Study: Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Achieve Transparency

Study: Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Achieve Transparency

Transparency in animals is a complex form of camouflage involving mechanisms that reduce the scattering and absorption of light throughout the organism. Many species have evolved transparency, but it is particularly challenging for vertebrates because red blood cells attenuate light. In a new study, researchers from Duke University and elsewhere found that glassfrogs are able […]

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Study Finds That the Wildlife Trade Affects One-Fifth of Vertebrates on Land

Study Finds That the Wildlife Trade Affects One-Fifth of Vertebrates on Land

All animals with a backbone are called vertebrates. These include mammals, bird, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. A recent study found that a devastation one-fifth of vertebrates that live on land are bought and sold in the wildlife trade. More than 30,000 species of mammal, bird, amphibian and reptile were surveyed. The study, published in Science […]

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‘Death by a thousand holes’: Scientists race to avert a salamander crisis

‘Death by a thousand holes’: Scientists race to avert a salamander crisis

Any day now. That’s when Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), the “salamander-eating” fungus, is expected to arrive in the United States, home to more than a third of the world’s species of these slippery amphibians.It all began in 2008, when Bsal traveledsome through the pet trade from Asia to northern Europe. There, it escaped into the wild […]

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Will mining company drive mass extinction of Madagascar’s wildlife?

Will mining company drive mass extinction of Madagascar’s wildlife?

Madagascar’s unique wildlife may be in serious trouble. An invasive poisonous toad, called the Asian toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), is rapidly spreading across the island country, threatening the survival of its rare and endemic species, scientists say. Currently, scientists estimate that there are about 4 million toads on the island. According to a recent report, the […]

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