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The Tantilla oolitica (rim rock crowned snake), the rarest snake in North America, was recently rediscovered in a Florida Keys park after a four-year hiatus. Even though a snake encounter would normally be cause for celebration among conservationists, it was more of a source of astounding wonder than anything else. The snake was found to be dead, fighting a large centipede that it had partially swallowed in a lifeless battle. Experts haven't previously observed the snake's feeding patterns due to the tragic confrontation. T. oolitica is so uncommon that no one knew what it consumed until now, despite the fact that it is well known that closely related species enjoy centipedes. Researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History CT scanned the entangled pair and just published their results in the journal Ecology. Coleman Sheehy, co-author and manager of the herpetology collection at the Florida Museum, remarked, "I was surprised when I first viewed the images. "Sam...

A barrier island off the coasts of Virginia and Maryland has had its history rewritten by an abandoned Caribbean colony unearthed centuries later and a case of identity confusion in the archaeological record. These ostensibly unrelated strands were knitted together when Nicolas Delsol, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History, set out to investigate ancient DNA extracted from cow bones found in archaeological sites. Delsol sought to understand the origins of cattle domestication in the Americas, and he found the answer in the genetic data contained in thousands of year-old teeth. They did, however, also have a surprise. It was a happy accident, he claimed. "For my Ph.D., I sequenced mitochondrial DNA from fossil cow teeth, and when I evaluated the sequences, I noticed something was really wrong with one of the specimens." The DNA of one of the earliest horses brought to the Americas, represented by this tooth, is helping to rewrite the history of the...

For hundreds of years, wild horses have grazed freely over the island of Assateague off the coasts of Maryland and Virginia, but it is still unclear how they arrived there. In a recent investigation, it was discovered that the ancient DNA taken from a cow tooth from one of Spain's earliest Caribbean colonies in the 16th century really came from a horse. Old folktales that claim horses were marooned on Assateague when a Spanish galleon sank seem to be more true than not, according to DNA analysis. The past of a barrier island off the coastlines of Virginia and Maryland has been rewritten as a result of an abandoned Caribbean colony discovered centuries after it had been forgotten and a case of mistaken identification in the archaeological record. When Nicolas Delsol, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History, set out to examine ancient DNA extracted from cow bones discovered at archaeological sites, these ostensibly unconnected strands came together. The gen...