https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Snakes may well be one of nature's greatest predators, capable of eating whole deer or even crocodiles, but just as impressive is that they can go months, or even a whole year, without a single meal. And now an international team of scientists thinks they know how they do it. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-snakes-months-meals-genetic-explanation.html Plants & Animals Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:20:05 EST news689431162 Imagine sipping a latte while stroking an owl or watching an otter play at your feet. This is the promise of exotic animal cafes, a trend that blends coffee culture with wildlife encounters. But behind the Instagram-worthy photos lies a troubling reality—the welfare of the animals themselves. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-exotic-animal-cafes-cute-trend.html Plants & Animals Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:10:01 EST news684756148 Reptiles get a bad rap. As symbols of evil or villainy in Western culture, they are often linked to sin and betrayal, an association that dates all the way back to the origins of Judeochristian theology. This is not the case in all cultures though. Many other traditions see crocodiles, snakes and turtles as gods, guardians or symbols of transformation. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-reptiles-neglected-mistreated.html Plants & Animals Wed, 10 Dec 2025 11:36:16 EST news684588962 Rocks have been found to hold many traces of Earth's ancient history, but usually geologists have to seek them out. Every once in a while, however, these imprints of times past are found by unsuspecting visitors. This occurred in 2019, when a group of free climbers exploring the slopes of Monte Conero in Italy came across a large slab of rock covered in imprints reminiscent of a herd of running animals. One of the climbers ended up showing photos of the imprints to a geologist, which resulted in a study of the area. That study is now published in the journal Cretaceous Research. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-free-climbers-remnants-ancient-sea.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 03 Dec 2025 10:33:48 EST news683980405 A growing exotic pet trade has conservationists calling for stronger regulations to protect the reptiles, birds and other animals in the wild that are increasingly showing up for sale on internet marketplaces and becoming popular on social media. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-endangered-species-convention-exotic-pet.html Ecology Tue, 02 Dec 2025 04:21:24 EST news683871650 For some people, the mention of voodoo evokes something like a scene from the James Bond novel "Live and Let Die," featuring occult ceremonies with snakes and animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice was widespread among human societies thousands of years ago, but declined with the rise of Christianity. However, the ritual sacrifice and slaughter of animals persist in many religious practices today, including in voodoo, which spread with the slave trade from West Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-voodoo-economics-wildlife-ritual-africa.html Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Nov 2025 09:40:07 EST news683285622 More than 30,000 teeth, bones and other fossils from a 249 million-year-old community of extinct marine reptiles, amphibians, bony fish and sharks have been discovered on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen. These record the earliest radiation of land-living animals into oceanic ecosystems following cataclysmic extinction and extreme global warming at the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-oldest-oceanic-reptile-ecosystem-age.html Ecology Thu, 13 Nov 2025 15:45:44 EST news682270828 A new study led by the University of Oxford has revealed that reptiles confined to islands are facing a double jeopardy. Despite being more likely to go extinct than mainland species, they remain largely ignored by researchers compared to their mainland counterparts. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-island-reptiles-extinction-global.html Plants & Animals Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:10:01 EST news681584461 Unless you've owned reptiles, you might not know that many of them "pee" crystals. Researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society investigated the solid urine of more than 20 reptile species and found spheres of uric acid in all of them. The work reveals how reptiles uniquely package up and eliminate crystalline waste, which could inform future treatments for human conditions that also involve uric acid crystals: kidney stones and gout. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-scientists-reptile-pee-crystals.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:00:01 EDT news680170201 Reptiles could overtake amphibians as the highest priority for conservation among vertebrates as threats like climate change and invasive species worsen in the future, according to a new conservation index tool developed by Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and Université Paris-Saclay, France, and colleagues, published in PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-future-focused-index-reptiles-highest.html Plants & Animals Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:00:01 EDT news680169301 An international research team from Switzerland and Germany, led by Gaël Spicher (JURASSICA Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland), has described a new ichthyosaur species based on fossils curated at the Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken (Bayreuth, Germany). The study is published in the open-access journal Fossil Record. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ichthyosaur-species-robust-ribs-jurassic.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:22:02 EDT news678100921 What happens when a species has not been seen by anyone for decades? Environmentalists think of these as "lost species." We do not know if they've gone extinct, or if it's simply that nobody has looked for them. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-results-south-african-lizard-species.html Plants & Animals Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:35:41 EDT news672496493 Body coverings such as hair and feathers have played a central role in evolution. They enabled warm-bloodedness by insulating the body, and were used for courtship, display, deterrence of enemies and, in the case of feathers, flight. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-feather-crest-triassic-reptile-ideas.html Evolution Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:00:03 EDT news672385926 Animal behavior and cognition experts at the University of Lincoln, U.K., have made new discoveries about reptile sentience which could reshape how they are cared for in captivity. