Zoopedia: Golden mantella

To start of 2024 we’re looking at a small but dangerous frog – the golden mantella. A tiny frog with toxins in its skin the golden mantella is a beautiful amphibian but one that is also incredibly threatened by human activities. Taxonomy and Evolution Golden mantellas have the scientific name Mantella aurantiaca, literally Latin for

Zoopedia: Fire salamander

Once thought to be born from flames this week we’re looking at the fire salamander. These black and yellow amphibians are found across continental Europe and are famed for their colouration. Taxonomy and Evolution Fire salamanders have the easy to remember name of Salamandra salamandra and is closely related to other salamanders including the alpine

Zoopedia: Hellbenders

Not the forgotten part of Avatar: The Last Airbender or an abandoned Hellraiser title, as part of our look at weird animals over April we’re looking at North America’s largest amphibian, the hellbender. A species of salamander, it spends its entire life in the water and was seen as something bent on returning to Hell

Paleo Profiles: Tiktaalik

A reconstruction and skull, from National Geographic It is rare in palaeontology that transitional fossils are found – these are the fossils which show how organisms evolve over time. Among some of the famous ones include the Archaeopteryx, which showed how dinosaurs evolved into birds, and Darwinius, which helped show where apes branched off from lemurs.