Indraneil Das

• D.Phil. (Oxon)
• University of Malaysia, Sarawak

The small island nation of Bahrain lies in the Arabo-Persian Gulf off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. Most of the country comprises low-lying desert and its wetland biodiversity has historically centered around springs or artesian wells. Its amphibian fauna is represented by a single ranid frog species, the Marsh Frog, Pelophylax ridibundus. Ove...

The State of Kuwait (Fig. 7.1) is located along the northern edge of eastern Arabia, and is one of the smallest countries in Asia. Its landscape is mostly flat, broken by low sand dunes and shallow depressions. As expected of a water-deficit area, its amphibian fauna is depauperate, comprising a single species, the bufonid, Bufotes sitibundus, foun...

Davis et al. (2023a) published the descriptions of two new Bornean species of the highly speciose gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 in the journal Zoologica Scripta. The descriptions themselves actually appeared in the online supplementary information to this paper as Appendix S1, accessible as a link under “Supporting Information” on the Wil...

The taxonomy of king cobras (Ophiophagus) was reevaluated using qualitative, mensural and meristic characters, based on 148 entire and five skeletal specimens, and supported by a recent molecular phylogenetic analysis. We provide nomenclatural synopses of both the genus and species-series nomina. We restrict the concept of Ophiophagus hannah s. str...

Species delimitation using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) remains an important and accessible approach for discovering and delimiting species. However, delimiting species with a single locus (e.g. DNA barcoding) is biased towards overestimating species diversity. The highly diverse gecko genus Cyrtodactylus is one such group where delimitation using mtD...

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 relationship...

Background Human-commensal species often display deep ancestral genetic structure within their native range and founder-effects and/or evidence of multiple introductions and admixture in newly established areas. We investigated the phylogeography of Eutropis multifasciata , an abundant human-commensal scincid lizard that occurs across Southeast Asi...

In a recent paper in Zoologica Scripta, the formal diagnoses and descriptions of two new Bornean gekkonid gecko species of the Cyrtodactylus consobrinus (Peters, 1871) complex were included in online supplementary material. Although the new nomina were associated with ZooBank registration identifiers, the supplementary document in which these LSIDs...

This chapter traces the discovery of the snakes of Borneo. The earliest discoveries made during the Linnaean phase were collected by early seafarers and early naturalists from the Malay Peninsula and Java. The next phase of discoveries coincided with the establishment of European museums, as material was added through the explorations of new coloni...

Lanthanotus borneensis , the Bornean earless monitor, is a monotypic member of the family Lanthanotidae, and restricted to the island of Borneo. Little has been published on its field ecology. This study investigated aspects of its thermal biology through an analysis of surface body temperatures of free ranging individuals against corresponding env...

Systematic assessments of species extinction risk at regular intervals are necessary for informing conservation action1,2. Ongoing developments in taxonomy, threatening processes and research further underscore the need for reassessment3,4. Here we report the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment, evaluating 8,011 species for the Inter...

Systematic assessments of species extinction risk at regular intervals are necessary for informing conservation action1,2. Ongoing developments in taxonomy, threatening processes and research further underscore the need for reassessment3,4. Here we report the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment, evaluating 8,011 species for the Inter...

Studies of the evolution of turtle shell morphology have raised numerous questions. In this study, five adult females and two adult males of the Endangered Spiny Hill Turtle Heosemys spinosa from two localities in western Sarawak in East Malaysia (Borneo) were examined for the presence of plastral deossification zones, reported as indicative of kin...

Protected Areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. Here, we collated distributional data for >14,000 (~70% of) species of amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) to perform a global assessment of the conserva- tion effectiveness of PAs using species distribution models. Our analyses reveal that >91% of herpetofauna species are c...

Using molecular genetic data, recognised diversity within the gecko genus Cyrtodactylus has more than doubled, with many lineages that were once thought to be wide‐ranging being delimited into multiple independent species. On the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, there has been a recent renewed focus on reptile taxonomy, as genetic data have demons...

The purpose of this paper is to solve an overlooked nomenclatural problem involving two taxa of Colubridae, both described as Coluber korros. The first one is Coluber korros Schlegel, 1837, now Ptyas korros, a well-known and widespread species in south-east Asia. Its senior homonym is Coluber korros Lesson, 1831, a long forgotten taxon. Furthermore...

We identified hypotheses for the cause and consequences of the loss of complexity in animal signals and tested these using a genus of visually communicating lizards, the South-east Asian Draco lizards. Males of some species have lost the headbob component from their display, which is otherwise central to the communication of this genus. These males...

