Jorge Gutiérrez-Rodríguez

Estación Biológica de Doñana · Integrative Ecology

The geographic distribution and systematics of many groups of insects are still understudied across large geographic areas of the Iberian Peninsula. This lack of knowledge and the fact that many species have a complex evolutionary history due to the existence of "refugia within refugia" have hindered the taxonomic description of the true biodiversi...

We carried out a taxonomic revision of the Stenopelmatus talpa species group (Stenopelmatidae: Stenopelmatini), a poorly studied group of orthopterans whose species are distributed along the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and adjacent areas of the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre del Sur in Central Mexico. We examined both features from both the...

Speciation with gene flow often leads to ambiguous phylogenetic reconstructions, reticulate patterns of relatedness and conflicting nuclear versus mitochondrial (mt) lineages. Here we employed a fragment of the COI mtDNA gene and nuclear genome-wide data (3RAD) to assess the diversification history of Sphenarium, an orthopteran genus of great econo...

The Stenopelmatus talpa species-group (Stenopelmatidae) comprises cricket-like orthopterans distributed across the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) morphotectonic province and adjacent areas in central Mexico. Despite recent efforts, the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships for members of this complex still are far from completely known. Here...

Context Mediterranean wetland ecosystems are in continuous decline due to human pressure. Amphibians are key elements of biotic communities of Mediterranean temporary ponds and streams, and their persistence depends on the availability and inter-connectivity of breeding sites. Objectives We investigated the role of different factors potentially dr...

Aim: The proximate ecological and evolutionary processes underlying the high biodiversity of neotropical montane cloud forests are still very poorly understood. Climatic oscillations may have contributed to vicariance and cladogenesis, but also promoted secondary contact and erosion of genetic divergence. Here we tested whether geographical diversi...

Comparative studies of mortality in the wild are necessary to understand the evolution of aging; yet, ectothermic tetrapods are underrepresented in this comparative landscape, despite their suitability for testing evolutionary hypotheses. We present a study of aging rates and longevity across wild tetrapod ectotherms, using data from 107 population...

The Jerusalem cricket subfamily Stenopelmatinae is distributed from south-western Canada through the western half of the United States to as far south as Ecuador. Recently, the generic classification of this subfamily was updated to contain two genera, the western North American Ammopelmatus , and the Mexican, and central and northern South America...

We describe a new arboreal alligator lizard species in the genus Abronia from the Sierra de Zongolica in west-central Veracruz, Mexico. The new species is presently known only from the vicinity of the type locality. It is diagnosable from all congeners by the following combination of characters: one occipital scale, two primary temporal scales cont...

Sex-related differences in mortality are widespread in the animal kingdom. Although studies have shown that sex determination systems might drive lifespan evolution, sex chromosome influences on aging rates have not been investigated so far, likely due to an apparent lack of demographic data from clades including both XY (with heterogametic males)...

The Jerusalem cricket subfamily Stenopelmatinae is distributed from southwestern Canada through the western half of the United States to as far south as Ecuador. Recently, the generic classification of this subfamily was updated to contain two genera, the western North American Ammopelmatus and the Mexican and Central and northern South American St...

Understanding demographic dynamics and functional connectivity among demes is essential to prevent, identify and reverse amphibian population declines. Attempts to characterize connectivity among amphibian populations have largely relied on the use of molecular markers to assess patterns of genetic structure at the landscape scale and identify fact...

Although the pervasiveness of intraspecific wing-size polymorphism and transitions to flightlessness have long captivated biologists, the demographic outcomes of shifts in dispersal ability are not yet well understood and have been seldom studied at early stages of diversification. Here, we use genomic data to infer the consequences of dispersal-re...

Abronia and Mesaspis are two of the five anguid lizard genera in the subfamily Gerrhonotinae. Their members are restricted to Mesoamerica, and most have allopatric distributions. Species of Abronia are primarily arboreal and occur in cloud and seasonally dry pine-oak forests, whereas those of Mesaspis are terrestrial and inhabit mesic microhabitats...

Phylogeographic studies of continent-wide distributed species are key to understand population dynamics processes that occurred at large geographical scales. Here, we examined two mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence (COI, Cyt b) and eight nuclear microsatellites markers to investigate the cohesiveness, genetic diversity and demographic history of Neopo...

Efforts to mitigate amphibian declines are hindered by a lack of information about basic aspects of their biology and demography. The effective to census population size ratio (Ne/Nc) is one of the most important parameters for the management of wildlife populations because it combines information on population abundance and genetic diversity and h...

Comparative landscape genetics studies can provide key information to implement cost-effective conservation measures favoring a broad set of taxa. These studies are scarce, particularly in Mediterranean areas, which include diverse but threatened biological communities. Here we focus on Mediterranean wetlands in central Iberia and perform a multi-l...

The use of hyper-variable markers across species is often hindered by low cross-species amplification success, a reduced level of polymorphism or a high frequency of null alleles. However , optimizing sets of reliable and informative markers that can be consistently amplified and scored across taxa is key to address questions about patterns of gene...

