Thaís Guedes

University of Campinas | UNICAMP

Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting...

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevan...

Macroecological studies describe large-scale diversity patterns through analyses of species distribution patterns and allows us to elucidate how species differing in ecology, physical requirements, and life histories are distributed in a multidimensional space. These patterns of distributions can be explained by vegetation, and climatic factors, an...

The Caatinga is the largest seasonal dry tropical forest in South America and it has been historically neglected in terms of its bio- diversity. Regarding lizards, different studies led to the current knowledge of diversity and endemism in Caatinga, but detailed syntheses are scarce in the literature. We present the most detailed and up-to-date syn...

Apostolepis albicollaris and A. cerradoensis are two Elapomorphini snake species, described within a short timespan, from the Cerrado of central Brazil. In their brief descriptions, these two species were diagnosed from congeners largely based on highly variable external morphological characters. Interestingly enough, A. cerradoensishas remained kn...

Knowing the distribution of venomous snakes of medical importance is essential to identify areas at risk for snakebites. Thus, we used an integrative approach based on the application of geographic distribution data of venomous snakes, species distribution modeling (SDM), spatial organization of snakebites, and information on human population densi...

We present the list of Brazilian reptiles for the year 2021. Brazil has 848 species of reptiles whose presence is confirmed within its borders: 38 Testudines, 6 Crocodylia, and 804 Squamata (82 amphisbaenians, 292 lizards, and 430 snakes). If subspecies are counted, the number increases to 885 taxa. This is the third richest reptile fauna in the wo...

The Atlantic Forest is one of the richest tropical forests in the world, with a high endemism rate of vertebrates, including several snakes. The snake fauna of the Atlantic Forest is rich and complex, presenting differences in fauna composition along its extension. The existence of at least four endemism centers along this forest is well documented...

The Neotropics are one of the richest regions in biodiversity globally. Still, much remains unknown about the mechanisms and processes responsible for the accumulation of species in this region. Among the many limitations on our current knowledge on the region's biodiversity, understanding of community composition and species distributions is limit...

Understanding high biodiverse areas and interactions among organisms requires reciprocal action between scientists and community through citizen science. This paper results from the joint efforts of an amateur nature photographer and scientists to describe the predation behaviour of the heron Ardea cocoi upon the lizard Ameiva ameiva. We also discu...

The geographic distribution of a species is limited by many factors, including its ecological and evolutionary history. Species distribution modeling has been used to evaluate the effects of climate and other variables on geographic distribution and to measure the degree of niche similarity among co-occurring species. Our goal in this study was to...

Resumo: A região neotropical se destaca pela elevada diversidade taxonômica, funcional, genética e filogenética dos anfíbios e répteis (herpetofauna). Múltiplos eventos geológicos e evolutivos, atuando de modo sinérgico com processos ecológicos ao longo do tempo, deram origem aos padrões de distribuição da herpetofauna que observamos ao longo dos v...

Identifying knowledge gaps and the potential biases and limitations of biological databases is essential for biogeographical research, to efficiently plan biodiversity surveys, and to accurately design conservation efforts. Here we describe the taxonomic, temporal, and spatial coverage of a comprehensive database mainly composed of data collected b...

Apostolepis is a diverse genus of dipsadid snakes, currently comprising 34 species occurring in most cis-Andean South America. The taxonomy of the group is highly unstable. Upon discovering its type series, we redescribe the rare species A. ambiniger (Peters, 1869) and provide an account of its geographic distribution and morphological variation in...

Corallus hortulana presents a large array of tones and color pattern variability throughout its distribution (= polychromatism), which trigged the description of several taxa now considered to be primary synonyms. Linnaeus described two of these (Boa enydris and Boa hortulana) on the same page of the 10th Edition of the Systema Naturae. However, bo...

The following letter, from a network of women zoologists, is a reply to the article of AlShebli et al. (2020), which suggests that female protégés reap more benefits when mentored by men and concludes that female mentors hinder the success of their female protégés and the quality of their impact. This contribution has two parts. First, we highlight...

Apostolepis is a diverse Dipsadid snake genus, with 35 known species, inhabiting most of South America at east of the Andes. In this study, we redescribe Apostolepis assimilis Reinhardt, 1861, and evaluate the taxonomic status of a controversial taxon, Apostolepis tertulianobeui, described based on a single specimen from an unknown locality of Mina...

The distribution of the highly diversified and species-rich snake genus Atractus was assessed in search for endemism areas. The dataset of 6000 museum specimens was used to run an Endemicity Analyses in order to identify areas of biogeographic relevance for the genus Atractus . By using distinct methodological approaches and modifying the size and...

Apostolepis is a speciose Neotropical snake genus, encompassing 38 species, widely distributed in South America. Most species of the genus are known based on small series, which has contributed to a convoluted taxonomic history. In this study, we report the rediscovery of Apostolepis niceforoi, a taxon that remained known from a single specimen sin...

Apostolepis Cope, 1862 is a highly diversified and speciose Neotropical dipsadid genus, encompassing almost 40 species of fossorial or cryptozoic snakes, widely distributed east of the Andes. In this work, we revisit the taxonomic status of A. sanctaeritae Werner, 1924, a rather controversial taxon described from a single specimen. Apostolepis sanc...

