Tag: reptiles and amphibians

85-year-old woman killed after incident with alligator in St. Lucie, Florida | CNN

CNN
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An 85-year-old woman was killed Monday after an incident involving an alligator in southeast Florida, according to wildlife officials.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office responded Monday to a 911 call about an apparent alligator bite in St. Lucie, Florida, the FWC said.

FWC spokesperson Arielle Callender told CNN the woman was with her dog when the incident happened and the dog survived, although its condition was currently unknown.

CNN affiliate WPTV reported an alligator grabbed the woman’s dog, and when she tried to get the dog back, she somehow fell victim to the gator. St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara told WPTV he estimated the alligator to be close to 11-feet long.

The woman was recovered and the alligator involved in the incident was captured by a contracted nuisance alligator trapper, FWC said.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the victim,” the FWC statement said.

According to the statement, serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in the state of Florida.

“The FWC places the highest priority on public safety and administers a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) to address complaints concerning specific alligators believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property,” the statement said.

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February 20, 2023
Unusual dinosaur fossil discovery made in India | CNN

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Paleontologists working in central India have made a rare discovery — a fossilized dinosaur hatchery with 92 nests and 256 eggs belonging to colonies of giant plant-eating titanosaurs.

A study of the nests and their bowling ball-size eggs has revealed intimate details about the lives of the colossal, long-necked sauropods that lumbered across what’s now central India more than 66 million years ago.

The eggs, which ranged between 15 centimeters and 17 centimeters (6 inches and 6.7 inches) in diameter, likely belonged to a number of titanosaur species. The number of eggs in each nest ranged from one to 20, said lead study author Guntupalli Prasad, a paleontologist in the department of geology at the University of Delhi. Many of the nests were found close together.

The findings suggested titanosaurs, among the largest dinosaurs to have lived, were not always the most attentive parents, Prasad said.

“Since titanosaurs were huge in size, closely spaced nests would not have allowed them to visit the nests to maneuver and incubate the eggs or feed the hatchlings … as the parents would step on the eggs and trample them.”

Finding a very large number of dinosaur nests is unusual, as preservation conditions have to be “just so” to have turned all the delicate eggs to fossils, said Dr. Darla Zelenitsky, an associate professor of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Calgary in Canada, who studies dinosaur eggs. Zelenitsky was not involved in the research.

The first dinosaur eggs in the region were discovered in the 1990s, but the latest study focused on a nesting site in Dhar district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where excavations and fieldwork took place in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

The eggs discovered there were so well preserved that the team was able to detect degraded protein fragments from the eggshells.

Titanosaurs’ nesting behaviors shared characteristics with that of today’s birds and crocodiles, the research suggested.

From the close proximity of the nests, researchers inferred the dinosaurs laid eggs together in colonies or rookeries, as many birds do in the present day.

“Such nesting colonies would have been a sight to see back in the Cretaceous where the landscape would have been dotted by a huge number of large dinosaur nests,” Zelenitsky said.

Prasad said one particular egg — known as an ovum-in-ovo, or egg-in-egg — the team had studied showed birdlike reproductive behavior and indicated that, similar to birds, some dinosaurs may have laid eggs sequentially. Ovum-in-ovo forms happen in birds when an egg becomes embedded in another egg still in the process of forming before they are laid.

“Sequential laying is the release of eggs one by one with some time gap in between two laying events. This is seen in birds. Modern reptiles, for example turtles and crocodiles, on the other hand, lay all eggs together as a clutch,” he said.

The eggs would have been laid in marshy flatlands and buried in shallow pits, akin to the nesting sites of modern-day crocodiles, Prasad said. Similar to crocodile hatcheries, nesting close to water may have been important to prevent the eggs from drying out and offspring dying prior to hatching, Zelenitsky added.

But unlike birds and crocodiles, which both incubate their eggs, Prasad said that, based on the physical characteristics of the nests, titanosaurs likely laid their eggs and then left the baby dinos to fend for themselves — although more data is needed to be sure.

Other dinosaurs were thought to be more attentive parents. A dinosaur was discovered in Mongolia in the 1920s, for example, lying near a nest of eggs thought to belong to a rival. Paleontologists at the time assumed the animal had died while attempting to plunder the nest — and named the creature oviraptor, or “egg thief.”

The so-called dinosaur thief’s reputation wasn’t restored until the 1990s, when another discovery revealed the eggs were, in fact, its own and that the creature likely sat upon them in a neatly arranged nest.

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January 18, 2023
Georgia Bulldogs crush the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 to win second consecutive College Football Playoff National Championship | CNN

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The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs scored on their first six drives and dominated No. 3 Texas Christian University 65-7 to win their second consecutive College Football Playoff championship game on Monday night in Inglewood, California.

