New snake species described in the journal Nature based on vertebra from excavations in Colombia. Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the world's largest snake, was more than 42 feet long and weighed over a ton.

Leaders in tropical biology and conservation, William F. Laurance and Thomas E. Lovejoy, have won the 2008 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, announced on Jan. 30, 2009, in Madrid, Spain.

Responding to sub-Saharan Africa's soil health crisis, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture announced today an ambitious new effort to produce the first-ever, detailed digital soil map for all 42 countries of the region. This project combines the latest soil science and technology with remote satellite imagery and on-the-ground efforts to analyze thousands of soil samples from remote areas across the continent to help provide solutions for poor farmers.

Starch grains preserved on human teeth reveal that ancient Peruvians ate a variety of cultivated crops including squash, beans, peanuts and pacay. Starch grain analysis of human dental remains should prove to be a powerful means to directly study ancient diets.