Snakes are familiar, distinctive—and often feared—reptiles. And they've been around for a long time: body fossils found in the UK, Portugal and the US stretch all the way back to the late Jurassic period, about 150 million ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 6, 2023
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256
Around the world, natural history museums hold a treasure trove of knowledge about Earth's animals. But much of the precious information is sealed off to genetic scientists because formalin, the chemical often used to preserve ...
Evolution
Oct 3, 2023
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143
A recent study published in Science Advances sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasize the significance of studying both the soft parts ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 27, 2023
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128
Across the animal kingdom there are creatures that move through their environments not by walking or running or climbing but instead by simply changing the shape of their bodies. This kind of locomotion is found in snakes ...
Mathematics
Aug 10, 2023
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241
An international team of researchers has uncovered "unprecedented" snake venom resistance in an unexpected species—the legless amphibians known as caecilians. The research has been published in the International Journal ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 24, 2023
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440
Climate change is not only making Georgia hotter but also increasing the likelihood of snake bite, according to a new study. Every degree Celsius of daily temperature increase corresponds with about a 6% increase in snake ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 13, 2023
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2
A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that the annulated sea snake, a species of venomous snake found in ocean waters around Australia and Asia, appears to have evolved to ...
Evolution
Jul 13, 2023
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67
When a creature's stress levels decrease because of the presence of a companion, it is known as social buffering. In highly social animals, such as mammals and birds, this phenomenon is well studied. Now, researchers have ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 6, 2023
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862
A team of geneticists and evolutionary specialists at the University of Geneva working with a colleague from the University of Zurich report that the hexagonal patterns seen on the backs and sides of some snakes are not self-organizing. ...
Snakes bite 5.4 million people each year—and roughly half are injected with venom, according to the WHO. Between 81,000 and 138,000 people die, while around three times as many suffer amputations and other permanent disabilities. ...
Biochemistry
Feb 23, 2023
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93