Since the description of Charles Darwin’s frog as Rana charlesdarwini in 1998, its generic placement has been a taxonomic enigma. Subsequent studies first transferred this species to the dicroglossid genus Limnonectes , and then considered it as a ceratobatrachid of the genus Ingerana , which has since been moved to the family Dicroglossidae. Howev...

Three new species of Cnemaspis are described from karst regions of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. These are Cnemaspis matahari sp. nov. and C. sirehensis sp. nov. from limestone hills located in the Serian Division of western Sarawak, and C. lagang sp. nov. from Gunung Mulu, Miri Division, in northern Sarawak. All can be distinguished...

We review the status, patterns, and progress of Malaysia's amphibian research in the 21 st century (2000-2021) with the main goal of identifying areas for improvement that can help focus and prioritise future research initiatives. Between the period of January 2000-September 2021, we found 280 publications that can be broadly grouped into five cate...

While a majority of snakes occurring in Malaysia are not equipped with venom and constitute little threat to humans, a number of species can cause envenoming that may lead to permanent disability or death. The range of snakes of medical significance in Malaysia encompasses the families Natricidae, Elapidae, Pythonidae and Viperidae. The third editi...

Xenodermidae is a generally poorly known lineage of caenophidian snakes found in South, East and Southeast Asia. We report molecular phylogenetic analyses for a multilocus data set comprising all five currently recognised genera and including new mi-tochondrial and nuclear gene sequence data for the recently described Stoliczkia vanhnuailianai. Our...

Xenodermidae is a generally poorly known lineage of caenophidian snakes found in South, East and Southeast Asia. We report molecular phylogenetic analyses for a multilocus data set comprising all five currently recognised genera and including new mi-tochondrial and nuclear gene sequence data for the recently described Stoliczkia vanhnuailianai. Our...

This population of Heosemys spinosa shows distinct morphological and colour differences between adult males and females, here interpreted as sexual dimorphism. The largest individual was a male (240.3 mm), which was well outside the size range encountered in females (143.4–211.4 mm) in this study. Males showed relatively flat-topped carapaces...

IUCn Red List assessment

In widespread species, the diverse ecological conditions in which the populations occur, and the presence of many potential geographical barriers through their range are expected to have created ample opportunities for the evolution of distinct, often cryptic lineages. In this work, we tested for species boundaries in one such widespread species, t...

Convergence in communication appears rare compared with other forms of adaptation. This is puzzling, given communication is acutely dependent on the environment and expected to converge in form when animals communicate in similar habitats. We uncover deep‐time convergence in territorial communication between two groups of tropical lizards separated...

The paraphyletic group of Old World rock gecko genus Cnemaspis, currently comprises ~180 described species from Africa and Asia. The south-east Asian clade with 63 described species, is most diverse on the Thai-Malay Peninsula, with just five species known from Borneo, an island biodiversity hotspot. Karst regions are known as centres for species e...

Social animals are expected to face a trade-off between producing a signal that is detectible by mates and rivals, but not obvious to predators. This trade-off is fundamental for understanding the design of many animal signals, and is often the lens through which the evolution of alternative communication strategies is viewed. We have a reasonable...

A photographic guide to the Reptiles of Indian Subcontinent

One of the most urgent contemporary tasks for taxonomists and evolutionary biologists is to estimate the number of species on earth. Recording alpha diversity is crucial for protecting biodiversity, especially in areas of elevated species richness, which coincide geographically with increased anthropogenic environmental pressures - the world's so-c...

Our knowledge of the conservation status of reptiles, the most diverse class of terrestrial vertebrates, has improved dramatically over the past decade, but still lags behind that of the other tetrapod groups. Here, we conduct the first comprehensive evaluation (~92% of the world's ~1714 described species) of the conservation 1 Joint senior authors...

The appreciation of cryptic biological diversity, and the pace at which it is recognized, has greatly increased with the use of molecular systematic techniques. The gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 is one example of a group that has undergone a particularly rapid increase in recognized diversity due to molecular systematic studies. Many of t...

Macroecology of Terrestrial Herpetofauna

Emerging infectious diseases are on the rise in many different taxa, including, among others, the amphibian batrachochytrids, the snake fungal disease and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, responsible for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in mammals. Following the onset of the pandemic linked to COVID-19, eas...

