The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented the incorporation of reptiles into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation schemes represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation priority scheme identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the world’s arid, grassland and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently

Genomics is narrowing uncertainty in the phylogenetic structure for many amniote groups. For one of the most diverse and species-rich groups, the squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians), an inverse correlation between the number of taxa and loci sampled still persists across all publications using DNA sequence data and reaching a consensus on the relationships among them has been highly problematic. In this study, we use high-throughput sequence data from 289 samples covering 75 families of squamates to address phylogenetic affinities, estimate divergence times, and characterize residual topological uncertainty in the presence of genome-scale data. Importantly, we address genomic support for the traditional taxonomic groupings Scleroglossa and Macrostomata using novel machine-learning techniques. We interrogate genes using various metrics inherent to these loci, including parsimony-informative sites (PIS), phylogenetic informativeness, length, gaps, number of substitutions, and site concordance to understand why certain loci fail to find previously well-supported molecular clades and how they fail to support species-tree estimates. We show that both incomplete lineage sorting and poor gene-tree estimation (due to a few undesirable gene properties, such as an insufficient number of PIS), may account for most gene and species-tree discordance. We find overwhelming signal for Toxicofera, and also show that none of the loci included in this study supports Scleroglossa or Macrostomata. We comment on the origins and diversification of Squamata throughout the Mesozoic and underscore remaining uncertainties that persist in both deeper parts of the tree (e.g., relationships between Dibamia, Gekkota, and remaining squamates; among the three toxicoferan clades Iguania, Serpentes, and Anguiformes) and within specific clades (e.g., affinities among gekkotan, pleurodont iguanians, and colubroid families).

We examined data comprising 1,028 successful and 967 failed introduction records for 596 species of alien reptiles and amphibians around the world to test for factors influencing establishment success. We found significant variations between families and between genera. The number of jurisdictions where a species was introduced was a significant predictor of the probability the species had established in at least one jurisdiction. All species that had been introduced to more than 10 jurisdictions (34 species) had established at least one alien population. We also conducted more detailed quantitative comparisons for successful (69 species) and failed (116 species) introductions to three jurisdictions (Great Britain, California and Florida) to test for associations with climate match, geographic range size, and history of establishment success elsewhere. Relative to failed species, successful species had better climate matches between the jurisdiction where they were introduced and their geographic range elsewhere in the world.Successful species were also more likely to have high establishment success rates elsewhere in the world. Cross-validations indicated our full model correctly categorized establishment success with 78-80% accuracy. Our findings may guide risk assessments for the import of live alien reptiles and amphibians to reduce the rate new species establish in the wild.

Alien herpetofauna have a broad diversity of ecological and evolutionary impacts, involving seven mechanisms. Ecological impacts usually result from trophic disruptions and may be direct or indirect and top-down or bottom-up; they may vary in scale from single species to communities. A single species may impose impacts involving most or all of these categories. Evolutionary impacts most often result from hybridization and introgression but may include diverse changes in native fauna induced by selection. Impact magnitudes observed to date largely range from moderate to major, but massive impacts (including species extinction) are known for a handful of invasive species. Research remains skewed toward a small sample of all invaders, and major research gaps remain in understanding community-level impacts, the risk posed by competition, determinants of predation impact, the relevance of genetic diversity to impacts, and how to predict impacts.

Nine additional sequences from representatives ofdierent tribes ofthe family Bovidae were combined with six published artiodactyl sequences to provide orthologous mtDNA for investigation ofbovid phylogeny and evolution. Each species was represented by a homologous 2.7-kilobase-pair stretch of mtDNA for the complete 12S and 16S rRNA genes and three adjacent tRNA genes. These data, when compared to other results, provided evidence for a monophyletic Bovidae and for two clades within the family: one including the tribes Boselaphini, Bovini, and Tragelaphini and another for an Antilopini/Neotragini grouping. AU other intrafamilial relationships were only weakly supported. These sequence comparisons suggest that most bovid tribes originated early in the Miocene with all extant lineages present by -16-17 million years ago. Thus, bovid tribes provide an example of rapid cladogenesis, following the origin of families in the infraorder Pecora.

