J. Angel Soto-Centeno

• PhD Biology
• Assistant Curator at American Museum of Natural History

Aim: Understanding patterns of biodiversity is vital to conserving species. We aimed to combine open-source genetic, environmental, and geographic information to analyze patterns of bat phylogenetic diversity (PD) in continuous ecoregions across the globe. This information is important for developing bat conservation strategies, and the flexible me...

Neurocordulia, commonly called shadowdragons, are crepuscular dragonflies, flying mainly at dusk. The genus comprises seven species, which occur across the eastern part of Canada and the United States. Here, we used targeted enrichment probes to sequence ~1000 loci for all specimens of each species, allowing for the first phylogenetic assessment of...

Puerto Rico harbors a diverse vertebrate fauna with high levels of endemism. However, while several books for vertebrate diversity and local checklists for birds have been published, checklists of amphibians, reptiles, and bats are lacking or nonexistent at both local and regional scales. In this study, we documented the amphibian, reptile, and bat...

Delimiting species and quantifying their underlying variation is imperative for documenting diversity in highly speciose regions like the Neotropics. To aid with proper delimitation and avoid the perils of inflating or underestimating taxonomic units, approaches combining environmental, genetic, and phenotypic data are essential to provide a holist...

Puerto Rico harbors a diverse vertebrate fauna with high levels of endemism. However, while several books for vertebrate diversity and local checklists for birds have been published, checklists of amphibians, reptiles, and bats are lacking or nonexistent at both local and regional scales. In this study, we documented the amphibian, reptile, and bat...

Divergence dating analyses in systematics provide a framework to develop and test biogeographic hypotheses regarding speciation. However, as molecular datasets grow from multilocus to genomic, sample sizes decrease due to computational burdens, and the testing of fine-scale biogeographic hypotheses becomes difficult. In this study, we use coalescen...

Phylogeographic accounts of mammals across fragmented landscapes show high levels of genetic, morphological and ecological variation. The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) widely spans mainland landmasses from Canada to Ecuador and Colombia, and the insular Caribbean through The Bahamas and Greater and Lesser Antilles. Given the distribution of E. f...

Eucalyptus snout beetles are a complex of at least eight cryptic species (Curculionidae: Gonipterus scutellatus complex), native to mainland Australia and Tasmania, that defoli-ate Eucalyptus trees and are considered important pests. Since the 19th century, three species of the complex have been introduced to other continents. Here, we document the...

Antrozous koopmani (Koopman’s Pallid Bat). In Allen Kurta and A. Rodríguez-Duran “Bats of the West Indies: A Natural History and Field Guide” (pp. 313-315). Cornell University Press, Ithaca.

Divergence dating analyses in systematics provide a framework to develop and test biogeographic hypotheses regarding speciation. However, as molecular datasets grow from multilocus to genomic, sample sizes decrease due to computational burdens, and the testing of fine-scale biogeographic hypotheses becomes difficult. In this study, we use coalescen...

Eucalyptus snout beetles (Curculionidae: Gonipterus scutellatus complex), native to mainland Australia and Tasmania, defoliate Eucalyptus trees and are considered important pests. Since the 19th century, species of the G. scutellatus complex have been introduced to other continents. Here, we document the presence of Eucalyptus snout beetles in Ecua...

Species that are geographically widespread may exist across environmentally heterogeneous landscapes that could influence patterns of occupation and phylogeographic structure. Previous studies have suggested that geographic range size should be positively correlated with niche breadth, allowing widespread species to sustain viable populations over...

Species that are geographically widespread may exist across environmentally heterogeneous landscapes that could influence patterns of occupation and phylogeographic structure. Previous studies have suggested that geographic range size should be positively correlated with niche breadth, allowing widespread species to sustain viable populations over...

A bstract Defining species limits using an integrative framework is crucial for biodiversity assessments and to maintain taxonomic stability. These approaches are robust and can be useful to also validate the status of species that are uncommon and underrepresented in biological collections. We examined the species limits and validated the taxonomi...

