Erich P. Hofmann

Cape Fear Community College · Science Department

Significance Why biological complexity evolves is a major question in the life sciences, but the specific selection pressures favoring simple or complex traits remain unclear. Using high-resolution measurements of venom complexity in North American pitvipers, we link changes in complexity to natural history via phylogenetic diversity of snake diets...

The venoms of small rear-fanged snakes (RFS) remain largely unexplored, despite increased recognition of their importance in understanding venom evolution more broadly. Sequencing the transcriptome of venom-producing glands has greatly increased the ability of researchers to examine and characterize the toxin repertoire of small taxa with low venom...

Beyond providing critical information to biologists, species distributions are useful for naturalists, curious citizens, and applied disciplines including conservation planning and medical intervention. Venomous snakes are one group that highlight the importance of having accurate information given their cosmopolitan distribution and medical signif...

The Chortís Highlands of Mesoamerica exhibit a high degree of in situ evolutionary diversification, exemplified by numerous endemic radiations of stream-dwelling treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae: Atlantihyla, Duellmanohyla, and Ptychohyla), which have been a source of ongoing taxonomic uncertainty. Recent evidence suggests that one species, Atlantihyla sp...

Snake venom can vary both among and within species. While some groups of New World pitvipers-such as rattlesnakes-have been well studied, very little is known about the venom of montane pitvipers (Cerrophidion) found across the Mesoamerican highlands. Compared to most well-studied rattlesnakes, which are widely distributed, the isolated montane pop...

Populations of Norops sagrei, an anole lizard native to Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands, are established in northern Honduras. Here, we report seven new records in six departments for this species in northern, western, central, and southern Honduras, summarize the invasión progress of N. sagrei in the country, and comment on the importanc...

Significance A central question in biology is whether trait differences are the result of variation in gene number, sequence, or regulation. Snake venoms are an excellent system for addressing this question because of their genetic tractability, contributions to fitness, and high evolutionary rates. We sequenced and assembled the genome of the Tige...

Traits can evolve rapidly through changes in gene expression or protein-coding sequences. However, these forms of genetic variation can be correlated and changes to one can influence the other. As a result,we might expect traits lacking differential expression to preferentially evolve through changes in protein sequences or morphological adaptation...

Single-locus molecular barcoding is a useful method for identifying overlooked and undescribed biodiversity, providing the groundwork for further systematic study and taxonomic investigation. A variety of methods for delimiting species from barcoding libraries have been developed and applied, allowing for rapid estimates of species diversity in a b...

We describe a cryptic new species of Norops Wagler, 1830, Norops caceresae, from mixed transitional and broadleaf cloud forest formations in the Lenca Highlands of southwestern Honduras. This population was previously considered conspecific with Norops crassulus (Cope, 1864) of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico, despite it being entirely disjunct...

Changes in gene expression can rapidly influence adaptive traits in the early stages of lineage diversification. Venom is an adaptive trait comprised of numerous toxins used for prey capture and defense. Snake venoms can vary widely between conspecific populations, but the influence of lineage diversification on such compositional differences are u...

Integrative taxonomy seeks to approach the complex topic of species diagnosis using independent, complementary lines of evidence. Despite their ubiquity throughout North and Central America, taxonomy of the American leopard frogs (Anura: Ranidae: Rana: subgenus Pantherana) remains largely unresolved, and this is arguably nowhere truer than in the C...

Background: Recent studies have begun to reveal the complex evolutionary and biogeographic histories of mainland anoles in Central America, but the origins and relationships of many taxa remain poorly understood. One such group is the Anolis (Norops) crassulus species subgroup, which contains ten morphologically similar highland taxa, the majority...

Tantilla hendersoni Stafford, 2004 was described based on a single female specimen from Cayo District, Belize, and is the only snake species considered to be endemic to the country. We report the discovery of a second specimen, the first male, of Tantilla hendersoni from a new locality in Stann Creek District, and provide a detailed morphological d...

Se realizó un muestreo para elaborar un primer inventario de la herpetofauna de la Reserva Silvestre Privada El Jaguar en el Departamento de Jinotega, Nicaragua. Se detectaron veintidós especies: ocho anuros, ocho lagartijas, y seis serpientes durante nueve días de muestreo en enero 2016. We undertook the first sampling inventory of herpetofauna a...