Why a turtle's shell is so important-It's delicate and beautiful, and it's not a suit of armor. - via Herp Digest

by Christian Cotroneo 2/4/20, mnn.com

For a turtle, home isn't just where the heart is. It's where the brain, limbs, organs and the spinal cord reside, too.

In fact, one of the biggest myths still somehow circulating about a turtle's shell is that it's a mobile home — one that can be swapped out for another.

As wildlife technician Samantha Kennett writes in a blog for the Chattahoochee Nature Center, "A turtle's shell is as much a part of its body as our skeleton is to ours."

Think of it as a modified rib cage that a turtle can fully retreat inside of in case of trouble. (Unless, unfortunately, it's a sea turtle, which has long lost the ability to retract its limbs.)

That means turtles, like others members of the Testudines order — including tortoises and terrapins — have to take special care of those shells. It's the only home they've got.

And, of course, in spring — starting in May especially — humans have to be especially mindful of the slow stampede of turtles crossing roads as they head to their nesting grounds.

That's not to say a turtle's shell doesn't make for an enviable suit of medieval armor. It comes in two main pieces: the top, called the carapace and the bottom, the plastron. And, like forged armor, these pieces are linked together around the middle parts by the aptly called bridge.

The sturdy parts on the carapace are individual plates known as scutes, made from the same hardened protein as fingernails: keratin.

Yes, Mother Nature knows a thing or two about forging quality armor. The trouble is, no suit of armor is designed to withstand the 4,000-or-so pounds of pressure a modern automobile exerts. Nor is it a fortress against the sheer foolishness humans are capable — like, as Kennett points out, chaining two turtles together by piercing their shells.

The organization treated a couple of turtles in just such a predicament recently — turtles that are lucky to be alive thanks to a vigilant passerby who found them in a river.

Indeed, while a turtle's armor may seem like the ultimate in full-body protection, it's deceptively fragile. Predators may be rebuffed But the tiniest crack in that armor opens the door for infection.

"Because the shell is living bone, any puncture can lead to systemic bacterial, viral, and/or fungal infections," Kathryn Dudeck, wildlife director at the Chattahoochee Nature Center, explains in the blog. "Additionally, since the organs are not in a fixed position, but instead housed in a thin membrane called the coelom, the organs themselves can be damaged.”

Even a dab of paint could disrupt essential processes that occur on the surface of that shell. That's because the shell, like the leaf of a plant, does some pretty incredible things with sunlight. Specifically, it absorbs UV light and synthesizes the vitamin D needed to make bones grow big and strong. Paint, or anything that obscures the shell, throws a wrench into that process, resulting in stunted and misshapen shells.

In fact, the number of painted turtles showing up in Florida in recent years even prompted the state's wildlife authority to issue a plea to potential Picassos on its Facebook page.

"While to you it may seem harmless, painting the shells of turtles and tortoises can severely compromise their health — the paint can hinder their ability to absorb vitamins they need from the sun (and) cause respiratory problems," the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission noted.

So, from an evolutionary perspective, a turtle's shell is a many splendored thing — from a lineage that harks back more than 200 million years. But in the modern age, it's too easily a many-splintered thing — vulnerable to everything from cars to errant paintbrushes to misguided pet owners.

Which is why it's even more essential to stop looking at a shell as armor that can be mended or swapped out entirely if it gets damaged.

For the turtle, this is no shell game. But a matter of life and death.

IT’S NOW EXTINCT, BUT HOW DID THIS PREHISTORIC TURTLE SURVIVE WHAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS? – via Herp Digest

Contributed by Elizabeth Rayne

Feb 7, 2020

Who thought that one of the survivors of the killer asteroid that head-butted Earth 66 million years ago and wiped out monster reptiles like T.rex would be ... a turtle?

Laurasichersis relicta may now be extinct, but it somehow managed to survive an event that sent temperatures soaring and then plummeting after ash from the collision blocked sunlight and heat, causing a nuclear winter effect that is thought to have killed off at least 70% of organisms on Earth. Unearthed in what was once the continent of Laurasia, the fossil of this prehistoric terrestrial turtle has now been found to be the only terrestrial turtle that survived the die-off in the Northern Hemisphere. It also had advantages that even dinosaurs couldn’t compete with an apex predator, Allosaurus

“No [prehistoric turtle] has been described in [Laurasia],” said paleontologist Adán Pérez García in a study recently published in Scientific Reports, adding that the only survivors were "exclusive to southern Gondwana." 

