#lizard

#lizard

110-Million-Year-Old Lizard Preserved in AmberMost creatures that we find trapped in amber are insects. Rarely do we encounter fossilized remains of vertebrates. Scientists were very fortunate to discover the well-preserved remains of this extinct lizard (classified into a new species: Retinosaurus hkamentiensis). The lizard was so well-preserved that scientists were able to examine its skeleton and its external appearance! Even the double eyelids of its left eye remained. Because of the excellent preservation of the lizard in the amber, scientists were able to create a lifelike rendering of the creature.Upon closer inspection, scientists have found the Retinosaurus to resemble a skink that echoes some features of xantusiids (also called "night lizards") in North America. It might mean that it is a proto-xantusiid.(Images: Joseph Bevitt/Edward Stanley/Andrej Čerňanský et al via Syfy)#Paleontology #Lizard #Retinosaurus #Amber

Winners of the Close-up Photographer of the Year 2021The top 100 winners of Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 (2021) or CUPOTY 03 are now featured on its website showing the winners gallery.The Close-up Photographer of the Year website was the brainchild of husband-and-wife duo Tracy and Dan Calder of Winchester, UK. They wanted to put close-up, macro and micro photography on the center stage and be celebrated in its own right.Tracy, a former editor of Outdoor Photography and a features editor at Amateur Photography, has over 20 years experience in the photo magazine industry. She’s also a photography instructor at West Dean College in Sussex, and an author of Close-up & Macro Photography, which has been translated into French and Chinese. Dan is a contributor to Black + White Photography magazine.This year’s Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY 03) has more than 9000 photos from 55 countries across nine different categories. These categories are insects, animals, plants and fungi, underwater, butterflies and dragonflies, intimate landscape, manmade, micro, and young.From each category, the top three winners were chosen alongside with the other finalists. Here are the top three winners per category.#photography #CUPOTY #MacroPhotography #CloseupPhotography #photographycompetitionInsects

This Australian Lizard Has a Crazy Elaborate Nest Deep UndergroundMany animals dig burrows underground to lay eggs, but the yellow-spotted goanna in Australia took it to the next level: it dug a helical burrow 13 feet below the surface to lay its eggs.Herpetologist Sean Doody of the University of South Florida told Ed Yong of The Atlantic why the lizard went through all that trouble to bury its eggs so deep underground:A few animals also dig (or dug) helical burrows, including scorpions, pocket gophers, an extinct beaver called Palaeocastor, and a mammal-like reptile called Diictodon that lived 255 million years ago. But the yellow-spotted goanna’s nests are deeper than those of all these creatures—extending as far as 13 feet below the surface. “That’s a ridiculous depth,” Doody told [Yong]. He thinks that the yellow-spotted goanna faces a unique challenge. Its large eggs need to incubate for 8 months before hatching—a period that takes them through Australia’s brutal dry season, when several months might go by without any rain. At shallow depths, the eggs would cook and desiccate. Only in deeper soil, which is cooler and wetter, can they survive.#lizard #egg #burrow #Australia #yellowspottedgoanna #goanna #herpetologyImage: Sean Doody