Urbanization and natural disasters can disrupt landscape connectivity, effectively isolating populations and increasing the risk of local extirpation particularly in island systems. To understand how fragmentation affects corridors among forested areas, we used circuit theory to model the landscape connectivity of the endemic bat Stenoderma rufum w...

Supplementary Material of the manuscript: Effect of land use, habitat suitability, and hurricanes on the population connectivity of an endemic insular bat. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88616-7

Habitat loss and fragmentation are a leading cause of vertebrate population declines and extinction. Urbanization and natural disasters disrupt landscape connectivity, effectively isolating populations and increasing the risk of local extirpation particularly in island systems. Puerto Rico, one of the most isolated islands in the Caribbean, is home...

The Caribbean archipelago is a hotspot of biodiversity characterized by a high rate of extinction. Recent studies have examined these losses, but the causes of the Antillean Late Quaternary vertebrate losses, and especially the role of humans, are still unclear. Previous results provide support for climate-related and human-induced extinctions, but...

The Caribbean archipelago is a hotspot of biodiversity characterized by a high rate of extinction. Recent studies have examined these losses, but the causes of the Antillean Late Quaternary vertebrate extinctions, and especially the role of humans, are still unclear. Current results provide support for climate-related and human-induced extinctions,...

We report a mid- to late-Holocene, non-cultural vertebrate assemblage from Garden Cave (site EL-229), Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas, with 2450 fossils representing 26 species. The chronology is based on accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates determined directly on individual bones of the hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami), an extirp...

Dispersal is a driving factor in the creation and maintenance of biodiversity, yet little is known about the effects of habitat variation and geography on dispersal and population connectivity in most mammalian groups. Bats of the family Molossidae are fast-flying mammals thought to have potentially high dispersal ability, and recent studies have i...

Aim Early genetic studies in the south‐eastern United States provided the foundation for ideas in the field of comparative phylogeography, but few direct comparisons with consistent sampling across taxa exist for this region. We investigate the influence of historical processes and species‐level characteristics on phylogeographic structure within f...

A new species of the nectarivorous bat genus Hsunycteris is described from lowland Amazonian forest in northeastern Peru. The new species, H. dashe, can be distinguished from other congeners by its larger size; V-shaped array of dermal chin papillae separated by a wide basal cleft; metacarpal V longer than metacarpal IV; broad rostrum; lateral marg...

Accurate accounts of both living and fossil mammal communities are critical for creating biodiversity inventories and understanding patterns of changing species diversity through time. We combined data from from14 new fossil localities with literature accounts and museum records to document the bat biodiversity of Haiti through time. We also report...

List of specimens examined per species for Trouing Jean Paul, Haiti, from the UF Vertebrate Paleontology collection in Gainesville, FL. (PDF)

Descriptions for all localities where living or fossil bats have been documented in Haiti. Verbatim elevation (in meters) provided for previously published localities if available. Elevation for new localities reported in this study estimated via GoogleEarth. (XLSX)

We report eight new accelerator-mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates performed directly on individual bones of extirpated species from Crooked Island, The Bahamas. Three dates from the hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami), recovered from a culturally derived bone assemblage in McKay's Bluff Cave (site CR-5), all broadly overlap from AD 1450 to...

Knowing whether a species has been extirpated, or if it ever inhabited a specific geographic area, has direct importance for planning conservation activities. The taruka ( Hippocamelus antisensis ) is one of the largest Neotropical mammals; it is distributed in the central Andes, and there are published records of this species in Ecuador. Recently,...

The bat family Mormoopidae includes three species with distributions in the Caribbean. These taxa—Mormoops blainvillei, Pteronotus parnellii, and P. quadridens—roost predominantly in hot cave chambers where temperatures may reach 40° C and humidity is close to 100%. We tested the hypothesis that mormoopid bat extirpations in this region were due to...

Significance A flooded sinkhole cave on Abaco (The Bahamas) has yielded the richest (95 species) set of late Pleistocene (ice-age) vertebrates on any Caribbean island. We track changes in species composition on Abaco through time and relate those biotic changes to climate change. The warmer, wetter climate and rising sea levels from 15,000 to 9,000...