Laurasia and Gondwana were the two immense subcontinents that split from the initial supercontinent of Pangea. Laurasia, the northernmost half, included most of what are now Europe and Asia. The L. relicta holotype (only specimen known to exist so far) that is thought to have originated in China and Mongolia and emerged in France, was the only terrestrial turtle in the Northern Hemisphere to survive the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction that claimed not only the dinosaurs but almost all the early turtle species that also roamed the planet. So what spared this one from being obliterated?

L. relicita was a meiolaniid, or horned turtle. Meiolaniids were the only primitive turtle species that held on to life in Gondwana, but L. relicta was the sole survivor in Laurasia. It had some pretty rad body armor that made up for its inability to hide out from predators by retracting its neck. Instead, it developed scary defensive spikes linked together on its neck, legs, and tail. The 23-foot shell that acted as its built-in shield was made up of no more plates than you would find in a modern turtle, but the underside had more than had ever been found in any other turtle species.

That ridiculously hard armor probably made L. relicta much less appetizing to predators, since it must have been a horror for even dino dagger teeth to chew.

Even the toughest turtle in Laurasia eventually succumbed to extinction. There is no way it would have survived without food, and at least some of its food sources must have been wiped out by the initial asteroid crash. Maybe not enough were left to sustain the population long enough. Shifts in dominant species couldn't have helped, either. Though most of those fearsome carnivorous dinosaurs were wiped out, that only left spaces to be filled higher up in the food chain, and with the evolution of meat-eating mammals that kept getting larger and more threatening along with their teeth, it started to disappear.

Ultimately, though, scientists are still trying to unravel all of the answers. "The reason why Laurasichersis survived the great extinction, while none of the other primitive North American, European or Asian land turtles managed to do so, remains a mystery," Pérez García admitted in a press release.

Maybe more of the secrets it’s been hiding in its shell will emerge if and when more specimens crawl out of wherever they are hiding.

Alligators are wearing little 'hats' in South Carolina. It's all part of a study

DECEMBER 30, 2019

by Mark Price

Gadgets that resemble little black hats are showing up on the heads of alligators in South Carolina.

They're actually GPS trackers.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources posted an alert about the devices on Dec. 27, and revealed they're being attached as part of a joint study with Clemson University. The number of alligators involved was not released.

"That data will allow researchers to understand where these animals are spending their time and gain a better understanding of their habitat use over multiple seasons," state officials wrote on Facebook.

Multiple people who have seen the state's photos of the trackers have noted they look a bit comical attached to predators with 80 to 100 teeth.

"When I first saw this post, I swear I thought this gator had a mini top hat on ... Now I can't unsee it!" Shaun Dumont wrote on the wildlife department's Facebook page.

State officials didn't explain how the devices are attached, but suggested it's not painful. They also noted the gadgets are stuck on the gators' upper backs, not their heads, so any resemblance to a hat is coincidental.

"Each alligator is safely captured, has a tag attached to its back, and is then released," state officials wrote. "The process happens in the alligators' natural habitat and takes less than an hour to complete."

Alligators can get up to 14 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds in South Carolina, according to state officials. The reptiles are found mostly in a diverse series of habitats along the Coastal Plain, including tidal marshes, swamps, rivers and lakes, Clemson University officials said in a report.

Researchers say the GPS trackers will help them "understand how landscape features affect habitat use and how their movement between habitats influences the accuracy of population estimates."

Read on

Frog ladders' save creatures, focus on DMZ ecology - via Herp Digest

2/5/20, Korea Times, by Ko Dong-hawan

A new contraption at Baengnyeongdo Island is saving frogs and other amphibians by giving them an escape route from a concrete-walled ditch. It is not just an ecological concern; it also shines a spotlight on natural preservation in inter-Korean border regions.

Laying six "frog ladders" down drains on the Korean island in western waters was a joint project headed by Bernhard Seliger, director of the Hanns Seidel Foundation's Korean office, and supported by ladder inventor Trevor Rose, secretary of British Herpetological Society, and the heads of four local Korean pro-environment groups.

