Diego Miguel Arenas-Moreno

• Dr.
• Profesor at Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero

The energy that lizards and snakes invest in reproduction can vary according to their life history strategies and may be reflected in the variation of the number of offspring born, their dimensions, and changes in the weight of reproductive females. We determined the reproductive effort of a female Metlapilcoatlus olmec, which gave birth to a total...

Reproductive characteristics are determining factors in the evolutionary processes of reptiles; however, they remain poorly documented in many species. In this study, we evaluated aspects of reproductive biology and determined the influence of body size and weight on the reproductive effort of the lizard Abronia gadovii, an anguid species that is v...

Phyllodactylus consists of nocturnal, oviparous geckos that inhabit rocky areas in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. Despite their abundance, knowledge about their natural history is scarce. Here, we documented some reproductive aspects of P. delcampoi, a microendemic gecko from the tropical dry forests of Guerrero, Mexico. We found...

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are essential regulatory elements of sex chromosomes that act to equalize gene expression levels between males and females. XIST , RSX , and roX2 regulate X chromosomes in placental mammals, marsupials, and Drosophila , respectively. Because the green anole ( Anolis carolinensis ) shows complete dosage compensation of...

Aim Squamate fitness is affected by body temperature, which in turn is influenced by environmental temperatures and, in many species, by exposure to solar radiation. The biophysical drivers of body temperature have been widely studied, but we lack an integrative synthesis of actual body temperatures experienced in the field, and their relationships...

La masa relativa de nidada (MRN) es utilizada como una medida del esfuerzo reproductor en lagartijas. Las especies que no presentan cuidado parental son las que tienden a tener una MRN mayor. En este trabajo, estimamos el esfuerzo reproductor de una lagartija ovípara con supuesto cuidado parental, para esto colectamos cuatro hembras grávidas de Ger...

Hawksbill turtles are considered Critically Endangered. An understanding of how nest microenvironment (moisture and temperature) and maternal characteristics can influence embryonic development, hatching success, phenotype, and hatchling performance is needed to ensure effective conservation management. We undertook controlled egg incubations at di...

The relative allocation of energy organisms devote to reproductive processes (aka reproductive effort) constitutes a central topic in life history theory. We document some aspects of the reproductive ecology and investment of 2 viviparous skinks of the genus Plestiodon from Mexico: an undescribed species previously assigned to P. brevirostris (Ples...

Temperature is a key abiotic factor that influences performance of several physiological traits in ectotherms. Organisms regulate their body temperature within a range of temperatures to enhance physiological function. The capacity of ectotherms, such as lizards, to maintain their body temperature within their preferred range influences physiologic...

The role of physiology on habitat specialization in terrestrial ectotherms constitutes a rarely addressed topic, despite the fact that habitat specialization often involves the coadaptation of multiple physiological traits, which in turn may confer a higher vulnerability to climate change. Here we documented aspects of the thermal and hydric physio...

La temperatura es la principal variable ambiental de la que dependen las lagartijas para mantener sus procesos metabólicos, esta influencia el desempeño locomotor. Debido a esto, si la temperatura ambiental aumenta como consecuencia del cambio climático, los lacertilios podrían verse afectados fisiológica y ecológicamente. Evaluamos la eficiencia t...

The knob-scaled lizards (family Xenosauridae) comprise a clade of crevice-dwelling North American lizards with a trend towards low body temperature and high rates of water loss, and are often regarded as thermoconformers. However, there are few studies on their thermal ecology, most of them limited to documenting the body temperatures and their rel...

Viviparity, an innovation enhancing maternal control over developing embryos, has evolved >150 times in vertebrates, and has been proposed as an adaptation to inhabit cold habitats. Yet, the behavioral, physiological, morphological, and life history features associated with live-bearing remain unclear. Here, we capitalize on repeated origins of viv...

Heloderma horridum (Beaded Lizard) is a venomous lizard of large size distributed along the Pacific Coast of Mexico from Sinaloa to Chiapas, and in lowlands of the states of Estado de México, Morelos and Puebla (Reiserer et al., 2013). This lizard inhabits mostly in tropical dry forest at lowlands; however, it occasionally occurs in temperate habit...

