Interesting Science and Nature Sites

Science Daily - A "scientific news site" that keeps you up to date with all kinds of science news. I love how it is possible to follow RSS feeds on each of the different categories, as I find following all news on this site a bit overwhelming.

ZipcodeZoo - Look up different species to learn about their habitat, their conservation status, their latin name and their taxonomy.

PLoS - A nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. This site is full of interesting articles.

EOL - The Encyclopedia of Life - Working to organize and make available all information about life present on Earth. At this time it is not one of my favorite site to use while doing research on species, as I want information beyond taxonomy and general information, but this site is a work in progress and I imagine it will have extensive information on most species in the near future.

Scienceray - Nature/science site featuring a lot of interesting easy-to-read articles.

Sea and Sky - Exploring the Splendors of the Sea and the Wonders of the Universe - This is a site I would recommend to all science and nature interested families out there. Sea and Sky is filled with easy-to-understand information on space and sea. There are interactive activities and lots of pictures to look at. An ideal site for the whole family to explore together.

This was a few of my favorite science and nature sites. Please make a comment if you have a favorite science or nature site you feel like sharing!

The World's Tiniest Snake

S. Blair Hedges, a biologist at Penn State University in the U.S., has just discovered the world’s tiniest snake.

The tiny record holder has been identified as a new species, which is non venomous. It has been called Leptotyphlops carlae, and was found under a rock in the Caribbean island of Barbados.

Adult snakes of this species will grow to be about 10 cm / 4 inches long, and this makes them the smallest of roughly 3100 known snake species. Not much is known about this new species yet, other than that it eats termites and insect larva.

S. Blair Hedges research teams have earlier discovered other tiny species, like the world’s tiniest lizard, and the smallest frog in Cuba.

Via CNN.

Chameleon Snake

And I who though only Octopuses and Chameleons could change color at will...

In 2006 a snake that changes colors like a chameleon was discovered in the heart of Borneo. It's color changing abilities was discovered when a scientist put it into a dark bucket, and when he went to retrieve it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white.

The scientists named it the Kapuas mud snake, since the two specimens they collected was found in the wetlands and swamped forests around Kapuas River.

The Kapuas mud snake is poisonous and is believed to live only in the area around Kapuas River.

Via WWF

New Fish Species - Pug of the Sea

This cute little fella, with forward facing eyes that has not been seen before, is all new to science. He was discovered in January this year in Indonesia, and he is supposed to be some kind of anglerfish, even though he's got no lure.
This fish likes to crawl around rather than swim, it's very good at hiding inside coral cracks, and it's about the size of a fist.

See National Geographic article for more information.

Cryptomundo

I just discovered Cryptomundo through a BoingBoing article.
Quite an interesting site!

I knew scientists were discovering new species all the time, but I had no idea how many species we were talking about. Cryptomundo's roundup of new species discovered the last few weeks gave me a good ide of just how many.