March 1, 2006 - 7:34PM

Snake fossils up to 25 million years old unearthed in north-west Queensland strongly suggest snakes evolved from lizards, a scientist says.

Palaeontologist John Scanlon said the bones in the jaws and faces of the two large snakes, which were well preserved in limestone in the Riversleigh world heritage area near Mount Isa, were closer to those of lizards than modern snakes.

The two snakes were part of the Madtsoiid branch of the snake family that "split off" about 95 million years ago, said Dr Scanlon, who works at the Riversleigh Fossils Centre at Mount Isa.

"They are very large and are well-preserved to show a lot of the structure," he said.

"This hasn't been found before.

"The way the upper jaws are connected to the brain case and the structure of the ear region ... supports their origin from goanna-like lizards."

He said the snakes, which were almost five and six metres long, were part of a species that died out in Australia about 50,000 years ago.

"They died out about 40 million years ago outside of Australia but because the country is isolated, it became like this lost world," Dr Scanlon said.

"They disappeared from Africa and South America at times when the modern constrictor and python species (emerged) but Australia was isolated from that.

"These other species had some advantages ... Pythons can swallow larger amounts of prey and hunt in the dark using heat sensors on their faces - there is no indications the Madtsoiid snakes could do that."

He said the Madtsoiid snakes were not venomous and are not closely related to any modern species of snakes.

"It's amazing to find snakes in such good condition and it gives us a chance to look at what the ancestors of the modern snake look like - they are really big members of an ancient group with no close relatives," Dr Scanlon said.

www.smh.com.au

 

Feb 8, 2006

German scientist Thomas Zegler has found a new reptile species in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh, Park Director Nguyen Tan Hiep announced on Feb. 8.

The newly-discovered reptile is a kind of lizard called Tripidophrus Nogei, considered to have been spotted for the first time in the world. It was found in the Karst mountain area of the park

According to Zegler, 25 species of that type of lizard have been found, with most of them living in Southeast Asia, including seven in Viet Nam.

The newly-discovered lizard is the 26th in the world.

(http://www.vnagency.com.vn/)

Feb 2, 2006, Helsinki

Pet snake escapes through drain pipe - appears in neighbour's bedroom

The things one finds when one gets home after a shopping trip - a pet snake that went missing from a residential apartment in Helsinki's Pasila district caused a surprise on Wednesday morning by re-appearing in a neighbour's flat. Apparently, the bored reptile had decided to use the lavatory drain pipe or a ventilator shaft to go and see the world. The startled neighbour found the snake on his bedroom floor
The Rescue Department personnel used special equipment to lift the snake from underneath a radiator, where it had gone to warm up, into a fabric bag. The snake was then taken to a pet clinic to wait for the owner to come and pick it up.
The reptile, which was over a metre long, was first assumed to be a young boa, but was later identified as a kingsnake, a small constrictor that is harmless to humans. The species is not found in the wild in Finland, and even as a pet it is fairly rare, an expert commented.

Go over to my other journal to read about my new lizard!

A liquefied petroleum gas pipeline at a gas separation plant of Trans Thai-Malaysia Ltd (TTM) in Songkhla province has leaked, but not to an extent that caused damages to operation of the plant, according to the company’s executive.

Somchai Kruyai, Senior Executive Vice President of TTM, a joint venture between PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) and Petronas of Malaysia, said the LPG pipeline had not been considerably damaged, but had to be halted for a temporary system test by a contractor.

He said a snake crawled around a high-voltage power transmission line of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), causing the electrical short-circuit to a land power line and an LPG control system.

However, the incident has not affected the gas separation plant, which is still normal operation.

The TTM-run gas separation plant, which has a capacity of 425 million cubic feet per day, receives gas from the Joint Development Area (JDA) of Thailand and Malaysia.

It has started gas separation process and supply to Malaysia since February 2005.

It is now in a process of testing the LPG separation system, which is expected to a capacity of 166,000 tons per year.

(www.bangkokpost.com)

HAINES CITY -- Police Sgt. Mervin Stewart is the man to call if you have a snake in your house.

Or an alligator in your garage.

Or an opossum on your porch.

Stewart, 40, is well known for his extensive knowledge of all things that slither or crawl and is the man the Haines City Police Department dispatches if you are having a creepy-crawly critter crisis.

"I am an animal lover," Stewart said. "But I do like snakes the best. I used to have four but now I only have two at the house: a 10-foot Burmese python and a 3foot Ball python."