Desert squamates need to regulate their body temperature within a specific range in response to extreme temperatures. Variation of thermal resources through altitudinal and latitudinal gradients influences the thermal physiological traits and thermoregulation of organisms. In some species, the physiological requirements between populations can vary...

Resumen El cambio climático es uno de los factores que ha provocado que la biota se enfrente a la sexta extinción masiva del planeta. Algunos de los organismos más sensibles son los ectotermos, por depender del calor ambiental, siendo los endémicos o microendémicos quienes pueden tener mayor riesgo debido a la limitada distribución que presentan. M...

The thermal quality of the habitat is key for the regulation of body temperature in terrestrial ectotherms and, therefore, permits them to carry out their fundamental biological activities. In thermally heterogeneous environments, ectotherms might follow different behavioral or physiological strategies to maintain their body temperature within biol...

In recent years, there has been an increase in the descriptions of members of the lizard genus Lepidophyma. Herein, we describe a new species of Lepidophyma from the Huasteca Potosina region of Mexico, previously confused with L. gaigeae, from which it differs in lacking parietal spot, among other characteristics. We inferred its phylogenetic posit...

Viviparity is an evolutionary innovation that enhances maternal protection of developing embryos relative to egg-laying ancestors. The behavioral, physiological, morphological, and life history pathways underpinning this innovation, however, remain unclear. We capitalized on the repeated origin of viviparity in phrynosomatid lizards to tease apart...

El cambio climático (CC) podría ocasionar la extinción del 20% de las especies de lagartijas a nivel mundial para el año 2080. Sin embargo, el riesgo de extinción varía entre especies y depende de los requerimientos fisiológicos de los individuos y de la distribución geográfica de las poblaciones. En el presente trabajo evaluamos aspectos de la eco...

Water relations of terrestrial ectotherms are influenced by a number of environmental factors and physiological constraints. Whereas macroenvironment undoubtedly plays a role in determining such relations, microenvironmental conditions are likely to be of even greater importance for habitat specialist species. The aim of this study was to examine t...

The US and Mexico share a common history in many areas, including language and culture. They face ecological changes due to the increased frequency and severity of droughts and rising energy demands; trends that entail economic costs for both nations and major implications for human well being. We describe an ongoing effort by the Environment Worki...

Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins,

Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins in the northern hemisphere, because of local extirpations or range shifts or both. We combined museum occurrence records from both the continental U.S. and Mexico with a new eco-physiological...

Recent climate change should result in expansion of species to northern or high elevation range margins, and contraction at southern and low elevation margins due to extinction. Climate models predict dramatic extinctions and distributional shifts in the next century, but there are few ground-truths of these dire forecasts leading to uncertainty in...

Temperature plays an important role in the behavior, ecology, physiology, and evolution of reptiles. Herein, we present selected bodytemperatures on 9 species of Phrynosoma under laboratory conditions, and note congeneric differences related to altitude and reproductive mode.The results are discussed with those of other phrynosomatid lizards.

We sampled Gopherus morafkai, Morafka’s, or Sonoran Desert tortoise across its geographic distribution at 43 localities, at 37 of which we found tortoises, in northwestern Mexico during 2005- 2013. Observed relative abundance did not differ among desertscrub, thornscrub, and tropical deciduous forest, although sampling was more difficult in tropica...

We used operative temperatures models shaped like tortoises to portray the operative thermal environment of desert tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) in three environments in Mexico during October 2012 – August 2013. Cooler, shadier thermal characteristics of tropical deciduous forest (TDF) in southern Sonora permit tortoise activity for ≈ 3X longer per...

We describe a new species of Phrynosoma from central northeastern Guerrero, México; perform a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data to estimate its phylogenetic relationships; and investigate the monophyly of Phrynosoma asio, P. braconnieri, and P. taurus. The new species can be distinguished from all of its congeners by...

Nocturnal reptiles depend on habitat thermal quality to effi ciently regulate their body temperature and to perform diurnal and nocturnal biological activities. It has previously been suggested that nocturnal ectotherms maintain different strategies to thermoregulate between day and night. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were: (1) to...

Nocturnal reptiles depend on habitat thermal quality to efficiently regulate their body temperature and to perform diurnal and nocturnal biological activities. It has previously been suggested that nocturnal ectotherms maintain different strategies to thermoregulate between day and night. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were: (1) to...