The Bahamas are well known for their karst landscape, with vast cave systems and inundated caves called blue holes that formed during the Pleistocene. Despite this, the biota of these islands has not been well documented when compared to other West Indian islands. It is important that Bahamians have the knowledge and tools to preserve the flora and...

We combined novel radiocarbon dates of bat fossils with time-scaled ecological niche models (ENM) to study bat extinctions in the Caribbean. Radiocarbon-dated fossils show that late Quaternary losses of bat populations took place during the late Holocene (<4 ka) rather than late Pleistocene (>10 ka). All bat radiocarbon dates from Abaco (Bahamas) t...

Understanding the dietary needs of syntopic species is essential for examining species coexistence and resource partitioning. We analysed stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) to estimate the diet of two putative nectarivorous bats on Puerto Rico, the brown flower bat (Erophylla bombifrons) and the Greater Antillean long-tongued bat...

The organic quality of caves allows for the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms, which can be transmitted to humans via contact with soils, water, or guano. The goal of this comparative study was to describe the microbial diversity, primarily bacteria and fungi, within cave substrates. The purpose seeks to increase awareness and minim...

We evaluated the mtDNA divergence and relationships within Geomys pinetis to assess the status of formerly recognized Geomys taxa. Additionally, we integrated new hypothesis-based tests in ecological niche models (ENM) to provide greater insight into causes for divergence and potential barriers to gene flow in Southeastern United States (Alabama, F...

Species distributions inferred from ecological niche models (ENM) assume accurate estimation of conditions in which species can survive and their corresponding geographic limits. Sister species of Neotropical singing mice (genus Scotinomys) segre- gate altitudinally in the highlands of Costa Rica and Panamá, where S. teguina occurs from ~1000-2900m...

Predicting the geographic distribution of widespread species through modeling is problematic for several reasons including high rates of omission errors. One potential source of error for modeling widespread species is that subspecies and/or races of species are frequently pooled for analyses, which may mask biologically relevant spatial variation...

The specimen tag replacement project for the herpetology collection at the San Diego Natural History Museum started in 2008 and is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2010. The collection holds 75,000 catalogued amphibian and reptile specimens and has significant holdings in the biological diverse regions of California and Baja California. To...

We performed the first quantitative survey of ectoparasitic assemblages on three species of mormoopid bats living on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico: Mormoops blainvillii Leach (n=40), Pteronotus quadridens Gundlach (n=40), and Pteronotus parnellii Gray (n=9). We examined bats for parasites primarily on 8-10 May and 24-27 July 2002 at Culebrone...

Summary Report: Trapping activities during the Fall of 2005 at the Sentenac Cienaga, Anza Borrego Desert State Park were completed by the Department of Herpetology, San Diego Natural History Museum in a work exchange with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center.

We examined the diet of 2 island-dwelling phyllostomids, the brown flower bat (Erophyfla sezekorni) and the Greater Antillean long-tongued bat (Monophyllus redmani), by analyzing fecal contents and pollen swabs from > 100 individuals of each species. Although both bats are putative nectar-feeders, their feeding niches were differentiated. A greater...

Record of Ensatina eschscholtzii klauberi in Sierra Juarez, Baja California

The temperature preferences of the mormoopid and phyllostomid bats Pteronotus quadridens and Erophylla sezekorni, from the West Indies, were determined in the laboratory and compared to field observations. Pteronotus quadridens was invariably found within the deepest and hottest parts of caves, at temperatures between 28°C and 35°C, while E. sezeko...

The nectarivorous brown flower bat, Ero- phylla sezekorni, lives in the Greater Antilles and in some of the Bahamas, Caicos, and Cayman islands (Baker et al., 1978). There are two subspecies, E. s. sezekorni and E. s. bombifrons, with the latter restricted to His- paniola and Puerto Rico. This bat roosts in large colonies in the cooler portions of...