Reptiles

Reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur

Australia's Oldest Known Pterosaur Fossils Are From 107 Million Years Ago

The tiny bones include the first one from a juvenile found in the country

American crocodiles haven't been known to reproduce via parthenogenesis—until now.

Scientists Record the First 'Virgin Birth' in a Crocodile

A female American crocodile living in captivity reproduced without a mate—a finding that suggests dinosaurs might have done the same thing

Paleontologists discovered Oda's remarkably intact fossilized skeleton in Svalbard in 2008.

Unraveling the Mysteries of Oda the Ichthyosaur

Paleontologists used X-rays to identify the 240-million-year-old creature's flattened and fossilized remains

An illustration of the giant gorgonopsian Inostrancevia scaring off the much smaller African species Cyonosaurus

During the 'Great Dying,' This Saber-Toothed Predator Reigned

This ancestor of mammals briefly thrived amid a massive extinction event, hinting at how carnivores may respond to climate change today

Many giant animals roamed the Earth after non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.

After Dinosaurs Went Extinct, These Ten Giant Creatures Roamed the Earth

Though we often think of the “terrible lizards” as behemoths, many later reptiles and mammals also grew to massive sizes

A Colorado checkered whiptail

These Lizards Stress-Eat When Loud Military Aircraft Fly Overhead

Colorado checkered whiptails on a U.S. Army base show increased stress levels and altered behavior after noisy jets and helicopters pass by, a study finds

Many of the reptiles that thrived during the Triassic were crocodile relatives that dinosaurs would later mimic through evolutionary happenstance, such as Postosuchus (back) and Desmatosuchus (front).

Dinosaurs Were Evolutionary Copycats of These Long-Lost Look-Alikes

Before T. rex and ankylosaurus ruled the Earth, a host of similar Triassic reptiles reigned

A male (silver) and female (brown) common European adder meet prior to mating. Scientists are just beginning to understand female sexual anatomy in snakes.

Why Did Scientists Wait So Long to Study the Snake Clitoris?

The delay is representative of a major problem in biology: Female and intersex animals are understudied compared with their male counterparts

Baofeng Su, a fish genetics researcher at Auburn University, is part of a team of scientists studying the effectiveness of injecting alligator genes into farm-raised catfish.

Scientists Are Injecting Alligator Genes Into Catfish

The technique could help prevent infections in the millions of pounds of farmed catfish raised for human consumption

The animals were preserved in a different manner than most mummified crocodiles.

Archaeologists in Egypt Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Mummified Crocodiles

The remains include five reptile heads and five nearly intact specimens

An Anolis cristatellus lizard in Puerto Rico.

Genetic Mutations Could Help Lizards Survive City Life

Urban Puerto Rican crested anoles show genetic changes related to immune function, metabolism and limb and skin development

One of the first-ever photos of a young pink iguana

First Recorded Pink Iguana Hatchlings Found on Galápagos Island

After a ten-month effort, researchers discovered the young endangered reptiles on a remote volcano

The skull of an elasmosaur found in Queensland, Australia

In Rare Find, Scientists Unearth Fossil of Large Marine Reptile With Both Head and Body

Skeletons of elasmosaurs are often found without their skull

Yale cast (top) and Berlin cast (bottom)

Scientists Find Plaster Copies of Fossil Destroyed by Nazis

Two casts of the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever unearthed were hidden in museum collections in Berlin and Connecticut

Scientists recorded 50 species of turtles making vocalizations.

Scientists Thought These 53 Species Were Silent. Now, They’ve Recorded Their Sounds

Vocal communication may have evolved from a common ancestor some 407 million years ago

The eastern lowland gorilla saw an estimated 80 percent decline in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park between 1994 and 2019. 

Animal Populations Faced a ‘Very Sharp Decline’ Since 1970

World Wildlife Fund researchers say vertebrate populations decreased by 69 percent, on average

An artist’s reconstruction of Scleromochlus taylori, an ancestor of pterosaurs

The Ancestors of Flying Pterosaurs Were Sleek Reptiles That Ran on the Ground

High definition scans of a fossil reveal the form of an early pterosaur relative

The newly discovered Opisthiamimus gregori preys on a now-extinct water bug.

Scientists Discover Bug-Eating Reptile That Lived Among Dinosaurs

Delicate fossil reveals a cousin of the modern tuatara

A skeleton of the giant Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis hangs in the Nevada State Museum.

Whale-Sized Marine Reptiles Once Ruled the Seas

Paleontologists are beginning to learn how and why ichthyosaurs evolved into giants

Thanatosdrakon amaru flew around the planet for 20 million years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event wiped out the dinosaurs.

Paleontologists Find Biggest Pterosaur Species Ever Unearthed in South America

The ancient fossils with wingspans the size of school buses are estimated to be 86 million years old

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