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59
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
September 2006 - August 2008
August 2008 - January 2016
Publications
Publications (59)
Chatogekko amazonicus is a miniaturized gecko from northern South America and is among the smallest of toe pad bearing lizards. The toe pads of C. amazonicus are miniscule, between 18% and 27% of the plantar surface area. We aimed to investigate the relationship between adhesive toe pad morphology, body size, and adhesive capabilities. Using scanni...
Although sex determination is ubiquitous in vertebrates, mechanisms of sex determination vary from environmentally to genetically influenced. In vertebrates, genetic sex determination is typically accomplished with sex chromosomes. Groups like mammals maintain conserved sex chromosome systems, while sex chromosomes in most vertebrate clades are not...
Many species of sphaerodactyl gecko exhibit sexual dichromatism. In particular, dichromatism plays an important role in intersexual signaling for Sphaerodactylus. Furthermore, some species exhibit polymorphism in male color and pattern. Here, we describe a regional male color morph of Sphaerodactylus macrolepis from St. Croix. After generating both...
Although sex determination is ubiquitous in vertebrates, mechanisms of sex determination vary from environmentally- to genetically-influenced. In vertebrates, genetic sex determination is typically accomplished with sex chromosomes. Groups like mammals maintain conserved sex chromosome systems, while sex chromosomes in most vertebrate clades are no...
Hoplodactylus delcourti is a presumably extinct species of diplodactylid gecko known only from a single specimen of unknown provenance. It is by far the largest known gekkotan, approximately 50% longer than the next largest-known species. It has been considered a member of the New Zealand endemic genus Hoplodactylus based on external morphological...
Advances in both morphological and molecular techniques have uncovered many lineages across the tree of life, and Neotropical vertebrates are no exception. Sphaerodactylus geckos (Sphaerodactylidae) are abundant and important components of the Neotropical herpetofauna, but few studies have thoroughly investigated them using a combination of morphol...
Sex determination is a critical element of successful vertebrate development, suggesting that sex chromosome systems might be evolutionarily stable across lineages. For example, mammals and birds have maintained conserved sex chromosome systems over long evolutionary time periods. Other vertebrates, in contrast, have undergone frequent sex chromoso...
Aim
The primary drivers of species and population extirpations have been habitat loss, overexploitation and invasive species, but human‐mediated climate change is expected to be a major driver in future. To minimise biodiversity loss, conservation managers should identify species vulnerable to climate change and prioritise their protection. Here, w...
The 71 currently known species of dwarf geckos of the genus Lygodactylus are a clade of biogeographic interest due to their occurrence in continental Africa, Madagascar, and South America. Furthermore, because many species are morphologically cryptic, our knowledge of species-level diversity within this genus is incomplete, as indicated by numerous...
The African anuran genus Cardioglossa contains 19 described species, most of which are distinguished from one another by striking patterns and colors. We present a well-resolved phylogeny based on analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear loci for 18 species of Cardioglossa. This provides the basis for species-delimitation analyses and interpreting his...
Sex chromosomes have evolved many times across eukaryotes, indicating both their importance and their evolutionary flexibility. Some vertebrate groups, such as mammals and birds, have maintained a single, conserved sex chromosome system across long evolutionary time periods. By contrast, many reptiles, amphibians, and fish have undergone frequent s...
Differentiation of sex chromosomes is thought to have evolved with cessation of recombination and subsequent loss of genes from the degenerated partner (Y and W) of sex chromosomes, which in turn leads to imbalance of gene dosage between sexes. Based on work with traditional model species, theory suggests that unequal gene copy numbers lead to the...
Teeth are present in most clades of vertebrates but have been lost completely several times in actinopterygian fishes and amniotes. Using phenotypic data collected from over 500 genera via micro-computed tomography, we provide the first rigorous assessment of the evolutionary history of dentition across all major lineages of amphibians. We demonstr...
The New Zealand endemic gecko genus, Mokopirirakau, is notable for its ecology, with some species inhabiting extreme alpine environments, as well as for the large number of geographically circumscribed, species-level lineages awaiting formal description. In, 2018, a population superficially similar in colour and morphology to the black-eyed gecko (...
Teeth have been broadly maintained across most clades of vertebrates but have been lost completely at least once in actinopterygian fishes and several times in amniotes. Using phenotypic data collected from over 500 genera via micro-computed tomography, we provide the first rigorous assessment of the evolutionary history of dentition across all maj...