We report for the first time the snake Thamnodynastes almae Franco & Ferreira, 2002 in Piauí, northeastern Brazil. Our record is based on two specimens and comprises the 17th known locality for the species. The new record represents the northernmost and westernmost locality, at the limit between the Caatinga and the Maranhão Babaçu Forest ecoregion...

The Caatinga's black snake Boiruna sertaneja is a Pseudoboini species, endemic of the Caatinga biome. It is rare and fits in five traits that suggest it deserve more attention in reproduction research and conservation policies. Here we provide information on reproductive biology of B. sertaneja by adding new data about court and copula, fertility,...

Apostolepis mariae and Apostolepis thalesdelemai are two simultaneously described Elapomorphini snake species for two mountain ranges of Caatinga Enclaves moist forests in the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. Both species were differentiated from congeners and from one another based exclusively on external morphology. We examined the type speci...

We report for the first time Trilepida fuliginosa (Passos, Caramaschi & Pinto, 2006) and Drepanoides anomalus (Jan, 1863) in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. Our record for T. fuliginosa represents the northernmost locality for the species and extends its geographic distribution by nearly 662 km (in a straight line) from São Geraldo do Araguaia, stat...

Herein, we present the first comprehensive study of anurans biogeography and conservation in an important mountain chain of the Atlantic Forest bioregion, the Mantiqueira Mountain Range (MMR). We use biotic element analyses to test biogeographical units previously established through a preliminary Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) based on the...

Covering ancient geomorphological landscapes, and surrounded by some of the most diverse forests on Earth, the Neotropical savannas were once perceived by naturalists as ancient environments. However, current evidence suggests that tropical forests have existed in the Neotropics since the Paleocene, whereas most plant lineages present in South Amer...

Mountain ranges are important centers of biodiversity around the world. This high diversity is the result of the presence of different soil types and underlying bedrock, a variety of micro-climatic regimes, high topographic heterogeneity, a heterogeneous and complex vegetation cline, and a dynamic geo-climatic history. Neotropical research on mount...

The original description of Thamnodynastes dixoni Bailey & Thomas, 2007 was based on few specimens, and the morphological variation, distributional range, and ecological aspects of this species are virtually unknown. The species is known to occur in the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela. In Colombia, it was recorded only in four localities. We repor...

Based on the literature, we had predicted that the diversification within the Neotropical snake genus Bothrops occurred along a latitudinal gradient from north to south, with diversification into unoccupied niches through ecological opportunity, not correlated with geoclimatic events. Using a dated phylogeny and estimating likelihoods of ancestral...

Factors driving the spatial configuration of centres of endemism have long been a topic of broad interest and debate. Due to different eco‐evolutionary processes, these highly biodiverse areas may harbour different amounts of ancient and recently diverged organisms (paleo‐ and neo‐endemism, respectively). Patterns of endemism still need to be measu...

Accurate and detailed species distribution maps are fundamental for documenting and interpreting biological diversity. For snakes, an ecologically diverse group of reptiles, syntheses and detailed data on distribution patterns remain scarce. We present the first comprehensive collection of detailed, voucher-based, point-locality, range maps for all...

Knowledge of reproductive biology is essential to understand the intrinsic traits of any species and to elaborate effective conservation strategies, particularly for threatened species. Despite recent advances, knowledge on the reproductive biology of snakes remains deficient for most species, especially for tropical fossorial taxa. Apostolepis gab...

A avaliação dos répteis brasileiros foi coordenada pelo Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Répteis e Anfíbios (RAN), que avaliou todas as espécies continentais de Testudines (tartarugas, cágados e jabutis - 31 espécies), Crocodylia (jacarés - 6 espécies) e Squamata (lagartos, serpentes e anfisbênias - 690 espécies), e pelo Centro Nacional...

The unparalleled biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Despite major advances in recent years in our understanding of the origin and diversification of many Neotropical taxa and biotic regions, many questions remain to be answered. Additional biological and geological d...

Apostolepis gaboi was described based only on the holotype found in the Queimadas, state of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. Since its original description, no additional specimens were reported in literature and the species was considered to be rare and poorly known. Here, we provide a detailed description for the species based on the examination of th...

Motivation We generated a novel database of Neotropical snakes (one of the world's richest herpetofauna) combining the most comprehensive, manually compiled distribution dataset with publicly available data. We assess, for the first time, the diversity patterns for all Neotropical snakes as well as sampling density and sampling biases. Main types...

"Serpentes da Caatinga: guia ilustrado" apresenta, por meio de 152 pranchas com fotografias coloridas, 113 espécies de serpentes da Caatinga. São ilustradas as variações ontogenéticas e polimorfismos no padrão de coloração de algumas espécies. Para cada serpente apresentada são fornecidas informações sobre a morfologia (tamanho, massa e dentição),...

The outstanding biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Despite major advances in the generation of biodiversity data, many questions remain to be answered. In this review, we first summarize some of the knowns and unknowns about Neotropical biodiversity, and discuss how...

The outstanding biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Despite major advances in the generation of biodiversity data, many questions remain to be answered. In this review, we first summarize some of the knowns and unknowns about Neotropical biodiversity, and discuss how...

Biogeographical regions reveal how species are spatially grouped and therefore are important units for conservation, historical biogeography, ecology and evolution. Several methods have been developed to identify bioregions based on species distribution data rather than expert opinion. One approach successfully applies network theory to simplify an...