From August to October 2018, observations were made at Kubah National Park, Sarawak (Borneo). Two females were encountered feeding on mushrooms, identified as Boletus sp. and Russula sp. based on the morphology of the cap. Boletus (family Boletaceae) is a fungus genus with over 100 described species, four of which (B. ananas, B. aurisporus, B. mir...

Social media has, in the past decade, emerged unexpectedly as a powerful tool in citizen science (Liberatore et al. 2018). Whether unintended or formally integrated, it offers, among other benefits, mass participation in activities such as data collection in inventories, monitoring, or natural history observations (Tulloch 2013). It can be argued t...

Most new cryptic species are described using conventional tree‐ and distance‐based species delimitation methods (SDMs), which rely on phylogenetic arrangements and measures of genetic divergence. However, although numerous factors such as population structure and gene flow are known to confound phylogenetic and species delimitation inferences, the...

Frogs of the genus Microhyla include some of the world's smallest amphibians and represent the largest radiation of Asian microhylids, currently encompassing 50 species, distributed across the Oriental biogeographic region. The genus Microhyla remains one of the taxonomically most challenging groups of Asian frogs and was found to be paraphyletic w...

In many parts of the world, reptiles are feared and seen as lower or more primitive than other animals. Not so for us followers of Shakyamuni or for us Bhutanese. In fact, we Buddhists have a long affection for and special connection with reptiles. It was a snake, the king of the nagas, who protected Prince Siddhartha while he sat under the bodhi t...

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 pres...

Of some 3700 extant species of snake, less than 750 are venomous – most of them not greatly harmful to humans. Yet snakes occupy an outsized niche in human imagination, both in regard to their potential medical impacts and in other cultural roles. In this chapter, we review available information on snakebites and fatalities from around the world, d...

We report recent observations, two new locality records and an updated overview of the distribution of Dopasia buettikoferi (Lidth de Jeude, 1905) from Borneo, as well as photographic documentation of this species showing colouration and patterns in living individuals and the holotype. This note represents the first complete compilation of distribu...

Red list Assessment of Red- crowned Roofed Turtle, Batagur kachuga

Tropical biodiversity on the island of Borneo attracts biologists and laymen alike, and yet many parts of the island are left unexplored. The Ulu Baleh region in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo is located in the headwaters of major tributary of Batang Rejang (Rejang River). Access into the area is limited and available only through river transportation,...

A new species of frog belonging to the genus Polypedates Tschudi is described from the state of West Bengal, Eastern India. A mid-sized frog, SVL ranges from 47.9-53.6 mm in males and 72.0 mm in the single female. The species is diagnosable in showing the following suite of characters: digits lack webbing, inner and outer metacarpal tubercles prese...

Conservation Status/Red List Data for Manouria emus

The island of Borneo lies within one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Despite this, its documented gekkonid diversity is not commensurate with other areas of Southeast Asia. The megadiverse genus Cyrtodactylus is especially un-derrepresented. Limestone-karst ecosystems, in particular, harbor many endemic Cyrtodactylus species, but only...

The taxonomy of freshwater crabs requires a paradigm change in methodological approaches, particularly in investigations that use morphological techniques. The traditional morphometric approach (two-dimensional measurements) tends to be inappropriate for the identification of freshwater crabs due to their variable external morphology and lack of go...

Aim: Variation in body size across animal species underlies most ecological and evolutionary processes shaping local‐ and large‐scale patterns of biodiversity. For well over a century, climatic factors have been regarded as primary sources of natural selection on animal body size, and hypotheses such as Bergmann's rule (the increase of body size wi...

We employed radio-telemetry to understand its spatial biology, and six individuals were tracked for a period up to 17 months, and data on home range, movement pattern and microhabitat preferences obtained. Two important questions raised on the autecology of Heosemys spinosa relevant to its spatial ecology were: 1) how does sexual variation, body si...

A large body of evidence indicates that evolutionary innovations of novel organs have facilitated the subsequent diversification of species. Investigation of the evolutionary history of such organs should provide important clues for understanding the basis for species diversification. An Asian natricine snake, Rhabdophis tigrinus, possesses a serie...

The current account presents the results of a 14-day amphibian survey at Maliau Basin Conservation Area (MBCA). With a total of approximately 170 man-hrs, 44 species were detected at four study sites during the field period; four more species were later discovered outside the two-week campaign. The results are compared to the results of previous su...