In the convincing win, Heisman Trophy-finalist quarterback Stetson Bennett passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more to lead the Bulldogs (15-0), who became the first team to win back-to-back national titles since Alabama in 2011 and 2012.

Bennett finished 18-of-25 with 304 yards passing in his final collegiate contest. He left the game with 13:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Georgia built a 38-7 halftime lead, scoring the final 28 points before intermission after TCU’s Max Duggan, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, rushed for a touchdown that made it 10-7 with 5:45 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs controlled play and the clock in the half, having the ball for almost 19 of the first 30 minutes and outgaining the Horned Frogs (13-2) 354 yards to just 121.

The onslaught continued in the second half until Georgia head coach Kirby Smart effectively called off the dogs and began using more second-team players in the fourth quarter. By then it was 52-7.

Georgia’s Ladd McConkey, a sophomore wide receiver, had two touchdown grabs, including a wide-open, 37-yard reception that brought the first six of the Bulldogs’ 55 consecutive points.

Sophomore tight end Brock Bowers, the national player of the year at his position, had one touchdown catch in his seven receptions and 152 yards receiving.

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January 9, 2023
A 16-foot reticulated python was rescued in Austin, Texas after being missing for months | CNN

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An “unhappy” 16-foot albino reticulated python was rescued by an animal shelter in Austin, Texas on Monday – after being missing for months.

The Austin Animal Center wrote on its verified Facebook page that they received a call about the huge reptile on Monday.

“Due to the temperatures the snake was lethargic enough that a couple of residents were able to catch it and keep it in their garage,” wrote the municipal shelter, which is run by the city of Austin.

And whereas often callers exaggerate the size of snakes when calling the shelter, in this case the python was just as big as the callers thought.

Residents said they had been seeing the massive snake in the neighborhood since July, according to the Facebook post. The shelter put the snake in temporary overnight housing, then asked the Austin Zoo to provide “more appropriate” housing for the time being.

In the meantime, shelter staff members recalled a social media post they’d seen months previously about a missing python. Some sleuthing led them to a post on community app Nextdoor, which included information about the owner of the python.

Shelter staff contacted the owner, who identified the snake based on a “unique feature.”

And they found out the owner of the snake – a female named Snow – had been visiting Austin from Dallas when a thief broke into his car, stealing a tote bag with Snow inside. It’s unclear at what point the thief let the snake free to wander around Austin.

Now snake and owner have been happily reunited, according to the Facebook post.

Reticulated pythons are one of the world’s longest snake species, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They can exceed 20 feet at their longest. In the wild, the snakes are found in southern and southeast Asia, although they are bought and sold as pets around the world.

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December 24, 2022
Ancient giant sea turtle with never-before-seen features found in Europe, scientists say | CNN

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Long ago, gigantic marine turtles swam the Earth’s seas. Until recently, these prehistoric giants, reaching lengths of over 3 meters (10 feet) from head to tail, had been thought to be found only in waters surrounding North America.

Now, scientists have discovered a previously unknown species — the largest European sea turtle ever to be identified.

Initially found by a hiker who stumbled upon the remains in 2016 in the Pyrenees mountains of northern Spain, the species has been given the name Leviathanochelys aenigmatica. “Leviathan” is the biblical term for a sea monster, an allusion to the creature’s large body size, while “chelys” translates to turtle and “aenigmatica” translates to enigma — in reference to the turtle’s peculiar characteristics, wrote the authors of a paper published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The unusual animal’s presence in this part of the prehistoric world revealed that giant turtles were more common than previously thought, according to the study.

Before the discovery, the largest European species measured at just 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length, similar to today’s leatherback sea turtles, which weigh an average of 300 to 500 kilograms (660 to 1,100 pounds) and measure 1 to 2 meters (or between 3 and 6.5 feet), according to the Smithsonian Institute.

The bone fragments of this newly identified species, however, have led scientists to estimate that Leviathanochelys had a 3.7-meter-long body (12.1 feet), almost as big as an average sedan.

“We never thought it was possible to find something like this. After quite a long study of the bone fragments, we realized that there were some features that were totally different, not present in any other fossil of a turtle species discovered so far,” said Albert Sellés, coauthor of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology in Spain.

Originally, researchers believed the bones belonged to a different kind of animal, according to Sellés.

“It is quite common to find bone fragments, a lot of them. But most of them are uninformative,” Sellés said. “It is quite rare to discover something that really tells you a little bit of the life of the past.”

A local museum and Catalonia’s Ministry of Culture had originally collected the bone specimens, but they remained unstudied for nearly five years. When Sellés and the other researchers began their work studying the bones in 2021, they realized they were looking at a species of marine turtle completely new to science, and quickly went back to the Pyrenees site to perform more excavations.

