Tristan D. Schramer

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Verified

Tristan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Master of Science
• Ph.D. Candidate at University of Michigan

[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2021.11.009] Most traditional research on snake venoms has focused on front-fanged snake families (Viperidae, Elapidae, and Atractaspididae). However, venom is now generally accepted as being a much more broadly possessed trait within snakes, including species traditionally considered harmless. Unfortunately, due...

Significance A central question in biology is whether trait differences are the result of variation in gene number, sequence, or regulation. Snake venoms are an excellent system for addressing this question because of their genetic tractability, contributions to fitness, and high evolutionary rates. We sequenced and assembled the genome of the Tige...

The migration-selection balance often governs the evolution of lineages, and speciation with gene flow is now considered common across the tree of life. Ecological speciation is a process that can facilitate divergence despite gene flow due to strong selective pressures caused by ecological differences; however, the exact traits under selection are...

Novel phenotypes are commonly associated with gene duplications and neofunctionalization, less documented are the cases of phenotypic maintenance through the recruitment of novel genes. Proteolysis is the primary toxic character of many snake venoms, and ADAM metalloproteinases, named Snake Venom Metalloproteinases (SVMPs), are largely recognized a...

[Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología 3(1): 111-115] Only four specific prey items are reported in the literature for the Mexican small-headed rattlesnake (Crotalus intermedius), which occurs in the central and southern Mexican highlands. To augment these data, we dissected museum specimens housed in the University of Illinois Museum of Natural...

Langaha madagascariensis is a medium-sized arboreal pseudoxyrhophiid endemic to the dry and wet lowland forests of Madagascar. This sexually dimorphic and dichromatic species bears a conspicuous nasal appendage that differs in shape and ornamentation between males and females. In captivity, both sexes consume arboreal anoles and geckos (Krysko 2005...

Selection on heritable phenotypic variation has played a prominent role in shaping the remarkable adaptations found across the Tree of Life. Complex ecological traits, such as snake venoms, are thought to be the products of selection because they directly link to fitness and survival. Snake venom increases the efficiency of prey capture and process...

This thesis can be downloaded from: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3913/ --------------------------------- The material of this thesis has been published in the following article: Schramer, T. D., Rautsaw, R. M., Bayona Serrano, J. D., Nystrom, G. S., West, T. R., Ortiz-Medina, J. A., Sabido-Alpuche, B., Meneses-Millán, M., Borja, M.,...

Despite the medical significance to humans and important ecological roles filled by vipers, few high-quality genomic resources exist for these snakes outside of a few genera of pitvipers. Here we sequence, assemble, and annotate the genome of Fea’s Viper (Azemiops feae). This taxon is distributed in east Asia and belongs to a monotypic subfamily, s...

Systematic and thorough studies of snake populations across large areas are rare in the tropics. Bengaluru city in southern India has not had a thorough checklist of snakes in over a century, during which time land-use changes, taxonomic revisions, and fluctuating reptile populations have left the current status of snakes of this region unclear. We...

Most research on snake venoms has focused on front-fanged snake families. However, venomics has now led to the general acceptance of venom being a much more broadly possessed trait within snakes, including species traditionally considered harmless. Due to this historical inertia, the toxin repertoire of rear-fanged snake families, particularly in t...

Most research on snake venoms has focused on front-fanged snake families. However, venomics has now led to the general acceptance of venom being a much more broadly possessed trait within snakes, including species traditionally considered harmless. Due to this historical inertia, the toxin repertoire of rear-fanged snake families, particularly in t...

[Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 55(10): 189-191]

The introduced smooth-billed ani Crotophaga ani has become widespread across the Galápagos archipelago in the past half-century. It is known to predate upon a range of native and endemic species, and is a potential vector for the spread of invasive plants and parasites. Here we report previously undocumented examples of smooth-billed ani predation...

Kirtland’s snake (Clonophis kirtlandii) is a poorly known natricine inhabiting moist environs within Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Recent prospects of federal listing have been thwarted by the scarcity of information regarding its natural history, distribution, population size, and threats. Thus...

[Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología 2(1): 48-50] The Venezuelan forest pitviper (Bothrops medusa) is an endangered viperid endemic to the central range of the Cordillera de la Costa in Venezuela. Little is known regarding its natural history and no specific prey are mentioned in the literature. We examined the stomach contents of museum specim...

[Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 54(5): 104-107]

Erratum: (UIMNH 93940; SVL = 269 mm; total length = 203 mm) should read (UIMNH 93940; SVL = 269 mm; total length = 302 mm)

[Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 54(1): 4-8] The variable coral snake (Micrurus diastema) is distributed along the Atlantic versant from central Veracruz, Mexico, through the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, and northern Guatemala to northwestern Honduras (Campbell and Lamar, 2004; Heimes, 2016). It preys primarily on small snakes, but liz...

[Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 53(12): 249-252] The diamondback water snake, Nerodia rhombifer (Hallowell, 1852), is a large, New World natricine occurring in the Upper Mississippi and Lower Illinois Rivers through the Great Plains and along the Gulf Coast of Mexico into Campeche (Gibbons and Dorcas, 2004). As an aquatic specialist...

[Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología 1(2): 35-43] The montane pitvipers (Cerrophidion spp.) consist of five recognized species that disjunctly occupy high elevational habitats from southern Mexico to western Panama. However, two of these species were recently delineated, leaving previously published natural history data on Cerrophidion outdated...

On 26 July 1964, J. Bower- man collected a large female Micrurus narduccii melanotus from Limoncocha, Sucumbíos Province, Ecuador (0.41°S, 76.63°W; WGS 84). The specimen (UIMNH 61058, University of Illinois Museum of Natural History Herpetology Collection) measures 1173 mm total length (SVL = 1131 mm). The previous reported maximum length for M. n....

On 27 June 2017, a gravid adult female Thamnophis radix (SVL = 41.3 cm; tail length = 9.6 cm; 50.5 g) was captured under a rubber artificial cover object in a remnant mesic sand prairie in Green River State Wildlife Management Area, Lee County, Illinois, USA. This was the initial and only capture of this individual during a mark-recapture study. Up...

Dicephalism (axial bifurcation) has been documented in Epicrates maurus previously (Wallach 2007. Bull. Maryland Herpetol. Soc. 43:57-95), but it is unclear if a specimen exists and whether it was captive bred or wild-caught. Here we present an overlooked prodichotomous E. maurus neonate that was collected by W. L. Burger on 24 June 1950 in Cumanoc...

In urban areas, restricted property access poses a significant challenge, making conventional herp survey techniques like visual encounter, cover-board, and drift fence surveys infeasible. When urban residents encounter snakes, they often kill them out of fear and ignorance. This behavior is not only detrimental to snake populations, but attempting...

The montane pitvipers (Cerrophidion spp.) consist of 5 recognized species that disjunctly occupy high elevational habitats from southern Mexico to western Panama. However, two of these species were recently delineated, leaving previously published natural history data on Cerrophidion outdated and in need of a re-examination. To gain more informatio...

We investigated six historical Malayopython reticulatus museum specimens thought to have been collected from mainland India and examined their validity. Most specimens offered insufficient data to support collection from present-day mainland India and were discounted. Despite this, one specimen (UIMNH 62394) collected in “Calcutta, India” prior to...

An ecological overview and a brief history of Kirtland's snake in Illinois with photographic examples of their habitats range-wide to encourage professionals to think about areas within the state where Clonophis kirtlandii may persist.

Kirtland’s snake (Clonophis kirtlandii) is a small, enigmatic, and fossorial snake species endemic to the prairie peninsula region. In 2017, this species was reviewed by the USFWS for federal listing, but protection was deemed unwarranted due to insufficient knowledge regarding its natural history, distribution, population size, and threats. Howeve...

Kirtland’s snake (Clonophis kirtlandii) is a small, enigmatic, and fossorial snake species endemic to the prairie peninsula region. In 2017, this species was reviewed by the USFWS for federal listing, but protection was deemed unwarranted due to insufficient knowledge regarding its natural history, distribution, population size, and threats. Howeve...

Argonne National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy research facility with a 1,500- acre mosaic of a developed campus of buildings, roads, parking lots and other infrastructure, but also grassland, woodland and wetland habitats characteristic of the Northeastern Morainal Section of northeastern Illinois. It is surrounded by Waterfall Glen Fo...

The Green River Conservation Opportunity Area (GRCOA) encompasses ca. 450 km2 in northern Illinois and includes multiple protected areas within a largely agricultural matrix. A comprehensive study of amphibians and reptiles within the Green River Conservation Opportunity Area (GRCOA) has not been completed for over a quarter of a century and new pa...