The project aims to preserve the dwindling number of gold-spotted pond frogs, also known as Seoul frogs, and Suweon tree frogs. The International Union of Conservation of Nature classifies the gold-spotted species as "vulnerable" and Suweon is considered an endangered endemic species. 

A large number of the two species were seen in the wetlands of Baengnyeongdo, the country's westernmost island and close to North Korea. The concrete drains trapped some of the creatures, who were unable to climb out and faced being left to "dry and die."

"The frogs are an important part of the island's ecological food chain," Shim Hyung-jin, head of the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements' Incheon office (Incheon KFEM) who was among the project's participants, told The Korea Times. The island is under Incheon city jurisdiction and the organization became the island's watchdog. 

"They don't just eat insects that are harmful to agricultural products but also are a food source to certain birds of endangered species. Extinction of one feathery species can wipe out 100 other species in sub-food chains. To protect the entire ecosystem, we must protect the frogs."

Rose's frog ladders were introduced in Warwick, England, in 2018, where amphibians trapped under roadside drains were saved by 20 rust-resistant aluminum ladders. It followed a 2016 report by conservation group Froglife that, along with habitat loss, drain-traps killed 68 percent of frogs in the United Kingdom over the past 30 years. 

"They are an overlooked species and they have their role in the ecosystem," Tim Jenkins from the Warwickshire Amphibian and Reptile Team that installed the ladders was cited by Reuters as saying. 

"They are absolutely excellent for gardens because they eat lots of invertebrates ― potential pests in your garden."

Here in Korea, Rose, also from Scotland-based Rose Design Services, was invited by Seliger to help with the ladder construction on Jan. 17-18 at the island's Jinchon village. A barbed wire fence demarcating the inter-Korean sea division was only a few hundred meters behind the construction site. The project was also joined by Korean local Birds Korea director Nial Moores and Shim.

Because they had to use materials available on the island, they could not use aluminized sheets ― preferred for thickness ― but opted for galvanized steel sheets. The sheets were cut one meter by 15 centimeters and covered by iron mesh that provided footholds for the amphibians. Six ladders were installed along a 30 meter-long ditch. 

Each ladder cost 20,000 won ($17) to build, which Shim said was fairly affordable considering they will build another 40 on the island. 

On Jan. 21, Rose moved to Yeoncheon County in Gyeonggi Province, which is also adjacent to the inter-Korean border region and has habitats for gold-spotted and Suweon frogs. He taught local residents how to build the ladders. 

Shim said he planned to spread the use of frog ladders nationwide, particularly across the border regions like Cheorwon County and Paju city. 

"Our goal is turning the border regions into ecological parks," said Shim. The goal, according to him, is shared by Friends of the Earth Germany, a grassroots non-government eco-friendly organization also known as BUND. The German group visited Seoul in January for a more rigorous discussion about the border regions.

Hanns Seigel has also been highlighting the red-crowned cranes' habitat in Mundeok County in North Korea's South Pyongan Province. Shim said it was a demonstration project by Hanns, who believed that "with preserved ecology comes a stronger economy generating more money."

Disappearing snakes and the biodiversity crisis

Date:  February 13, 2020

Source:  Michigan State University

A Michigan State University- and University of Maryland-led study should sound alarm bells regarding the "biodiversity crisis" or the loss of wildlife around the world.

The loss of any species is devastating. However, the decline or extinction of one species can trigger an avalanche within an ecosystem, wiping out many species in the process. When biodiversity losses cause cascading effects within a region, they can eliminate many data-deficient species -- animals that have eluded scientific study or haven't been researched enough to understand how best to conserve them.

"Some species that are rare or hard to detect may be declining so quickly that we might not ever know that we're losing them," said Elise Zipkin, MSU integrative biologist and the study's lead author. "In fact, this study is less about snakes and more about the general loss of biodiversity and its consequences."

The snakes in question reside in a protected area near El Copé, Panama. The new study documents how the snake community plummeted after an invasive fungal pathogen wiped out most of the area's frogs, a primary food source. Thanks to the University of Maryland's long-term study tracking amphibians and reptiles, the team had seven years of data on the snake community before the loss of frogs and six years of data afterwards.

Yet even with that extensive dataset, many species were detected so infrequently that traditional analysis methods were impossible. To say that these snakes are highly elusive or rare would be an understatement. Of the 36 snake species observed during the study, 12 were detected only once and five species were detected twice.

Continued