Skink

We think of spiders as fearsome hunters, spinners of webs and treacherous mates, but construction workers? Yes, that too. Some groups of spiders - trapdoor and wolf spiders - dig tunnels that they use to ambush passing insects. But these tunnels can also provide shelter and accommodation for other animals, including one of the rarest of Australia's lizards - the pygmy blue-tongue lizard. It seems that the lizard's survival depends entirely on the spiders. The pygmy blue-tongue is a native of South Australia. It's so rare that zoologists thought it extinct for over 30 years and it re-emerged…
For humans, sex is a simple matter of chromosomes: two Xs and we become female; one X and a Y and we develop into males. But things aren't so straightforward for many lizards - many studies have found that the temperature of the nest also has a say, even overriding the influence of the chromosomes. But the full story of how the lizard got its sex is even more complicated. For at least one species, the size of its egg also plays a role, with larger eggs producing females, and smaller ones yielding males. The discovery comes from Richard Shine's group at the University of Sydney. In earlier…
A new species of clouded leopard was identified today in the jungles of Borneo. In fact, over 400 new species of animals have been discovered in the rain forests of Borneo since 1994. Most of the species shown below were found through the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) spectacular Heart of Borneo Initiative. Bornean Clouded Leopard, neofelis diardi Catfish with suction cups on its belly and protruding teeth Lizard - new species of skink (By far our favorite), Unidentified "Mystery Mammel"