At the moment it is unlikely to get a license from Nature England due to numerous risks that could jeopardise other extant native species. BBC News - Three frogs to be reintroduced to West Acre 'pingos' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

2025 has been a good year for the taxonomic work I have been involved with 13 new 🐸 4 new 🦎 1 new 🐍 Some of the species are covered in this article by @joshlukedavis.com

Riding temperatures could trigger a reptile sexpocalypse - Scientific American apple.news/APL3qNst5RxG...

Just decline the peer review invitation. What are you people even doing?

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

🚨PhD position available!🚨🧪 I am seeking a talented PhD student to join my ERC StG project GEMINI, to explore the exciting world of vertebrate genomics and comparative genomics, seeking to understand the genomics of miniaturisation! 🦇🦎🦜🐸🐟🦈 🤏🧬 Deadline: 4 Jan 2026! employment.ku.dk/phd?show=153...

🎉It's here!🎉 This year's annual roundup of new species described by @nhm-london.bsky.social's curators, researchers and scientific associates! We've got butterflies! We've got wasps! We've even got the odd dinosaur as I know people like those. Check it out! 🐝🧪🦕

Our scientists have been busy this year! From dinosaurs to diatoms, they have helped to describe an amazing 262 new species from all around the world! 🪸🐠🦎🦋🪱 Read more about this year’s new species list 👇🏻 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

🧪🐠 I am hiring a postdoc! Work will be on patterns of biodiversity across phylogenetic scales using teleost fishes as a model. Apply by end of Jan 2026 for full consideration apply.interfolio.com/179070 I encourage folks to reach out with any questions. Please Share!

Our friend Simpson’s Plump Toad is a very elusive toad who lives in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador! They are similar to many other toads in genus Osornophryne but have longer fourth and fifth toes and a stubbier nose! (photo by Zane Libke)

I am absolutely delighted to see the post by National Geographic Society covering our recent publication on new bush #frogs 🐸 🐸 from northeast #India just in time for #frogfriday 😃

New species 🚨, not one, not two, 13 new bush frogs from Northeast India!!! One of the exciting revisions I've been involved in for a few years now is out today. It is led by @bitupan-herp.bsky.social, a PhD. student who will soon be a doctor.

📣 Ecologists and evolutionary biologists! Have you ever wanted to be a journal editor? BES journals are having an open call for editors. Details: www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/appl... Happy to answer any Qs! Open to all nationalities. Applications from postdocs welcome :)

It's #frogfriday 🐸 here is the recently described Pointy-nosed bush frog (Raorchestes nasuta) from #arunachalpradesh #India

Our latest One 😍 From My PhD research 🐸

New species 🚨, not one, not two, 13 new bush frogs from Northeast India!!! One of the exciting revisions I've been involved in for a few years now is out today. It is led by @bitupan-herp.bsky.social, a PhD. student who will soon be a doctor.

In case you are interested in #skyislands, #frogs, #lizards, #snakes, #evolution, #mountains, and #westernghats, the talk I gave at explore2025 event organised by @rgsibg.bsky.social is available to watch. Thanks @rgsibg.bsky.social for the opportunity. www.rgs.org/events/talks...

It's snow time! ❄️ 🦮

A bit of rain and a big Fire salamander (Salamandra s. bernardezi) on the uni stairs is a good way to start the week.

Large-eyed animals like owls 🦉 have a trade-off between large eyes & short optic nerves, which lowers eye mobility (to compensate they evolved swivelly necks) But chameleons 🦎 have long, coiled optic nerves with extra slack for eye mobility, allowing them to use their famous large swivelly eyes 👀🧪🌏

Super-proud of former MPhil student Emily Hillan for publishing her dissertation on the evolution of rib skeleton regionalisation in the evolution of snake-like body forms in squamates! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

New species 🚨, we describe two new species of #agamid #lizards from Northeast #India! Both species have restricted distribution in northeast India. It took us a few years to verify their identity, they are morphologically cryptic but are deeply divergent mitochondrial lineages. #newspecies

Hi Folks ! Just a few more days to register for the POPGROUP meeting (deadline = this Monday 10/11/2025). Join us in the beautiful city of #Lille just across the Channel for three exciting days of science and more ! www.hautsdefrancetourism.com/destinations... --> populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

Awesome work by @deepakveerappan.bsky.social on this paper. Here we explore "Island-hopping anurans: diversification dynamics in a widespread frog family". The article is Open Access so go and check it out!