Stewart first got interested in snakes when he was 9.

"My mom wouldn't let me have one in the house," Stewart said. "I had to wait until I was out on my own before I could buy one."

When he was single, he let the snakes have run of his house.

"Ray-Ray (the Burmese) would even sleep in the bed with me," Stewart said. "I pretty much let them go where they wanted to go."

Getting married put a stop to that.

"I don't like snakes," said police Cpl. Angela Stewart, who is in charge of communications at the Haines City Police Department. "I don't like them at all. But I love my husband."

So she compromised and Stewart built cages for the snakes and moved them to the garage.

"I am getting better," Angela Stewart said. "I am learning more about them. And I am watching the snake movies and documentaries. But I still don't want to touch one."

Before the two got married, she was keeping one of the snakes at her house while he was at work and it got out of its cage.

"I grabbed the kids and ran out of the house and called him to come find it," she said, laughing about the incident two years later. "I took the kids and we stayed at McDonald's until he could get there. He didn't find that snake for five days."

Now she checks almost daily to make sure the snakes are secured.

"Maybe you could put in the story, `Snakes for sale. See wife,' " she said wistfully. "I could probably take care of that."

In 15 years as an officer, Stewart has answered numerous animal calls, from opossums on a porch to an alligator lying across a road to a family of snakes under one resident's kitchen sink.

"She called and said her house was infested with snakes. I looked but I could only find two grass snakes under the sink. She was glad to see them go, though," Stewart said.

Stewart is known for his snake cuisine.

"Fried snake is really pretty good," he said. "It is hard to explain the taste, but it tastes a little like fish. It is white meat, and it is flaky like fish and it is good."

Stewart likes to bread it in a cornmeal-and-seasoning mixture and deep fry it.

"It is also good broiled. You broil it just like you would fish," he said.

Rattlesnake is a favorite.

"You just have to cut off the head. The venom is in the glands in the head," he said. "It doesn't go through the rest of the body. You just have to be careful cutting off the head."

Stewart cautions people against trying to catch snakes if they are inexperienced.

"Snakes, especially cottonmouths like we have around water here, can be aggressive," he said. "Unless you know what you are doing, I wouldn't try to catch one."

(Amber Smith, www.theledger.com 

What kind of tiles can't you stick on walls?
Reptiles.

What powerful reptile is found in the Sydney opera house?
The Lizard of Oz.

What's the definition of a nervous breakdown?
A chameleon on a tartan rug.

Why did the lizard go on a diet?
It weighed too much for its scales.

What is a chameleon's motto?
A change is as good as a rest.

The report, by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, found that the capture and trade of these animals has not been carried out in accordance with the relevant laws in Indonesia.

"Despite national quotas set for the harvest and export of this turtle species between 1997 and 2001, no licences for collection have been issued to date, nor transport permits issued for movement from source to point-of-export within Indonesia," TRAFFIC said in a statement.

"All specimens that have been exported since 1994 have been illegally acquired."

In 2000, the IUCN Red List categorized the species as "critically endangered", and in the same year, the Roti Island Snake-necked Turtle was assessed as commercially extinct.

The species is listed in Appendix II of CITES, which requires any international trade to be carried out under a permit system.

"The continuing international demand for this turtle from hobbyists and collectors in Europe, North America and East Asia is pushing this endemic species towards extinction," said Chris Shepherd from TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and co-author of the report.

"Even if the turtle is added to the Indonesian list of protected species, monitoring and enforcement of existing laws in place to protect wildlife from over-exploitation is lacking and in some places, non-existent. If these laws, such as the laws governing capture and transport of wildlife, are not enforced, this species will surely become extinct in the wild in the very near future."

The new report issues a number of recommendations, including better national protection and capacity building for increased and improved enforcement.

In December 2005, TRAFFIC in close collaboration with the Indonesian CITES Management Authority conducted training and awareness building sessions on Roti Island for local enforcement agencies.

"We hope that by increasing the levels of awareness and the capacity in enforcement techniques of these agencies, poachers will find it increasingly difficult to smuggle out any of the turtles that remain on Roti Island," added Mr Shepherd.

(Karen Bain-- www.999today.com )

Australia--

Authorities discovered more than 32 dead snakes and goannas in a suburban Darwin unit, after neighbours complained of a bad smell.

Another eight reptiles inside were barely alive, the Parks and Wildlife Service said.