We describe a new species of the New Zealand diplodactylid gecko genus Naultinus. Molecular phylogenetics and distinctive morphological features support taxonomic separation of the populations on the northern half of Aupori Peninsula in the far north of the North Island as a new species, Naultinus flavirictus sp. nov. The specific epithet refers to...
Lizards and snakes (squamates) are known for their varied sex determining systems, and gecko lizards are especially diverse, having evolved sex chromosomes independently multiple times. While sex chromosomes frequently turnover among gecko genera, intrageneric turnovers are known only from Gekko and Hemidactylus. Here, we used RADseq to identify se...
The New Zealand diplodactylid gecko genus Toropuku is currently monotypic, but the sole member of the genus, T. stephensi, is distributed in two disjunct, geographically distant regions of New Zealand – the islands of Cook Strait (which includes the type locality, Stephens Island), between New Zealand’s North and South Islands, and the Coromandel P...
Recent molecular phylogenetic work has found that Breviceps Merrem, 1820 comprises two major clades, one of which, the B. mossambicus group, is widely distributed across southern sub-Saharan Africa. This group is notable for harboring abundant cryptic diversity. Of the four most recently described Breviceps species, three are members of this group,...
Although Conraua goliath is well known as the largest living frog species, the diversity and evolution of the genus Conraua across sub-Saharan Africa remain poorly understood. We present multilocus phylogenetic analyses of the six currently recognized species that provide insights into divergence times, biogeography, body size evolution and undescr...
Current understanding of sex chromosome evolution is largely dependent on species with highly degenerated, heteromorphic sex chromosomes, but by studying species with recently evolved or morphologically indistinct sex chromosomes we can greatly increase our understanding of sex chromosome origins, degeneration, and turnover. Here, we examine sex ch...
Dragon lizards (Squamata: Agamidae) comprise about 520 species in six subfamilies distributed across Asia, Australasia and Africa. Only five species are known to have sex chromosomes. All of them possess ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes, which are microchromosomes in four species from the subfamily Amphibolurinae, but much larger in Phrynocephalus vlangalii f...
Dragon lizards (Squamata: Agamidae) comprise about 520 species in six subfamilies distributed across Asia, Australasia and Africa. Only five species are known to have sex chromosomes. All of them possess ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes, which are microchromosomes in four species from the subfamily Amphibolurinae, but much larger in Phrynocephalus vlangalii f...
Differentiation of sex chromosomes is thought to have evolved with cessation of recombination and subsequent loss of genes from the degenerated partner (Y and W) of sex chromosomes, which in turn leads to imbalance of gene dosage between sexes. Based on work with traditional model species, theory suggests that unequal gene copy numbers lead to the...
The Yazoo Darter, Etheostoma raneyi (Percidae), is an imperiled freshwater fish species endemic to tributaries of the Yocona and Little Tallahatchie rivers of the upper Yazoo River basin, in northern Mississippi, USA. The two populations are allopatric, isolated by unsuitable lowland habitat between the two river drainages. Relevant literature sugg...
Here we report an unusual encounter of a dead Green Vinesnake (Oxybelis fulgidus) that had apparently died while attempting to consume a Lesser Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx leptura). To our knowledge, this observation is not only interesting owing to the peculiar circumstances concerning the snake’s death, but also as it represents the first instanc...
Squamate reptiles (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) are an outstanding group for studying sex chromosome evolution-they are old, speciose, geographically widespread, and exhibit myriad sex determining modes. Yet, the vast majority of squamate species lack heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Cataloguing the sex chromosome systems of species lacking e...
Most pleurodont lizard families (anoles, iguanas and their relatives), with the exception of the basilisks and casquehead lizards (family Corytophanidae), share homologous XX/XY sex chromosomes, syntenic with chicken chromosome 15. Here, we used a suite of methods (i.e. RADseq, RNAseq and qPCR) to identify corytophanid sex chromosomes for the first...
Gecko lizards are a species-rich clade of primarily-nocturnal squamate reptiles. In geckos, adaptations to nocturnality
have dramatically reshaped the eye. Perhaps the most notable change is the loss of rod cells in the retina
and subsequent “transmutation” of cones into a rod-like morphology and physiology. While many studies have
noted the absenc...
