I found this shy, magnificent specimen this afternoon when I went out to lay in the sun. I saw him moving from a distance and thought he was a woodchuck due to his size. After I came upon him, he wouldn’t extend his head back out, but seemed amicable enough to allow me to take his picture a few times. I’m pretty sure he was a common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) and a rather large one at that. I assume he was a very slow-moving gentleman because virtually his entire body was covered in one sort of slime or another.

EDIT: I’ve been informed it was probably a lady turtle. Unfortunately, I tend to identify all animals as males unless I know for certain they’re a female, and in this case I was too lazy to keep writing “him/her.”

The bones of Ichthyostega (imagined by an artist in this picture), the most thoroughly studied of all early tetrapods, were first discovered on an east Greenland mountainside in 1897 by Swedish scientists looking for three explorers lost two years earlier during an ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole by hot-air balloon. Later expeditions by Gunnar Säve-Söderberg uncovered skulls of Ichthyostega but Säve-Söderberg died, at age 38, before he was able to make a thorough study of the skulls. His assistant, Erik Jarvik, picked up where he left off and most of what we know about Ichthyostega (and consequently most early tetrapods) today comes from their combined efforts.

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Gorongosa Pygmy Chameleon (Rhampholeaon gorongosae), photographed on Mount Gorongosa by Piotr Naskrecki (2013).

This species of chameleon has only been spotted by a few people since its discovery in the 1970s, making these photographs particularly spectacular.

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For some, it is common knowledge that Australia is just crawling with dangerous animals; as it turns out, it’s also slithering with them. The coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) is Australia’s most venomous snake, capable of growing up to 3.6 m long. Though it is shy by nature, if disturbed, it can strike with alarming speed. It was historically the case that a taipan bite was a certain death sentence for a human, but with the development of an antivenom, fatalities are much rarer now. The coastal taipan typically feeds on mammals, but is also known to eat birds and lizards.

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The blue coral snake (Calliophis bivirgata) is sometimes colloquially referred to as the “100-pace snake” because it is said that a human can make it 100 paces away after sustaining a bite from this animal before they die. However, there are not many recorded cases of human fatalities due to this snake, which hints that the snake gets a worse reputation than it deserves. Its typical prey is other snakes.

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Native to eastern and southern Africa, the black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is not only one of the most venomous snakes in the world, but also one of the fastest. Despite the great length of this snake, it is quite agile and can easily climb and slither along branches and within bushes. It makes its den in hollowed trees or in rock crevices and it is an extremely territorial animal. Its venom is fast-acting and a bite from a black mamba can be fatal if not treated immediately after the incident. However, humans are obviously not on the menu for this predator, whose main food sources are birds and small mammals.

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Strawberry poison-dart frog (Oophaga pumilio)

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Doris Swanson’s poison-dart frog (Ranitomeya dorisswansonae)

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Coming in an array of blues and greens, the green and black poison-dart frog (Dendrobates auratus) belongs to a family of nearly 180 species that includes some of the most poisonous amphibians in the world.

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Painted reed frog (Hyperolius marmoratus)

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