Super Snakes in Florida — now this already sounds like a really bad B movie. Forget about Snakes on a Plane or SyFy’s new add to the collection, Sea Snakes (Snakes on a Sub? seriouslywtf?). If these two monsters start breeding, there’ll be a whole new genre of snake movies ready to hit the latest straight to DVD release.

“…experts’ fears are mounting that the Burmese and African rock pythons will begin breeding–and give rise to a new, dangerous ‘super snake.’ “

Snakes at a Retirement Home will be the next big hit. “Get these mutherf*ckin’ snakes off my mutherf*ckin’ lawn!”

(original article on Treehugger)

In our ongoing fascination with animals and their sex lives, a study published by Molecular Ecology has found that Alligators are almost completely monogamous (making them sort of like the Catholics of the reptile kingdom). This is surprising news since most reptiles tend to by polyamorous (so they’re more like the Mormons).

Finding mate fidelity in alligators is surprising because most reptiles are polygamous, often mating with multiple partners during the same breeding year and producing young from multiple fathers. Alligators do exhibit multiple paternity — in this study, roughly 50 percent of nests contained eggs from more than one father — but surprisingly, females appeared to pick the same male (or males) year after year.

Because of the dense population of alligators at the wildlife refuge, the researchers don’t think the repeat pairings were a result of chance. Instead, it appears that female alligators are actively choosing specific males that they’ve mated with in the past.

Maybe the alligators just want to save money on having to buy condoms.

(original article on Wired)

This isn’t a photoshop image, although it looks like it could be. No, Mother Nature just got a little too smashed the other night. First she waved off the platypus as a hangover, but now this: a sea slug that’s part animal, part plant.

“Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body.”

Father Time, you better get control of your woman, or she’s going to end up rooming with Lohan in celebrity rehab.

(original article on Wired)

A species of gardening ants found by Texan and Brazilian researchers apparently got rid of their entire male population some time ago. Probably by nagging them to death, amiriteguyz?!lol!!

Queens of the ant Mycocepurus smithii reproduce without fertilization and males appear to be completely absent, report Christian Rabeling, Ulrich Mueller and their Brazilian colleagues in PLoS ONE this week.

“Animals that are completely asexual are relatively rare, which makes this is a very interesting ant,” says Rabeling, an ecology, evolution and behavior graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin. “Asexual species don’t mix their genes through recombination, so you expect harmful mutations to accumulate over time and for the species to go extinct more quickly than others. They don’t generally persist for very long over evolutionary time.”

Hopefully the straight edge ants don’t start making terrible music like human straight edge people.

original article found on science daily

They’re cute and cuddly–but we all know that’s just a mask for what lies beneath. This behemoth  has terrorized England’s woodland birds for years, snatching and devouring their unborn young. A crime, you say? Perhaps not.

“Researchers from the British Trust for Ornithology and Natural England examined the impact of grey squirrels on 38 bird species across the country. They found some evidence that grey squirrels may locally suppress the populations of some species. But they do not appear to cause the birds any widespread or lasting harm.”

This is obviously just a cover the squirrels have put in place, cleverly infiltrating the staff in Britain to skew the numbers. Don’t be fooled. These beasts will strike fear into your heart.

(original article on BBC news)