Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Sep 4

Absolute nonsense. The issue re Homoroselaps was resolved back in the 1980s or 1990s IIRC - they did indeed evolve a proteroglyphous dentition independently from the elapids. The remaining elapids are unquestionably monophyletic.

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Kirsty MacLeod @kjmacleod.bsky.social · Sep 4

An exciting new study now out in which I played a small part - Wood Frog Testicular Microstructure
Correlates with Plasma Hormone Concentrations
During Late-Stage Spermatogenesis www.herpconbio.org/Volume_20/Is...
Excited to see this out, and to add a new taxonomic group to my pub list!! 🐸❤️

www.herpconbio.org

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Reposted by Wolfgang Wüster

GRC Venoms @grcvenom.bsky.social · Aug 19

The GRC Venom Evolution, Function and Biomedical Applications is back for 2026! The conference and corresponding ECR seminar will be held in Barcelona in May 🐍🐜🐌🐝🦂🐡🪼🕷️🐞🇪🇸🌞

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Aug 17

My kind of homecoming after an evening of roadcruising in Arizona!

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Martin Enserink @martinenserink.bsky.social · Aug 8

I traveled to Guinea to find out what U.S. budget cuts mean for the fight against malaria. Here's my story in @science.org - with powerful photography by Marta Moreiras. www.science.org/content/arti...

In Guinea, the United States helped beat back malaria. Now, the disease is set to soar

Foreign aid cuts are expected to cause a rise in malaria cases and deaths across sub-Saharan Africa

www.science.org

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Oliver Darkshire @deathbybadger.bsky.social · Aug 9

reverse heist movie where a single snake has to chase all the priests back into ireland

280 2.7K 14K

Reposted by Wolfgang Wüster

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · Aug 3

Whenever I (or other shark conservation experts) say "Ocean Ramsey does not raise awareness, she says very wrong things about threats to sharks and their policy solutions," some people feel the need to say "but she taught me something" ...and what they say is always a very wrong thing!

What Ocean Ramsey does is not shark science or conservation: some brief thoughts on “the Shark Whisperer” documentary

Netflix has a new (sarcastic air quotes) “documentary” out about Ocean Ramsey, who longtime readers and followers know is a serial wildlife harasser who also coordinates massive online …

www.southernfriedscience.com

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 23

Feeding on crocodile tears… sounds like a staff meeting after the latest round of redundancies is announced…

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jul 23

This photograph series by Mark Cowan documents a phenomenon called 'lachryphagy' ("tear-feeding").

The caiman excretes salt in their tears & the butterflies need the precious minerals for their metabolism & reproduction.

So, they're feeding on crocodilian tears.

(📷: Mark Cowan, Curtin Uni.)

Three shots of a green-silver colored caiman wreathed in 4-6 colorful yellow and orange butterflies. He blinks in two of the shots, looking delighted somehow, while the butterflies swarm his head.
CREDIT: Mark Cowan.

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 18

Many congratulations!

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 16

Happy #WorldSnakeDay
Here’s my favourite lifer of the year so far: four-lined snake, Elaphe quatuorlineata, from Krk Island, Croatia, earlier this year. Why not post yours? 🐍 #herp #herpetology #herper

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 8

Stuck in the paywall? Go to tinyurl.com/3uxafr42 😉
🤫 don’t tell anyone!

Dropbox

tinyurl.com

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 8

How many mamba species are there? Find out from our new paper: Phylogeny and species delimitation in an iconic snake genus: the African mambas (Serpentes: Elapidae: Dendroaspis)

academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Phylogeny and species delimitation in an iconic snake genus: the African mambas (Serpentes: Elapidae: Dendroaspis)

Abstract. The African mambas (Dendroaspis) comprise an iconic genus of four large-bodied, highly venomous elapid snakes: the black mamba (D. polylepis) fro

academic.oup.com

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Amphibian and Reptile Conservation @arc-trust.bsky.social · Jul 8

Join our @naturambyth.bsky.social #AdderAction team for Celebration of Nature at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff on 12th July. Project Officer Matt will be running an info stall and talking about adder awareness, conservation & attitudes. More info 👇
www.arc-trust.org/Event/celebr...

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Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · Jul 7

Thank you to everyone who has shared & responded to our Call for Support thus far. Our Call proposes a more distributed & sustainable future where BHL is shared across multiple hosts supported by multiple funding sources. Find out more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... 🌱 📖 🧪 🌏 #ILoveBHL

BHL Transition Update #2

Help us shape the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is at a turning point. After nearly two decades of calling the Smithsonian Institution home, BH…

blog.biodiversitylibrary.org

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jul 4

Named for the beer or the Argentinian dictator? 😉
Nice work!

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Zanzibar Red Colobus Project @zrcp.bsky.social · Jun 25

Many congratulations to Molly Allum! She studied the crop foraging behaviour of the Zanzibar red colobus here in Jozani last year for her third year dissertation at @bangoruniversity.bsky.social @beps-bangor.bsky.social ! Great dissertation - currently working on making it into a journal article!

primatesocietygb.bsky.social @primatesocietygb.bsky.social · Jun 24

We're delighted to announce the winner of our most recent Undergraduate Primatology Recognition Award: Molly Alum. 🎉

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jun 24

A Border Patrol truck will do a more convincing job. You know, for the insurance folks.

Reposted by Wolfgang Wüster

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · Jun 8

1. It’s good to see this scandal being called out at last. My thanks and congratulations go to Lee Schofield, Karen Lloyd and Ian Convery. But it’s also absolutely infuriating that it has come to this point, as I explain in this thread.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Conservationists call for Lake District to lose Unesco world heritage status

Campaigners say designation promotes unsustainable sheep farming at expense of nature recovery and local communities

www.theguardian.com

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jun 7

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
New review paper on the large Middle Eastern vipers of the genus Macrovipera, led by Ignazio Avella. For those interested in #nomenclature, check out out little act of rebellion against changes to established names imposed by nomenclatural historians! #ICZN #taxonomy

The biology and toxinology of blunt-nosed vipers - npj Biodiversity

npj Biodiversity - The biology and toxinology of blunt-nosed vipers

www.nature.com

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Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · Jun 6

Thelma and Louise

Wolfgang Wüster @wolfgangwuster.bsky.social · May 28

Nice work!

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · May 27

Over the course of taxonomic history, a small but nefarious band of researchers have taken to publishing taxonomic names that their colleagues have regarded as poorly founded, poorly supported by good data, or unneeded and contradicting existing work... 1/n

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Reposted by Wolfgang Wüster

Emily Taylor @emilytaylorscience.com · May 27

CW: Another baby rattlesnake is taken by a magpie!

This footage is from "after hours" when we do not operate the cam, but live observers watched as a magpie boldly strode right into the den opening and snagged a baby.

youtu.be/c4d2Cu6vkCg

Magpie goes inside rattlesnake den to eat baby snake!

YouTube video by Project RattleCam

youtu.be

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Amphibian and Reptile Conservation @arc-trust.bsky.social · May 23

NEW GUEST BLOG 🐍
In this Guest Blog, the adder author Nicholas Milton discusses sensationalist stories and recommends reporting them to the Independent press regulator. Read more 👇
www.arc-trust.org/ne...

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ARG UK @argroupsuk.bsky.social · May 7

Announcing our Vanishing Viper 2025 conference to be held in September at Chester This special two-day event focused on our native adder, Viper berus, seeks to unlock the drivers behind adder declines & determine how research & landscape-level projects can meet the challenges #vanishingviper2025

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