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-tortoises-similar.html Plants & Animals Tue, 08 Jul 2025 06:51:05 EDT news671176262 Paleontologists have identified a new ancient reptile from the Solnhofen limestone slabs, thanks to a chance discovery. A Ph.D. student recently found the counterpart of the original fossil at the Natural History Museum in London. The research team published their findings in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-sides-fossil-story-small-arboreal.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 02 Jul 2025 07:42:03 EDT news670660921 Climate change and habitat loss are affecting animal populations around the world and reptiles such as South Australia's own endangered pygmy bluetongue are susceptible to higher temperatures and declining long-term rainfall trends. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-homes-endangered-native-skink-aim.html Plants & Animals Fri, 20 Jun 2025 09:24:04 EDT news669630242 The forerunners of dinosaurs and crocodiles in the Triassic period were able to migrate across areas of the ancient world deemed completely inhospitable to life, new research suggests. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-triassic-reptiles-mile-hellish-conditions.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 11 Jun 2025 05:00:09 EDT news668762881 Amid a patchwork of fields, towns, and winding rivers and roads in central Brazil stands a monolithic oval-shaped plateau. This conspicuous feature, the Serra de Caldas (also known as the Caldas Novas dome and Caldas Ridge), is perched about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the surrounding landscape in the state of Goiás. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-image-central-brazil-cerrado.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:10:03 EDT news668773610 Naming all the creatures and plants in nature is no small task. Fortunate Phaka is a zoologist who has conducted the first comprehensive analysis of naming and classification of frogs and reptiles in nine South African cultures. The list includes 136 frog and 407 reptile species that have been scientifically described. He explains why it's important to record all the species names that people use in their own languages. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-south-africa-frogs-reptiles-local.html Plants & Animals Tue, 29 Apr 2025 12:35:04 EDT news665148902 The life of a 166-million-year-old reptile has been turned upside down. While Marmoretta oxoniensis was believed to have swum in ancient lagoons, new research reveals it spent its time climbing trees instead. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-early-british-lizard-climb-trees.html Evolution Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:00:04 EDT news664099201 Reptiles living in open habitats generally have brighter coloration than species living in denser vegetation. This is shown in a new study from Lund University in Sweden. The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that changes in habitat and climate over millions of years have prompted animals to adapt their coloration in order to survive. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-reptiles-habitats-display-brighter.html Plants & Animals Mon, 07 Apr 2025 11:32:54 EDT news663244363 Animals have to make strategic decisions when foraging, especially when they are very hungry. One of these decisions involves choosing between predictable (less risky) and unpredictable (more risky) sources of food, especially if the latter promises greater reward. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-reptiles-risky-food-sources-energy.html Plants & Animals Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:44:03 EST news659868241 Researchers from The University of Western Australia found lizard traps constructed by First Nations people on Western Australia's south coast create reptile habitat, which can guide granite outcrop conservation. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-lizards-basking-built-nations-people.html Plants & Animals Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:37:02 EST news659633821 With reptiles gaining popularity as pets in the U.K., an understanding of their behavioral and welfare requirements has never been more critical. In contrast to what we know about the positive effects of providing enriched environments for popular pet species such as dogs and cats, there is a significant lack of scientific research regarding the best enrichments to improve housing for pet reptiles. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-reveals-pet-reptile-welfare.html Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Jan 2025 10:32:48 EST news657196363 In steamy Texas summers, alligators glide through swamps and lakes, occasionally frightening suburban Dallas dwellers. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-cold-texas-winter-blast-alligators.html Ecology Fri, 24 Jan 2025 06:50:01 EST news656923422 Taiwan plans to cull up to 120,000 green iguanas, with supporters urging humane methods to bring down the animal's population, which is wreaking havoc on the island's agricultural sector. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-taiwan-cull-green-iguanas-due.html Ecology Thu, 23 Jan 2025 09:54:14 EST news656848447 Predators at the top of a marine food chain 130 million years ago ruled with more power than any modern species, McGill research into a marine ecosystem from the Cretaceous period revealed. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-apex-predators-prehistoric-colombian-oceans.html Ecology Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:39:41 EST news655994377 People around the world are dealing with drought, so it's not shocking that it affects wildlife, too: lack of moisture contributes to habitat loss, affects how animals compete for resources, and leads to dehydration and heat stress. The surprising part? The extreme degree to which many animals may need to adapt. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-drought-frequency-poses-threats-wildlife.html Plants & Animals Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:13:03 EST news653569976 A new species of ancient reptile has been named after spending more than 200 million years buried in the ground. Threordatoth chasmatos was one of the last survivors of the procolophonids, a group of lizard-like animals that were once widespread during the Triassic. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-triassic-reptile-unusual-jaws-species.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 06 Dec 2024 09:45:04 EST news652700701 Researchers are providing new information and guidance on monitoring and managing viruses that cause life-threatening diseases in amphibians, reptiles and fish, as detailed in the second edition of Ranaviruses: Emerging Pathogens of Ectothermic Vertebrates. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-latest-guidance-ranaviruses-amphibians-reptiles.html Ecology Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:53:03 EST news651171181