Persistence of Reptile DNA in a Terrestrial Substrate: A Case Study Using the Eastern Indigo Snake
Prairie Research Institute
The Syrian Spadefoot Toad has been rediscovered in the war-torn country with the help of Syrian community scientists and Illinois researchers.
In a recent study, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center environmental chemist Wei Zheng and colleagues investigated the adsorption of sitagliptin in soils treated with sewage wastewater.
Researchers found that rattlesnakes can buffer each other's stress response, much like humans, when they endure a stressful event together. This is the first time "social buffering" has been studied in a reptile.
Northeastern and central Illinois are now experiencing severe drought, as dry conditions persist across the state in the second week of June, causing soil moisture levels to drop and record-low water levels in some areas of the Illinois River.
In a recent study published in the journal Biology Letters, a female crocodile living in isolation for 16 years at a Costa Rican zoo laid a clutch of eggs, a common practice among captive reptiles, even those without mates. After three months of incubation, one egg contained "a fully formed stillborn baby crocodile," a team of scientists found.