 In new zealand,
Efforts to save one of the world’s rarest reptiles are underway
With conservation teams deploying extreme measures to
Keep the species from slipping into extinction.


 New Zealand Skink Lizards Face Extinction | Skinks Habitat Reduced to a Single Site

Jackie Chan may not be called an A-lister among Hollywood stars but he has a legendary status. The Kung Fu master has carved his niche by making films only he can make. The nimble-footed actor has acted in many films and is famous for doing his own stunts without a body double.

The superstar has got quite an unexpected tribute from India as Indian herpetologists have named a quick-on-its-foot gecko after Jackie Chan. The researchers have described this in journal Zoological Research.

The gecko is a type of lizard. The one named after Jackie Chan is one of 12 new gecko species found in India.

All these 12 species are endemic to the Western Ghats, a biodiversity-rich mountain range that runs parallel to India's western coast.

Saunak Pal of the Bombay Natural History Society has been quoted in media reports as saying that the gecko named after Jacki Chan would "spring from one rock to the other" and "crawl into the smallest of crevices to escape" researchers' attempts to catch it.

The lizard has been named Jackie’s day gecko (Cnemaspis jackieii).

Zeeshan Mirza, coauthor of the study told media outlets that naming animals in such way may help in people developing connect with the species. He has reportedly identified 60 new faunal species to date, including &nbsp;Salazar’s pit viper (Trimeresurus salazar), named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter universe.

Jackie Chan may not be called an A-lister among Hollywood stars but he has a legendary status. The Kung Fu master has carved his niche by making films only he can make.

Jackie Chan may not be called an A-lister among Hollywood stars but he has a legendary status. The Kung Fu master has carved his niche by making films only he can make. The nimble-footed actor has acted in many films and is famous for doing his own stunts without a body double. The superstar has got quite an unexpected tribute from India as Indian herpetologists have named a quick-on-its-foot gecko after Jackie Chan. The researchers have described this in journal Zoological Research. The gecko is a type of lizard. The one named after Jackie Chan is one of 12 new gecko species found in India. All these 12 species are endemic to the Western Ghats, a biodiversity-rich mountain range that runs parallel to India's western coast. Saunak Pal of the Bombay Natural History Society has been quoted in media reports as saying that the gecko named after Jacki Chan would "spring from one rock to the other" and "crawl into the smallest of crevices to escape" researchers' attempts to catch it. The lizard has been named Jackie’s day gecko (Cnemaspis jackieii). Zeeshan Mirza, coauthor of the study told media outlets that naming animals in such way may help in people developing connect with the species. He has reportedly identified 60 new faunal species to date, including Salazar’s pit viper (Trimeresurus salazar), named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter universe.

Indian researchers name a quick-moving gecko after Jackie Chan

A tiny gecko travelled all the way Barbados to Yorkshire as it comfortably sat in a woman’s bra during a long transatlantic flight.

Lisa Russell had carefully packed all her clothes and undergarments in her suitcase before leaving Barbados. However, when she arrived back in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, she got a surprise that she would have never expected.

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Russell was unpacking her suitcase after her holiday in the Caribbean when a tiny lizard started moving in one of her bras, sending Russell into a shock.

"When it moved, I started screaming. It is not what you expect to find in your bra after a 4,000-mile journey,"&nbsp;she said.

Russel, a 47-year-old resident of Thrybergh misjudged the lizard to be a speck and shook the garment to get rid of it. However, as soon as she shook it, she noticed the lizard.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/research-of-upside-down-rhino-wins-ig-nobel-prize-2021-412060" hreflang="en">Research of upside-down rhino wins Ig Nobel Prize 2021</a>

"The tiny lizard was lucky as the bra was on top of my suitcase on my clean pile. As it was so hot out there, I didn't bother wearing one,"&nbsp;she said.

She quickly informed the RSPCA, who then sent an officer to Ms Russell’s house to pick up the traveller reptile.

The reptile is healthy and unharmed, even after being packed in a suitcase for a long journey, the RSPCA said. Named 'Barbie', it is currently living with a specialist reptile keeper.

A tiny gecko travelled all the way Barbados to Yorkshire as it comfortably sat in a woman’s bra during a long transatlantic flight. Lisa Russell had carefully packed all her clothes and undergarments in her suitcase before leaving Barbados.