While a majority of snakes occurring in Malaysia are not equipped with venom and constitute little threat to humans, a number of species can cause envenoming that may lead to permanent disability or death. The range of snakes of medical significance in Malaysia encompasses the families Natricidae, Elapidae, Pythonidae and Viperidae. This book highl...

We collected two specimens of an undescribed species of Lygosoma from pitfall traps in an urban rainforest in Kuching and from the base of a forested hill in western Sarawak, East Malaysia. The new species is diagnosable from all south-east Asian congeners by morphological characters, and most closely resembles Lygosoma herberti from the Thai-Malay...

Episodic sea level changes that repeatedly exposed and inundated the Sunda Shelf characterize the Pleistocene. Available evidence points to a more xeric central Sunda Shelf during periods of low sea levels, and despite the broad land connections that persisted during this time, some organisms are assumed to have faced barriers to dispersal between...

Specimens, localities, and associated genbank accession numbers included in the study

The concatenated BI phylogeny with support displayed for BI/ML analyses Support for the ML phylogeny indicated by bootstrap values (proportion of 1,000) and for the BI tree by posterior probabilities.

RAxML gene trees with 100 rapid bootstrap replicates

The ebook Land Snakes of Medical Significance can be downloaded via the link: http://www.mybis.gov.my/pb/1624 The purpose of this book is to highlight the potentially dangerous species to humans, with a list of the main potentially medically significant snakes. It is important to note that if a species is not listed below, it does not necessaril...

Data on nutrient contents of freshwater crabs are important for ecological studies and species conservation assessments, especially when the species concerned is threatened among others by habitat destruction and uncontrolled resources utilisation. Indeed comprehensive biological information is required to reconcile the needs between sustainable re...

A new species of the genus Tropidophorus is described from Putai, upper Baleh, Kapit districts, Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo). Tropidophorus sebi sp. nov. is diagnosable from congeners from Borneo by the combination of the following characters: head shields present, dorsal and lateral scales smooth; parietal scales in two pairs; supraciliaries ei...

Effective communication requires animal signals to be readily detected by receivers in the environments in which they are typically given. Certain light conditions enhance the visibility of colour signals and these conditions can vary depending on the orientation of the sun and the position of the signaller. We tested whether Draco sumatranus glidi...

Effective communication requires animal signals to be readily detected by receivers in the environments in which they are typically given. Certain light conditions enhance the visibility of colour signals and these conditions can vary depending on the orientation of the sun and the position of the signaller. We tested whether Draco sumatranus glidi...

Tropidophorus micropus van Lidth de Jeude, 1905, described from the upper Mahakkam River, Kalimantan, Indonesia, is here redescribed, based on new material from upper Baleh, Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo), collected after over 100 years. The new locality is ca. 94 km to the north of the type locality, and comprises a new national record. © 2017, A...

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009;...

This plot is not part of the published stance but derives from it. The plot shows the number of authors by geographic region (courtesy of Dr. Diego Astua).

Habitat disturbance is known to strongly affect biodiversity within many major taxa. Amphibians particularly are sensitive to environmental change, and many studies have demonstrated the effect of anthropogenic disturbance on populations. Several ecological traits within amphibians are vulnerable to landscape change, including reproductive strategi...

Sexual ornamentation needs to be conspicuous to be effective in attracting potential mates and defending territories and indeed, a multitude of ways exist to achieve this. Two principal mechanisms for increasing conspicuousness are to increase the ornament's colour or brightness contrast against the background and to increase the size of the orname...

Effective conservation of biodiversity requires good ecological information on species, populations and communities. This is particularly true for the Malaysia state of Sarawak in Borneo, whose rich biological diversity remains poorly documented, with many wetland species facing serious threats resulting from habitat alteration, pollution and overe...

Tropical forests are known centers of amphibian richness and endemicity. Within these forests, embedded wetlands, particularly streams and other lotic environments, are focal areas of amphibian diversity. Are specific streams or sections of streams relatively more important than others as reservoirs of species richness or endemicity? To address thi...

We describe two new species of skinks from Gunung Penrissen, Sarawak, Malaysia, in northern Borneo, Tytthoscincus batupanggah sp. nov. and T. leproauricularis sp. nov. Morphological and molecular analyses both corroborate the two new species as unique compared to all other Tytthoscincus and additional Sphenomorphus that are candidates for taxonomic...

A new bufonid amphibian, belonging to a new monotypic genus, is described from the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, Republic of India, based on unique external morphological and skeletal characters which are compared with those of known Oriental and other relevant bufonid genera. Blythophryne gen. n. is distinguished from other bufonid genera...