Background
One goal of evolutionary developmental biology is to understand the role of development in the origin of phenotypic novelty and convergent evolution. Geckos are an ideal system to study this topic, as they are species‐rich and exhibit a suite of diverse morphologies—many of which have independently evolved multiple times within geckos....
Sex-specific genetic markers, markers found in one sex but not the other, can be used to recognize a species’ sex chromosome system in cases where traditional karyotyping fails. Species with male-specific markers have an XX/XY system while species with female-specific markers have a ZZ/ZW system. Here, we used data from restriction site-associated...
This work has been published.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336247392_Transcriptomic_data_support_a_nocturnal_bottleneck_in_the_ancestor_of_gecko_lizards
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S105579031930260X
Investigating the evolutionary processes influencing the origin, evolution, and turnover of vertebrate sex chromosomes requires the classification of sex chromosome systems in a great diversity of species. Among amniotes, squamates (lizards and snakes) - and gecko lizards in particular - are worthy of additional study. Geckos possess all major vert...
Purpose
The veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus) is an emerging model system for studying functional morphology and evolutionary developmental biology (evo‐devo). Chameleons possess body plans that are highly adapted to an arboreal life style, featuring laterally compressed bodies, split hands/ft for grasping, a projectile tongue, turreted inde...
Aim
To investigate models assessing the influence of geomorphology and climatic shifts on species diversification in sub‐Saharan Africa by reconstructing the pattern and timing of phylogenetic relationships of rain frogs (Brevicipitidae: Breviceps).
Location
Sub‐Saharan Africa, south of the Congo Basin.
Methods
Multilocus sequence data were gener...
Sex-specific genetic markers identified using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, or RADseq, permits the recognition of a species' sex chromosome system in cases where standard cytogenetic methods fail. Thus, species with male-specific RAD markers have an XX/XY sex chromosome system (male heterogamety) while species with female-specific RAD...
Much of our current state of knowledge concerning sex chromosome evolution is based on a handful of ‘exceptional’ taxa with heteromorphic sex chromosomes. However, classifying the sex chromosome systems of additional species lacking easily identifiable, heteromorphic sex chromosomes is indispensible if we wish to fully understand the genesis, degen...
Exposed limestone karst landscapes, especially in the tropics, are often home to distinctive and specialized biotas. Among vertebrates, a particularly large number of karst-associated lizard taxa have been described, but for the vast majority, evidence of specific adaptions to karst is lacking. A number of studies, however, have provided evidence o...
For over 50 years, biologists have accepted that all extant snakes share the same ZW sex chromosomes derived from a common ancestor [1–3], with different species exhibiting sex chromosomes at varying stages of differentiation. Accordingly, snakes have been a well-studied model for sex chromosome evolution in animals [1, 4]. A review of the literatu...
Comparisons of biodiversity patterns within lineages that occur across major climate gradients and biomes, can provide insights into the relative roles that lineage history, landscape and climatic variation, and environmental change have played in shaping regional biotas. In Australia, while there has been extensive research into the origins and pa...
AimConservation is often prioritized by identifying regional clusters of threatened or endemic species. Another approach is to assess the evolutionary distinctiveness of groups of taxa using phylodiversity measures. However, quantification of evolutionary history has traditionally not accounted for its uneven geographical distribution due to the va...
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;...
The geckos in the genus Strophurus (Diplodactylidae) are one of only two squamate lineages with specialized caudal defensive glands. Many species in this genus also have distinctive caudal ornamentation combined with bright and/or contrasting colour pattern elements on the iris, tail and especially the lining of the mouth that are hypothesized to b...
Although the genus Cordylus has received much recent attention, previous studies have failed to include all known species, particularly for biogeographically important taxa. Recent fieldwork targeted a previously known population of Cordylus rivae from the southeast of Ethiopia's Oromia region and we consequently found two individuals of this poorl...
We conducted a herpetofaunal inventory at four sites in Southeastern Suriname from March 8–28th 2012, and recorded 47 species of amphibians and 42 species of reptiles. These numbers are lower than other areas within the Guiana Shield that are better sampled (e.g. Iwokrama, Guyana; Nouragues, French Guiana), but are relatively high when compared wit...
We follow a biological invasion model that consists of a series of five consecutive obligatory stages, concluding with stages 4a and 5 (i.e., widespread = invasive species). The State of Florida is infamous for having the most introduced (stages 2-5) amphibians and reptiles in the United States. However, there is disagreement regarding their number...
