Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 19, 2023

1st gene-edited snakes use mysterious 'Turing patterns' to achieve near-perfect hexagonal scales

For the first time ever, scientists have created genetically modified snakes. The CRISPR-edited reptiles are providing new insight into how corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) develop their precisely patterned scales. Much like feathers on birds or hairs on mammals, snake scales are the result of placodes — small, thickened structures on...

Jun 26, 2023

120-year-old Cassius is pushing limit of crocodile longevity — and he's got 'years to come,' expert says

Cassius, a 120-year-old crocodile living in captivity in Australia, is happy and healthy and will live for years to come, experts who conducted his annual health check say. Cassius is such a magnificent, beautiful boy, Sally Isberg, managing director at the Center for Crocodile Research in Australia who led the...

Jul 5, 2023

Watch 2 giant, highly venomous black mambas fighting in someone's backyard

Two huge, highly venomous black mambas — both over 8 feet (2.4 meters) long — have been filmed in a fierce wrestling match in a person's backyard. The males fought for over 30 minutes in Queensburgh, South Africa. The pair were filmed in a twisted embrace as they attempted to...

Jul 11, 2023

Enormous Burmese python killed in Florida Everglades was about to lay 60 eggs

A huge Burmese python has been caught in Florida with a clutch of 60 eggs that were just days from being laid. Hunter Mike Kimmel captured and killed the 16-foot-long (5 meters) snake in the Everglades, where the invasive species has been wreaking havoc on local ecosystems for decades. A...

Jul 31, 2023

Long-held myth says Hurricane Andrew sparked Florida's Burmese python problem. Is it true?

On Aug. 4, hunters in southern Florida will begin a cull of Burmese pythons as part of an annual competition to try and keep the invasive snakes' population in check. Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) are native to southeast Asia, where they slink through thick jungles, grasslands and swamps. But these...

Aug 9, 2023

Crocodiles are drawn to the wails of crying human babies and infant primates

Nile crocodiles respond to the sound of human babies crying, as well as the cries of infant chimpanzees and bonobos, a new study finds. What's more, the crocodiles seemed to be most responsive to higher-intensity cries — and may even be better at picking up on the level of distress...

Aug 12, 2023

How do rattlesnakes rattle?

The sound of a rattlesnake's rattle is perhaps the most frightening sound you could hear on a hike. But how and why do these snakes make this iconic noise? Everything tells us that they rattle to alert predators, David Pfennig, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina...

Aug 18, 2023

10 of the most venomous snakes on the planet

They hiss, they slither and unfortunately for humans and unsuspecting prey, they bite. Venomous snakes bite about 5.4 million people every year, resulting in between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Their secret weapon is of course venom, which contains toxic substances produced in a modified...

Sep 8, 2023

Move over, python — this tiny snake holds the record for swallowing the largest prey whole relative to body size

Snakes are known for gulping down truly gargantuan meals. However, one species of serpent outpaces them all, consuming the largest prey relative to its size of any known snake — and it's not the python. Known as the Gans' egg-eater (Dasypeltis gansi), this skinny, nonvenomous African snake has a gape...

Sep 11, 2023

Ancient sea monsters grew their long necks super fast after Great Dying by adding more vertebrae

Millions of years ago, as dinosaur giants were stomping around on land, other giant reptiles were dominating the oceans — and some of them, like plesiosaurs and similar animals, grew extremely long, snake-like necks. Now, scientists have discovered how some of these early marine reptiles evolved these lengthy necks rather...

Mar 15, 2024

What does python taste like? Because it could be slithering onto our dinner plates.

Python meat is a low-effort and sustainable protein alternative that could soon slither onto our dinner plates, scientists suggest. The researchers argue there are a plethora of benefits to farming pythons, including the snakes' ability to fast for extended periods of time, their low space and water requirements and minimal...

Nov 5, 2018

Man Dies 8 Years After Swallowing a Live Slug That Left Him Paralyzed

In 2010, a teenage rugby player in Australia named Sam Ballard accepted an unusual dare at a party: swallow a live garden slug. The experience left him paralyzed and with significant brain damage, and on Friday (Nov. 2), Ballard died in a Sydney hospital at the age of 28. The...

Mar 30, 2019

Gila Monster Photos: The Sluggish and Scaly Sweethearts of the American Desert

Modern-day monsters (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher)Monsters live in the normally dry, desert landscapes of the Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern arid regions of Mexico. They belong to an ancient family of lizards called Helodermatidae which is a class of venomous...

Mar 8, 2021

This sea slug can chop off its head and grow an entire new body, twice

Two species of sea slugs can pop off their heads and regrow their entire bodies from the noggin down, scientists in Japan recently discovered. This incredible feat of regeneration can be achieved in just a couple of weeks and is absolutely mind-blowing. Most cases of animal regeneration — replacing damaged...

Jul 13, 2022

Cool Video: Sea Slug Dance Reveals Primitive Learning

An attempt by one slug species to eat another ends in a flamboyant dance by the potential prey — and in a learning experience for the hungry predator. A new video shows this interaction, which reveals that the predator sea slug, Pleurobranchaea californica is cleverer than previously believed. The slug,...