. Interesting read (if you are interested).

Herpetology

• The radiation continuum and the evolution of frog diversity. Over 1,200 frog species across 43 families are examined in this research paper.

Ichthyology

• A global biodiversity tipping point as first marine fish extinction declared. “The Java Stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) was known only from a single specimen collected in 1862 from a fish market in Jakarta, Indonesia.”

Things that make us go hmmm…

• Scientists claim they’ve had a 20 minute conversation with a WHALE – and say it could pave the way for conversations with aliens someday. Scientists (from SETI and UC Davis) had a 20 minute conversation with a humpback whale in SE Alaska recently. “In the absence of any aliens, the researchers hope to use whales to develop strategies for non-human communication.” What do you think?