"I have never seen anything quite like this before," senior wildlife officer Ray Chatto said.

"I was called to the unit on Wednesday afternoon after reports of a bad smell.

"I found a large number of snakes and goannas, most of which were dead, while those that managed to survive are now being cared for."

Authorities were expected to interview the person living in the unit today.

 

April 29, 2005 -- The FDA has approved a new drug containing a component lizard spit to help treat type 2 diabetes. The drug is called Byetta (exenatide).

The announcement was made in a news release by Eli Lilly and Company, which makes Byetta with another drug company, Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Lilly is a WebMD sponsor.

Byetta is not for use for type 1 diabetes. It's only approved for people with type 2 diabetes who need to improve their blood sugar control despite using other drugs (metformin and/or a sulfonylurea), says the Lilly news release.

Drug Derived From Lizard Spit

Byetta is derived from a chemical found in the saliva of the Gila monster, a venomous lizard. The drug is intended to be taken by injection before breakfast and dinner and will be available in June, according to the news release.

The medication works by stimulating insulin secretion in response to high blood sugars. Byetta also inhibits glucagon, a hormone that helps increase blood sugars.

Byetta will be available in both a 5-microgram dose and a 10-microgram dose prefilled pen-injector device.

According to the news release, the FDA also says Byetta is "approvable" as a stand-alone therapy for people with type 2 diabetes. That means that the drug is not currently cleared for use alone or as "monotherapy" for patients with type 2 diabetes. A six-month review is expected of any additional data for Byetta as a stand-alone drug, says the news release.

Side Effects

Byetta was tested in three 30-week trials, say the drug's makers. Besides improving blood sugar control, most patients in those studies also lost weight, the news release notes. Treatment with the drug may be associated with a reduced appetite and weight loss.

Side effects were generally mild to moderate in intensity; the most commonly reported being mild-to-moderate, dose-dependent nausea. However with continued therapy this effect subsided over time.

"With continued therapy in most patients who initially experienced nausea, the frequency and severity decreased over time," says the news release.

Patients taking Byetta in combination with a sulfonylurea have an increased risk of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). "Most episodes of hypoglycemia were mild to moderate in intensity and all were resolved with oral administration of carbohydrate," says the release. "No increased risk of hypoglycemia was seen with Byetta when used in combination with metformin compared to placebo."

An estimated 194 million adults and 18 million in the U.S. have diabetes, and 90% to 95% have type 2 diabetes, says Lilly. Citing CDC statistics, the company says nearly 60% of diabetes patients don't achieve target hemoglobin A1c levels with their current treatment regimen.

(Miranda Hitti, WebMD Medical News)

It is my dream to one day have a reptile rescue shelter. In the meantime, if you have an unwanted herp please don't just let it go in the wild, contact one of these organizations to see if they can place your animal.  If you know of any others, please let me know and I will add it to the list.

Canada

Reptile Rescue, Canada
Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre
Saskatchewan Reptile Rescue
Nova Scotia Herpetoculture Society
Rescued Reptiles
Tails & Scales Rescue

USA

Alabama 
Chaos & Critters Reptile & Pet Rescue
Mark Jones
6771 Somerset Dr N
Mobile, Alabama 36619
United States
251-662-7847
http://ondogriver.net/somerset.php
critters@ondogriver.net

California
American Tortoise Rescue
5757 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90036-3686
United States
800-938-3553

Bay Area Turtle & Tortoise Rescue
Gary & Ginger Wilfong
P. O. Box 2005
Castro Valley, California 94546-0005
United States
510-886-2946

Colorado
Colorado Herpetological Society
Colorado 
United States
303-423-1416

Georgia
Georgia Reptile and Amphibian Rescue Effort, Inc.
404-386-2998
http://www.georgiareptilerescue.com
info@grare.org

Ohio
Arrowhead Reptile Rescue
Cincinnati, Ohio 
United States
513-844-6340
http://www.arrowheadreptilerescue.org
admin@arrowheadreptilerescue.org

HerpHaven Reptile Rescue
Dave & Vanessa Edwards
Sandusky, Ohio 44870
United States
(419) 627-9946
http://www.herphavenreptilerescue.org
HHReptileRescue@aol.com
 

Virginia
Foundation for Iguana Rescue Safety and Training Inc (FIRST)
Cindy Hiddemen
PO Box 1113
Glen Allen, Virginia 23060
United States
http://www.iguanafirst.com