Aim: Clutch size is a key life-history trait. In lizards, it ranges over two orders of magnitude. The global drivers of spatial and phylogenetic variation in clutch have been extensively studied in birds, but such tests in other organisms are lacking. To test the generality of latitudinal gradients in clutch size, and their putative drivers, we present the first global-scale analysis of clutch sizes across lizard taxa. Location: Global. Time period: Recent. Major taxa studied: Lizards (Reptilia, Squamata, Sauria). Methods: We analysed clutch-size data for over 3,900 lizard species, using phylogenetic generalized least-square regression to study the relationships between clutch sizes and environmental (temperature, precipitation, seasonality, primary productivity, insularity) and ecological factors (body mass, insularity, activity times, and microhabitat use). Results: Larger clutches are laid at higher latitudes and in more productive and seasonal environments. Insular taxa lay smaller clutches on average. Temperature B I OS K E TCH Shai Meiri is interested in the evolution of traits, and its relationship with geography.

Understanding the factors that determine rates of range expansion is not only crucial for developing risk assessment schemes and management strategies for invasive species, but also provides important insight into the ability of species to disperse in response to climate change. However, there is little knowledge on why some invasions spread faster than others at large spatiotemporal scales. Here, we examine the effects of human activities, species traits and characteristics of the invaded range on spread rates using a global sample of alien reptile and amphibian introductions. We show that spread rates vary remarkably among invaded locations within a species, and differ across biogeographical realms. Spread rates are positively related to the richness of native congeneric species and human-assisted dispersal in the invaded range but are negatively correlated with topographic heterogeneity. Our findings highlight the importance of environmental characteristics and human-assisted dispersal in developing robust frameworks for predicting species' range shifts.

Mitochondrial DNA sequences of both ribosomal RNA genes and three adjacent transfer RNA genes were obtained for the three extant subfamilies of antlered deer (Cervinae, Muntiacinae, and Odocoileinae) as well as for their antlerless sister group Hydropotinae (family Cervidae). Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences (each nearly 2.7 kilobase pairs in length) supports a cervine/muntiacine lade to the exclusion of odocoileines. These results are statistically significant, stable, and congruent with some independent data. Our mitochondrial DNA sequences, when coupled with other information, indicate that the earliest fossil antlered deer are not closely related to living muntiacines or any other contemporary subfamily. From this information, we hypothesize an Old World, Late Miocene origin of Odocoileinae.The subfamilies Cervinae (Old World deer), Muntiacinae (muntjacs and tufted deer), and Odocoileinae (New World deer) of the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla, suborder Ruminantia) (table 1.V. in ref. 1) are unique in that males (as well as females of Rangifer) have antlers (2, 3). In the subfamilies Cervinae and Odocoileinae, antlers are usually large and complex structures, consisting of a long, multibranched distal element attached to a short nondeciduous pedicle or base. In contrast, the antlers of Muntiacinae are relatively small with a short, simple distal region connected to a long pedicle. This latter condition is considered primitive because it is found in the earliest fossil antlered deer (tribe Dicrocerini) from the Early and Middle Miocene of Eurasia (2-5). Because of their similar small, long-pedicled antlers, living muntiacines and dicrocerines have been assigned to the same subfamily Muntiacinae (= Cervulinae) (4, 6-8). However, this and other conclusions about antlered deer phylogeny are rarely supported by synapomorphies (shared derived characters) obtained from explicit cladistic analysis (9). The morphological cladogram of Groves and Grubb (10) is an important exception.Previous phylogenetic studies of morphological and paleontological information for the suborder Ruminantia have demonstrated that the three extant subfamilies of antlered deer form a monophyletic group (3, 10). The sister group to these three subfamilies is the antlerless Hydropotes inermis (Chinese water deer), the sole living representative of Hydropotinae (1,3,5,10,11). Evolutionary relationships among antlered deer subfamilies remain unresolved (10).We sequenced the 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) (24). Such ambiguous mutations were assigned to the most-parsimonious phylogeny according to the optimization procedure of Fitch (24). This approach uses all parsimonious placements of an ambiguous mutation to calculate a probability of change for each branch. These probabilities are then summed across all mutations to obtain the branch lengths. In this manner, each alternative placement contributes proportionally to the final assignments. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONPairwise comparisons of the four cervid sequences indicate th...