A tiny gecko travelled all the way Barbados to Yorkshire as it comfortably sat in a woman’s bra during a long transatlantic flight. Lisa Russell had carefully packed all her clothes and undergarments in her suitcase before leaving Barbados. However, when she arrived back in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, she got a surprise that she would have never expected. Also read | This asteroid may have formed its own moons Russell was unpacking her suitcase after her holiday in the Caribbean when a tiny lizard started moving in one of her bras, sending Russell into a shock. "When it moved, I started screaming. It is not what you expect to find in your bra after a 4,000-mile journey," she said. Russel, a 47-year-old resident of Thrybergh misjudged the lizard to be a speck and shook the garment to get rid of it. However, as soon as she shook it, she noticed the lizard. Also read | Research of upside-down rhino wins Ig Nobel Prize 2021 "The tiny lizard was lucky as the bra was on top of my suitcase on my clean pile. As it was so hot out there, I didn't bother wearing one," she said. She quickly informed the RSPCA, who then sent an officer to Ms Russell’s house to pick up the traveller reptile. The reptile is healthy and unharmed, even after being packed in a suitcase for a long journey, the RSPCA said. Named 'Barbie', it is currently living with a specialist reptile keeper.

Wanderlust: Barbie, the tiny lizard, travels from Barbados to UK in woman's bra

A team of scientists have discovered a tiny beetle in fossilised droppings of the Silesaurus opolensis - a lizard-like creature related to the dinosaurs. It was discovered when the scientists were scanning the inside of the poo, using special technology, to find more about what the animal ate when they discovered the special beetle.

A team of scientists have discovered a tiny beetle in fossilised droppings of the Silesaurus opolensis - a lizard-like creature related to the dinosaurs. It was discovered when the scientists were scanning the inside of the poo, using special technology, to find more about what the animal ate when they discovered the special beetle. It was small, had a beak, weighed around 15kg and lived in what is now the country of Poland around 230 million years ago. Martin Qvarnstrom, from Uppsala University in Sweden, also one of the scientists behind the discovery, was quoted by BBC saying that, "We were absolutely amazed by the abundance and fantastic preservation of the beetles in the coprolite fragment". He added, "There are heaps of things you can study based on fossilised droppings". Also Read | New dinosaur species discovered in Australia declared the continent's largest As per researchers, the beetle was too small to have been the only prey for ancient lizards. Therefore, it has been concluded that it may have been swallowed alongside larger beetles. However, the remains of those insects did not end up in droppings in a recognisable shape. Usually, creatures like it would be preserved in amber instead but this beetle is really well preserved inside the droppings with its legs and antennae fully intact. Meanwhile, earlier in June, a huge dinosaur discovered in “the Land Down Under” was identified as a new species by palaeontologists. The dinosaur, newly named as “Australotitan cooperensis” roamed the Earth about 100 million years ago and constituted the “titanosaur” family. The first description of the species comes 15 years after its bones were uncovered in the country. Palaeontologists estimate that the species was 5-6.5 metres (16-21 feet) high and possessed a length of 25-30 metres (82-98 feet), making it the largest dinosaurs species found on the continent. "Based on the preserved limb size comparisons, this new titanosaur is estimated to be in the top five largest in the world," Robyn Mackenzie, a director of the Eromanga Natural History Museum was quoted as saying by AFP

Beetle discovered in 230 million-year-old lizard poo, reveal researchers

The arrival of European colonists led to a mass extinction of between 50 to 70 per cent of the snake and lizard populations of the Guadeloupe Islands, according to a large fossil study published on Wednesday.

The paper, which appeared in the journal&nbsp;Science&nbsp;Advances, highlights human impacts on animals that are often seen as less "charismatic" and therefore neglected in scientific study, its authors wrote.

Corentin Bochaton of the Max Planck Institute for the&nbsp;Science&nbsp;of Human History and the Centre National de la&nbsp;Recherche Scientifique&nbsp;said that he and his colleagues studied 43,000 reptile bone remains from the Caribbean archipelago's six islands.

"What we found is that we have massive biodiversity in the past record, with several species we were unaware were present there in the past, and also several species that were never described before," lead author Bochaton said.