There, more fragments of the specimen, including pieces of the turtle’s pelvis and carapace — the part of the shell that covered the creature’s back — were discovered. With these finds, the scientists observed more features not previously seen in any living or dead turtle species.

“The main differences of this new fossil are related to the pelvic region. More specifically, to a couple of bony bumps present in the anterior part of the pelvis, which we suspect are related to some kind of muscle that controls the movement of the abdominal region of the turtle,” Sellés said.

This feature or muscle most likely impacted the turtles’ breathing capacity, allowing them to hold their breath longer than other turtle species, in order to swim deep in the ocean to find food or escape predators, according to Sellés.

The research team estimated the ancient animal lived during the Campanian Age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch, making it at least 72 million years old.

The largest turtle on record, called Archelon, lived some 70 million years ago and grew to be about 4.5 meters (15 feet) long. Before this recent discovery, all prehistoric giant marine turtle discoveries were part of the same lineage as Archelon.

“We’re proving that turtles could achieve really gigantic proportions in different times, and also in different families,” Sellés said. “For the first time, we found a (giant) turtle that doesn’t belong to this family.”

The researchers hope to return to the fossil site again to look for more bones, as they are not certain that all fragments from this specimen have been discovered, according to Sellés.

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November 29, 2022
A dogwalker caught an alligator in rural Idaho | CNN

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A person walking their dog in rural Idaho was in for quite a surprise when they encountered an alligator, hundreds of miles from the coast where the reptiles are usually found.

Fish and Game Officer Brian Marek received a call Thursday evening from a person who was walking their dog in New Plymouth, Idaho, according to a statement from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

“They spotted something moving in the brush and discovered the 3.5-foot alligator,” said the department in the statement.

The resident apparently captured the gator, put it in a horse trailer, and called the department, which picked it up the next morning and moved it to a Fish and Game facility where it is currently being housed, according to the statement.

The agency said it is investigating the alligator’s origins and urged anyone with information to contact the Idaho Fish and Game Southwest Regional Office.

“In all likelihood, this alligator got loose from someone, and we are interested in finding the owner,” Regional Conservation Officer Matt O’Connell said in the statement.

It is illegal to own alligators without a permit in Idaho or to release captive crocodilians – the family to which alligators belong – into the wild, according to the statement.

Adult alligators can grow to be about 8 to 11 feet long on average. The large reptiles tend to be found in on the east and Gulf coasts, as far north as North Carolina and as far west as eastern Texas. Florida and Louisiana have the country’s two highest alligator populations, with over a million living in each state, according to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries.

The species are not found in the wild in Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game website.

New Plymouth is about 50 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho and has a population of less than 2,000 people.

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October 22, 2022
Dumpy, the giant frog that went viral on TikTok, is actually fake — well, kinda | CNN

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A video of a massive, banana-guzzling frog, easily the size of its owner’s head, garnered over 20 million views on TikTok. But it was all thanks to movie magic, according to its creator.

The video inspired shock and amazement. Posted to TikTok on Thursday, the clip shows videographer Lucas Peterson touching and feeding a huge amphibian named Dumpy.

But, as the Minnesota-based content creator explained to CNN, Dumpy, a 4-year-old Australian green tree frog, is actually only about the size of his palm. Peterson edited the video in Adobe Premiere to make him appear much larger.

There are also a “whole lot of perspective tricks going on” to help the video appear realistic, Peterson said.

He said he hoped to inspire debate over whether or not the clip was real – this kind of ambiguity increases engagement on his content. “It causes a question and more interaction, debate over whether it’s real or fake,” he said. He previously posted a similarly edited video of the supersized frog.

But still, he was surprised by the massive reach of Thursday’s enlarged Dumpy video. “I didn’t expect people to go that wild over a giant frog,” he said.

Peterson explained that the video was edited in the description of the original TikTok, writing: “His real size is about 4-5 inches he’s enlarged with vfx perspective tricks. I did all my editing in adobe premiere.” However, his disclaimer was buried around halfway into the video description – and as Peterson told CNN, copies of his original video without the caption also began circulating on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, leading many viewers to believe the clip was real.

But the video’s viral fame has given Peterson an opportunity to share information about his semi-aquatic pets, he said. He maintains a “paludarium,” a kind of enclosed terrarium with aquatic features, that is home to Dumpy and two salamanders.

“This opened the door to help educate people about how great tanks and amphibians are,” he said. “It’s kind of a niche hobby.”

In the future, he plans to release more content starring Dumpy and his other amphibians. “Dumpy is still the same loveable frog you see on the screen, the only thing that’s different is he was enlarged,” he said.

So, while you don’t have to watch out for oversized frogs anytime soon, you might want to watch out for some editing in the next unbelievable viral video you see.

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October 9, 2022