Articles > Newspapers > U.S. Newspapers, Major Markets > Deseret News (Salt Lake City) articles > April 2005

Article: Garter snakes, newts in genetic war

Article from:
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
Article date:
April 11, 2005
Author:
Copyright

For years, scientists at Utah State University have been documenting a "chemical arms race" between normally toxic newts and the garter snakes that eat them. Now they have discovered the genetic changes that allow the snakes to evolve molecular defenses against the poison.

Garter snakes regularly do something you can't -- something that perhaps no other creature but the snakes can do -- eat a rough- skinned newt and live. A newt is a member of the salamander order, and rough-skinned newts are common in West Coast streams.

As garter snakes have raised their chemical defenses, the newts have become more deadly. According to USU, one newt (scientific name Taricha granulosa) carries enough ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

Article: Ecology and Morphology of Thamnophis sirtalis pallidulus ...
Northeastern Naturalist;  January 1, 2006 ;     700+ words ... ... May and October 1993, a total of 391 garter snakes were marked. The total male:female ... ventral and/or subcaudal scales. Adult garter snakes on Georges Island are slightly smaller ... species. Little work has been done on garter snakes in the Maritime Provinces (Bleakney ...

Article: SCALES OF BEAUTY; Learn the riches of garter ...
Albany Times Union (Albany, NY);  May 5, 2008 ;     700+ words ... ... British Columbia. The only places where garter snakes cannot be found are in the arid Southwest ... States, however, we have "Eastern" garter snakes that are different in appearance ... found in wet fields and around ponds. Garter snakes feed on frogs, toads, salamanders ...

Article: Garter snakes yield sexual chemistry.
Science News;  July 22, 1989 ;     700+ words ...Garter snakes yield sexual chemistry Scientists ... For one month every spring, male garter snakes gather in groups of several thousand ... collected sexually primed, unmated adult garter snakes, 18 females and 24 males. They killed ...

Article: She-male garter snakes: some like it hot.(snake ...
Science News;  November 17, 2001 ;     700+ words ...Male garter snakes limping out of hibernation in northern ... advantages for the "she-male" garter snakes, nor do scientists know how these ... of North America. In Manitoba, garter snakes converge on the few spots suitable ...

Article: Garter snakes emerge to slither and mate
Winnipeg Free Press;  May 20, 2008 ;     685 words ... ... into the sunshine. The delicate red garter snakes emerged from their underground winter ... tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes congregate at the surface of their ... the first few warm days of spring, garter snakes emerge from these dens and gather in ...

Article: BLACK HILLS STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, FACULTY MEMBER CONDUCT ...
US Fed News Service, Including US State News;  September 16, 2008 ;     609 words ... ... Dr. Brian Smith released 47 female garter snakes and their offspring, numbering in ... expended and weight gained and lost, that garter snakes in South Dakota put into reproduction ... in Canada, researchers found that garter snakes, on average, gave birth to seven ...

Article: Minimal overwintering temperatures of red-sided garter ...
Canadian Journal of Zoology;  May 1, 2006 ;     700+ words ...Abstract: Red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis ... loggers into 32 female redsided garter snakes before they entered their native ... reproductive behavior of red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis ...

Article: DNR wants plans altered to protect garter snakes
Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque);  March 24, 2002 ;     365 words ...NEW BERLIN (AP) - Garter snakes are choking the city's plans to build a $40 million civic ... since last summer, when DNR officials discovered Butler's garter snakes in an area where a road would be built to the center. The state ...

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!

Find articles, research, and archives