The team analyzed the remains of 16 taxa, or animal groups across 31 sites from Guadeloupe, which is a part of France.

These were sorted into four periods: the Late Pleistocene (32,000 to 11,650 years ago), the Holocene before the arrival of humans (starting 11,650 years ago), the Indigenous habitation period, and the modern period.

By carbon dating the remains and their surrounding sediment, they were able to reconstruct the region's evolutionary history, and found that the mass extinction occurred over only the last 500 years.

The islands could have been first inhabited by humans as far back as 5,000 years ago. Columbus arrived in Guadeloupe in 1493, while French colonisation started in 1635 and led to the disappearance of Guadeloupe's indigenous people within 20 years.

"We observed no extinction in the Amerindian time," said Bochaton.&nbsp;

The fossil record also showed reptile species were able to survive the climate transition at the end of the last Ice Age when this region became warmer and wetter.

As to what led to the eradication of species such as the curlytail roquet and the Marie-Galante Boa, the authors believe the colonists' cats, mongeese, racoons and even rats were mostly to blame.

Smaller reptiles fared better than the larger ones, which could be indicative of the invasive predators' preferences.

Their data also revealed that tree-dwelling species were less impacted -- which Bochaton said might be down to the role of agriculture in the destruction of the ground-dwellers' habitats.

Bochaton said the work highlighted the importance of using fossil data to determine how humans impacted a region's biodiversity.&nbsp;

In the case of Guadeloupe, the transformation was so fast and so violent it occurred before contemporary naturalists had time to document the fauna.

The research also comes at a time of increasing recognition that reptiles,&nbsp;long victims of "taxonomic chauvinism" in&nbsp;science, have an important role to play in ecosystems, from seed dispersal and pollination to important ecosystem engineers.

The arrival of European colonists led to a mass extinction of between 50 to 70 per cent of the snake and lizard populations of the Guadeloupe Islands, according to a large fossil study published on Wednesday.

The arrival of European colonists led to a mass extinction of between 50 to 70 per cent of the snake and lizard populations of the Guadeloupe Islands, according to a large fossil study published on Wednesday. The paper, which appeared in the journal Science Advances, highlights human impacts on animals that are often seen as less "charismatic" and therefore neglected in scientific study, its authors wrote. Corentin Bochaton of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique said that he and his colleagues studied 43,000 reptile bone remains from the Caribbean archipelago's six islands. "What we found is that we have massive biodiversity in the past record, with several species we were unaware were present there in the past, and also several species that were never described before," lead author Bochaton said. The team analyzed the remains of 16 taxa, or animal groups across 31 sites from Guadeloupe, which is a part of France. These were sorted into four periods: the Late Pleistocene (32,000 to 11,650 years ago), the Holocene before the arrival of humans (starting 11,650 years ago), the Indigenous habitation period, and the modern period. By carbon dating the remains and their surrounding sediment, they were able to reconstruct the region's evolutionary history, and found that the mass extinction occurred over only the last 500 years. The islands could have been first inhabited by humans as far back as 5,000 years ago. Columbus arrived in Guadeloupe in 1493, while French colonisation started in 1635 and led to the disappearance of Guadeloupe's indigenous people within 20 years. "We observed no extinction in the Amerindian time," said Bochaton. The fossil record also showed reptile species were able to survive the climate transition at the end of the last Ice Age when this region became warmer and wetter. As to what led to the eradication of species such as the curlytail roquet and the Marie-Galante Boa, the authors believe the colonists' cats, mongeese, racoons and even rats were mostly to blame. Smaller reptiles fared better than the larger ones, which could be indicative of the invasive predators' preferences. Their data also revealed that tree-dwelling species were less impacted -- which Bochaton said might be down to the role of agriculture in the destruction of the ground-dwellers' habitats. Bochaton said the work highlighted the importance of using fossil data to determine how humans impacted a region's biodiversity. In the case of Guadeloupe, the transformation was so fast and so violent it occurred before contemporary naturalists had time to document the fauna. The research also comes at a time of increasing recognition that reptiles, long victims of "taxonomic chauvinism" in science, have an important role to play in ecosystems, from seed dispersal and pollination to important ecosystem engineers.

European colonists led to mass extinction of reptiles, says study

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