Yangtze turtles may avoid extinction, but not this year

Modern Turtles Much Younger Than Thought?

Vincent submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

As reptiles go, turtles are old--no question. They evolved before snakes and crocodiles and preceded dinosaurs. But establishing when the common ancestor of modern turtles first appeared has recently become controversial. Now a new fossil is backing the idea that modern turtles evolved more recently than previously thought.

5 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: reptiles herpetology zoology evolutionary biology fossil record turtles

Leftover logs flummox endangered sea turtles

Darkfrog submitted, created time 10 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

Yet another consequence of rainforest logging in Africa: The logs can escape, float downriver and block the beaches. What may serve as a convenient bench for human beachgoers, however, can be a fearsome barricade to leatherback sea turtles shuffling their way toward nesting sites, not to mention the hatchlings on the return trip.

It may not sound like much, but there has been a 14% drop in successful nesting attempts.

What I like about this article is that it addresses both ecological and economic issues. The logs escape all the time, making boat travel dangerous at night

3 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: sea turtles ecology logging rainforests economics beaches endangered species endangered turtles turtles marine biology rivers forestry

Chinese turtles facing extinction: another Yangtze goddess under guard

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.nytimes.com)

This article is more interesting for the way it's listed than what's in it. Most of us already know that amphibians and aquatic reptiles, like the unicorn in Harry Potter I, are often the first innocents to suffer. But this article, which does show up on the science page, is primarily listed under "World News: Asia." I wonder where it showed up in the paper version.

The lady in question is the last known living female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle. She's eighty and not much to look at, but she is as carefully tended as the most delicate ghost orchid

8 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Yangtze River dolphin Yangtze Dam turtles politics endangered species asia china baiji ecology Yangtze turtles Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles