lizard Archives - usatoday24

It turns out that there are invasive land snakes that take to the sea from Ibiza. And they are annihilating a unique lizard

May 24, 2026 by usatoday24

In addition to being one of the great European tourist destinations, the Pitiusas Islands have a unique jewel of nature: the pitiusa lizarda unique reptile in the world that only lives there. By living in isolation, the lizard populations on each islet have evolved independently, giving rise to 28 different subspecies. This biological jewel today has a direct and truly terrifying threat: the horseshoe snake, a foreign species that was accidentally introduced to Ibiza in 2003, probably through ornamental olive trees imported from the Iberian Peninsula. Or so they thought: spotting a horseshoe snake is no longer something occasional, but they can even be seen swimming in the open sea. Spoiler: they are terrestrial snakes. what’s happening. The Center for Ecological Research and Forest Applications (CREAF) has published an academic article that covers the origin and invasion status of the horseshoe snake. The expansion map is conclusive: in 2010 the snake was present in less than 5% of the Ibizan territory, in 2016 it already occupied 40% of the island and in 2025 it had reached 90%. As stated by the research team led by Guillem Casbas and researcher Oriol Lapiedra, when it conquers a new area, it can take less than three years to eradicate the entire population of lizards. The speed of expansion is unprecedented among invasive snakes in Europe. What has never been seen is also the most disturbing: they have documented how snakes swim between islets, that is, they carry out active colonization. In 2024 they recorded a snake crossing 430 meters of open sea to the islet of Santa Eulària. The same sea that has served over the years as a barrier to the evolutionary isolation of the pitiusa lizard is no longer enough to protect it from its predator. The unstoppable advance of the horseshoe snake. Ecology Why is it important. The extinction of a species is always bad news from the point of view of fauna diversity, but this one is unique: its goodbye means that a unique and irrecoverable evolutionary lineage disappears, and according to the IUCN It is already cataloged as threatened, which means that population models predict a severe and continued reduction in the short and medium term. Beyond taxonomy, this eventual extinction would have its effect within an ecosystem as particular as the island and its balance, which could end with more extinctions due to a domino effect. In the case of the pitiusa lizard, it has pollinating and seed dispersal functions and if it does not do so, it puts the reproductive success of plants in check. On the other hand, and although its importance is more relative, the Pitiusas lizard is one of the great cultural and identity icons for those who are from Ibiza and Formentera: this amphibian is deeply rooted in the collective local imagination and popular mythology. Context. The magnitude of the problem is best understood within the biology of the islands. Islands are especially vulnerable ecosystems to invasive species because the loss of a single species can trigger cascading effects throughout the entire biological community. Invasive species enter the islands like an elephant enters a china shop: they compete for resources (more limited), alter habitats (smaller) and disturb ecological processes. The Pitiusas lizard is a critical node for the islands: however, was For millions of years it was the only terrestrial vertebrate in the archipelago and did not develop anti-predatory behaviors against snakes. A parallel case studied in depth is that of the brown tree snake on the island of Guamwhich decimated native bird and lizard populations, causing an increase in insects and altering forest dynamics. tragic consequences. The immediate ecological consequences are severe and quantifiable: there have already been local extinctions of lizards on at least 10 islets, and the snake has colonized between 12 and 15 of them through active swimming. And unfortunately, it’s just the beginning: this global study highlights that the impact of invasive vertebrate species on seed dispersal in island ecosystems is even greater than that caused by the extinctions of native fauna. Or what is the same, there may be a disruption in the plant regeneration of these islets. Likewise, its disappearance can take its toll on agriculture indirectly, as the lizard regulates the insect population. Is there a solution? The most urgent and important shock measure is to actively control the snake invasion. In 2025 the Balearic Government surpassed the 4,400 captures of invasive snakes in the Pitiusas and has already opted to leave the traps throughout the year. In 2026 the device will continue to expand with more resources. Of course, with a presence of 90% already in Ibiza, total eradication is unfeasible in the short term: the most realistic thing is to contain the advance and protect refuges. On the other hand, the conservation of the pitiusa lizard is also a priority objective, with several breeding lines of pitiusa lizards with genetic criteria in collaboration with the Barcelona Zoo. In the long term, the only structural solution is to combine the control of the snake with the conservation of the lizard’s genetics for a later reintroduction into its territory. In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates. In Xataka | Spain is witnessing a shocking phenomenon: three invasive species are feeding each other to conquer the country Cover | Albert Masats and Swimming Snakes Wipe out Endemic Lizards from Mediterranean Islets, Oriol Lapiedra

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard removed all their songs from Spotify. Immediately afterwards some mysterious versions took their place

November 17, 2025 by usatoday24

You can leave Spotify, but you don’t leave it completely until Spotify allows you to. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard just found out the hard way: They left the platform in protest of the CEO’s investmentsbut there are still his songs inside. The terrifying thing about it: they are not the ones who composed or recorded them. We go, or not. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard left Spotify in July 2025: it was a protest against Daniel Ek’s investments in military technology. Weeks later, however, they discovered that several of the group’s songs were still available on the platform. But they were not the originals, but rather instrumental versions that imitated the original songs, with the same artist name, identical titles and official covers. According to Platformer accountthese songs managed to accumulate more than 10 million views before being detected. The trick. Spotify presented these tracks as authentic. As a fan of the band tells Platformer, when playing ‘Deadstick’ from the album ‘Phantom Island’, what sounded was a simplified version, almost a cell phone ringtone, a kind of low-quality version. But without knowing the original song (and especially taking into account how fond of jokes and experimentation this unclassifiable and prolific band is) any listener could have confused it with the real song. The same thing happened with other songs on the album such as ‘Aerodynamic’ and ‘Grow Wings and Fly’. The article sparked a wave of protests that led Spotify to remove the content, confirming that it violated its anti-phishing policy. There are currently no songs from the group on the platform. It is not an isolated case. According to data from the company itself published in September 2025Spotify has removed 75 million tracks classified as spam over the last year. The consulting firm Luminate estimates that about 99,000 songs are uploaded daily to streaming services, often through distributors that do not verify the identity of the artist. The situation is accentuated on other platforms, in what seems to be a widespread problem with a clear trigger: the ease with which songs can be generated using AI. Deezer, for example, counted this same month which receives more than 50,000 tracks completely generated by artificial intelligence every day, 34% of all the content that reaches its servers. 70% of AI-generated music plays, he says, are unauthorized songs or songs that replace real artists. The Ghost of The Velvet Sundown. In June 2025, a band called The Velvet Sundown reached more than one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Its promotional photos had that artificial appearance characteristic of images generated by AI, and its members did not exist on any social network, but the group started with 550,000 monthly listeners after being recommended by the platform’s algorithm. After weeks of denying the accusations, those responsible admitted it was an “artistic provocation” created with artificial intelligence. His songs are still available on Spotify. The dead artists. However, in terms of impersonated artists, the case of deceased artists is more disturbing: numerous songs generated by AI began to appear in official profiles of deceased musicians. The page of Blaze Foley, country singer-songwriter murdered in 1989, received new songs. It also happened with Guy Clark, a Grammy winner who died in 2016, Sophie, an electronic artist who died in 2021, and Uncle Tupelo, Jeff Tweedy’s former band from Wilco. All of these tracks were uploaded by distributors without any verification and remained active for weeks before being detected. A systemic problem. Although Spotify is the visible head of this chaos, there is a real mess at many points on the diffusion scale. For example, distributors like DistroKid allow massive topic uploads without verifying the real identity of the artist. In the aforementioned September communication, Spotify announced new anti-spoofing policies and an anti-spam filter, but at the moment its effectiveness has not been proven. For now, the King Gizzard case raises a devastating question: after abandoning a platform, you do not abandon it completely. Maybe you’ll never do it. Header | Paul Hudson

a lizard that digests for months

July 14, 2025 by usatoday24

It seems out of a horror movie: a poisonous, slow and scums, which passes most of his life hidden under the sand of the desert. But this reptile, far from being a threat has become one of the great protagonists of modern medicine. His name: Heloderma Suspectumbetter known as Gila’s monster, and his poison has inspired medications that lately resonate a tool to lose weight. An unexpected finding. In 1980, the gastroenterologist Jean-Pierre Raufman, intrigued by the therapeutic potential of natural substances, analyzed a series of animal poisons. In the most arid areas in the southern United States and northern Mexico, the specialist in the digestive system and other associated organs was fascinated by the Gila monster. According to BBCGila’s monster spends 98% of his life in underground burrows and can survive with just six meals a year, thanks to the fat accumulated in his tail, in the style of camels. As He has collected The National Geographic, the doctor wanted to study more thoroughly after receiving a sample facilitated by the chemist John Pisano, who was looking for new peptide type molecules. Later, the endocrinologist John Eng resumed that line of research and managed to isolate two molecules of the poison: Excendin-3 and Excendin-4. These behaved similar to a human hormone called LPG-1, essential to regulate insulin production. The finding opened the doors to a new kind of drugs. The science behind LPG-1. Because of course, how a poison has become the thinning star? Gila’s monster-4 monster imitated LPG-1, but had a crucial advantage: it remained longer in the human organism, prolonging its effects on metabolism. This allowed developing medications such as Byetta (exenatida) for type 2 diabetes. As has collected the BBClater, it gave rise to the famous drugs known as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. They not only regulate blood sugar, but also reduce appetite and cause weight loss, acting directly on brain receptors that control the feeling of hunger. The trick was to make a small change in the molecule: they added some chains of fat that make it a protein in the blood. That allows the medicine to last longer in the body, so it is not necessary to take it so often and its effect is more constant. Now a major problem faces. And it is not shortage The drugs to lose weight. According to an Ecology and Evolution studyGila’s monster is seeing how its habitat is drastically reduced in the coming decades. Climate change, together with the fragmentation of the desert, limits its ability to adapt. By 2070, it is estimated that it could have disappeared from much of its current rank, especially in regions such as Mojave, without the possibility of recalling other more temperate areas. The poison as a research route. The use of toxic compounds in medicine is not something new. The captopril, widely prescribed to treat hypertension, is based on the poison of a Brazilian snake, the JARARACA Bothrops. Today, that same logic is being applied to the genetic scale. Hungarian researcher Zoltan Takacs works in cataloging animal toxins of different species to create a database that serves as a starting point for new pharmacological treatments. Hidden underground. The history of the Gila monster is a reminder that the best saved secrets of science are sometimes hidden under the sand. Today, its survival depends on human action. While in laboratories they are extracting wisdom from their poison, their habitat is reduced and its presence in nature becomes increasingly vulnerable. We do not know where the next advance of science will be. Image | Unspash and Unspash Xataka | “I lost 55 kilos, but I recovered 30 when leaving it”: we talked to the Spaniards who have tried the roller coaster of Ozempic

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