Background Hybrid zones are regions where individuals of two species meet and produce hybrid progeny, and are often regarded as natural laboratories to understand the process of species formation. Two microevolutionary processes can take place in hybrid zones, with opposing effects on population differentiation. Hybridization tends to produce genet...

Short-range endemics are high-priority conser- vation targets, and valuable information for their man- agement can be obtained from assessments of genetic diversity and structure, including potential hybridization with related species, and the investigation of factors shaping their patterns of occurrence. The Edough ribbed newt, Pleurodeles poireti...

The nucleotide sequence of the complete mitogenome of the trilobite beetle, Platerodrilus sp. was determined. This is the first complete mitogenome reported for the family Lycidae (Elateroidea: Coleoptera). The newly determined sequence is 16,394 bp long and shows a relatively high AT content (76.2%). The gene arrangement of the trilobite beetle mt...

Aim - Predicting species responses to global change is one of the most pressing issues in conservation biogeography. A key part of the problem is understanding how organisms have reacted to climatic changes in the past. Here, we use species distribution modelling to infer the effects of climate changes since the Last Interglacial (LIG, c. 130,000 y...

Pelophylax perezi is an Iberian green waterfrog with high tolerance to habitat alteration that at times shows local population growth and demographic expansion, even where other species decline. However, pond destruction, invasive predators, and hybridisation with other European waterfrog species (P. ridibundus) threaten many of its populations acr...

Genus Odontura characterizes with a complicated communication system and low mobility that may have led to an allopatric speciation promoted by geomorphological and climatic factors. Subgenus Odontura comprises 10 of the 12 recognized species of its genus, most distributed in northwestern Africa. Presently, some of its taxa are known from single sp...

The tiger beetle assemblage of the wetlands of La Mancha (central Spain) comprises nine species: Calomera littoralis littoralis, Cephalota maura maura, Cephalota circumdata imperialis, Cephalota dulcinea, Cicindela campestris campestris, Cicindela maroccana, Cylindera paludosa, Lophyra flexuosa flexuosa, and Myriochila melancholica melancholica. Th...

Appendix

Integrating information from species occurrence data, environmental variables and molecular markers can provide valuable insights about the processes of population persistence and differentiation. In this study, we present the most comprehensive overview of the evolutionary history of the North African salamander Salamandra algira (Caudata, Salaman...

Roeseliana oporina (Bolívar in An Soc Esp Hist Nat 16:86–114, 1887), the ghost bush-cricket, became a mystery shortly after its original description in Central Spain. There was initial confusion about its type locality, original collector and failure to locate the species in 1890. More than 50 years after, the type specimens of Platycleis oporina w...

The genus Antaxius Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1882 is distributed mainly in mountain systems from southern Europe and Morocco. It is integrated by 12 species arranged into three subgenera. Antaxius (Antaxius) spinibrachius (Fischer, 1853) is an endemic species to the Iberian Peninsula, distributed along the Northern Atlantic coast of Portugal, Cantabri...

Mediterranean painted frogs (genus Discoglossus Otth, 1837) are distributed across western Europe, North Africa and some Mediterranean islands. Previous studies have focused on their phylogenetic relationships, but the taxonomic position of the Iberian taxa ( D. galganoi and D. jeanneae) is still under debate. By using microsatellites, patterns and...

The Ribbed Newt (Pleurodeles waltl) is an Ibero-Maghrebian endemic with populations north and south of the Strait of Gibraltar. With the aim of inferring its evolutionary history, we collected samples of 478 individuals from 55 populations throughout its range, including the Iberian Peninsula and north-western Africa, and analysed both mitochondria...

The Western Spadefoot toad, Pelobates cultripes (Cuvier, 1829) is distributed throughout most of the Iberian Peninsula, along the Mediterranean coast of France and in some disjunct areas in the French Atlantic coast. Its populations are declining range-wide due to habitat loss and the negative impact of invasive species. Previous studies have found...

Twelve novel polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for the Iberian ribbed newt, Pleurodeles waltl (Caudata, Salamandridae). The distribution of this newt ranges from central and southern Iberia to northwestern Morocco. Polymorphism of these novel loci was tested in 40 individuals from two Iberian populations and compared w...

The Western Spadefoot, Pelobates cultripes (Anura, Pelobatidae), is endemic to the Iberian Peninsula and southeastern France, with isolated populations in the Atlantic coast of France. Its populations are fragmented and it is considered Near Threatened by the IUCN. Here we describe the development of sixteen polymorphic microsatellite loci in this...

The common midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans), widely distributed in the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula and part of Western Europe, is currently subdivided into four subspecies: A. o. obstetricans, A. o. boscai, A. o. pertinax and A. o. almogavarii. However, the delimitation of these subspecies and their ranges are still under discussion be...

The taxonomic status of the Iberian species of the genera Pterolepis Rambur, 1838 and Rhacocleis Fieber, 1853 is revised through the study of 126 specimens from different private and institutional collections. Pterolepis grallata (Pantel, 1886) is reinstated as a valid species as a result of morphological studies and phylogenetic analysis. The crit...