Hot off the press. Our study on the #biogeography of Ceratobatrachid #frogs is now out in @ZoolJLinnSoc.bsky.social I had a chance to present this work at the World Congress of #herpetology last year. I tried to compile the highlights from this study. Read the open access paper for more details

We’re excited for the first full day of the #RGSExploreWeekend2025 at the Society tomorrow! Learn from leading professionals and meet like-minded people united by a passion for discovery and making a difference 👣 It's not too late to join us there 👉https://www.rgs.org/explore#RGSExploreWeekend2025

Now that I have hit 2k followers, here is a California whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis) 🐍 for your #bluesky feed. We saw it in #California this summer while hiking through the #pinnaclesnationalpark. No condors but can't complain 😉 #herping #snakes

Join me at #RGSExploreWeekend2025 on 31 Oct – 2 Nov, where yours truly will be talking about "Sky Islands as Natural Laboratories: field notes from Western Ghats" 🐸🦎🐍⛰️. Tickets can be booked via the RGS website 👉 www.rgs.org/explore

major traffic incident

And my herp pin collection grows 😀

I finally had a chance to go through the photos from our trip to the US last month. Here are the snakes that we came across. They were all taken in situ; note there are some images of roadkill animals in this series.

#worldsnakeday A beautiful copperhead from Eastern US.

#newspecies🚨 🦎 from the #easternghats of #India

Today we celebrate the incredible biodiversity of our planet – and the power of #OpenAccess to protect it. The Biodiversity Heritage Library makes over 62 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely available to all. 🔗 biodiversitylibrary.org #EarthDay #EarthDay2025 #Biodiversity #BHLib

Here's where things #spawnwatch were at today. Rapidly maturing #tadpoles, packed in the shallows. This is good to see and would be a commoner sight if more people let gardens go wild and built more ponds. #frogs #ponds

It was a great day to go see adders in the North Pennines. We also saw slow worms, common 🦎, many raptors, rabbits, lapwings and the famous grouse! #spring #vipers #ukwildlife

🧵 1/ New study on squamate color evolution hits the press: we show that brightness variation in lizards & snakes is strongly linked to habitat openness 🌞 This reveals how ecological pressures drive color evolution in one of the most diverse groups of tetrapods www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper in @nature.com led by @patricepottier.bsky.social! We demonstrated global vulnerability of amphibians to warming, threatening 10% of >5,000 species examined. How did we do it? See thread🧵 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come work with us on squamate brain evolution! 🐍🧠🦎 @draliceclement.bsky.social @michael-s-y-lee.bsky.social

Here, she is on her way to a marathon

A little 🐢 named after yours truly is roaming the Spanish countryside 😃

Slide from a forthcoming talk on 🐍🐍

In a sentence never before uttered by humans, I am delighted to share that an alligator stole my conservation instructor’s hat by jauntily walking into the water while wearing it 🐊

Year of the 🐍 Here is a beautiful red-headed krait (Bungarus flaviceps) which we saw in #Borneo last year. Only managed to click the tail. Look it up online it is a pretty snake

We spotted a 🌚🦭 in our neighborhood 😀 #tyneRiver

The Royal Society's Newton International Fellowships will open for applications next week on 21 January. These fellowships are for non-UK early career scientists who wish to conduct research in the UK. Find out more on our website: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/newto...

🐍 Do you talk about reptiles with strangers🦎 🧬 Do you lay awake thinking about N50 scores? Close your eyes and see Manhattan plots?🧬 Well, have I got the answer for you. Come check out the Open Consortium for Squamate Genomics (OCSG - that’s a mouthful). Sign up here: forms.gle/TTmTwAMUqzWJ...

"Fieldwork-based research and education in ecology are under multiple threats and are progressively declining." This issue is linked to the erosion of natural history training in general.