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Herpetofauna of the Mesa Tres Ríos Area in the Northern Sierra Madre Occidental of Sonora
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The Neotropical bolitoglossine salamanders represent an impressive adaptive radiation, comprising roughly 40% of global salamander species diversity. Despite decades of morphological studies and molecular work, a robust multilocus phylogenetic hypothesis based on DNA sequence data is lacking for the group. We estimated species trees based on multilocus nuclear and mitochondrial data for all major lineages within the bolitoglossines, and used our new phylogenetic hypothesis to test traditional biogeographical scenarios and hypotheses of morphological evolution in the group. In contrast to previous phylogenies, our results place all Central American endemic genera in a single clade and suggest that Central America played a critical role in the early biogeographical history of the group. The large, predominantly Mexican genus Pseudoeurycea is paraphyletic, and analyses of the nuclear data place two lineages of Pseudoeurycea as the sister group of Bolitoglossa. Our phylogeny reveals extensive homoplasy in morphological characters, which may be the result of truncation or alteration of a shared developmental trajectory. We used our phylogenetic results to revise the taxonomy of the genus Pseudoeurycea. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London
The Municipio de Yécora is located in the Madrean Tropical Zone of the Sierra Madre Occidental in eastern Sonora, Mexico. The herpetofauna of the region is very diverse with 93 species in 59 genera and 27 families known from the Río Yaqui to the Chihuahua border. This includes 20 species of amphibians and 73 species of reptiles. Thirty-six species in the Yécora area fauna have protection in NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 law. There are no non-native species in the fauna. The Yécora area herpetofauna is representative of the Madrean Tropical Zone and serves as a baseline to evaluate faunas of the Madrean Archipelago in northeastern Sonora and southeastern Arizona, USA as well as those to the south along the axis of the range.
A phylogenetic analysis of sequences from 503 species of hylid frogs and four outgroup taxa resulted in 16,128 aligned sites of 19 genes. The molecular data were subjected to a maximum likelihood analysis that resulted in a new phylogenetic tree of treefrogs. A conservative new classification based on the tree has (1) three families composing an unranked taxon, Arboranae, (2) nine subfamilies (five resurrected, one new), and (3) six resurrected generic names and five new generic names. Using the results of a maximum likelihood timetree, times of divergence were determined. For the most part these times of divergence correlated well with historical geologic events. The arboranan frogs originated in South America in the Late Mesozoic or Early Cenozoic. The family Pelodryadidae diverged from its South American relative, Phyllomedusidae, in the Eocene and invaded Australia via Antarctica. There were two dispersals from South America to North America in the Paleogene. One lineage was the ancestral stock of Acris and its relatives, whereas the other lineage, subfamily Hylinae, differentiated into a myriad of genera in Middle America.
We report 60 new county records for Texas reptiles and amphibians. Many of these records were found in herpetological collections recently donated to The University of Texas at Arlington Collection of Vertebrates (UTA) by Sam Houston State University and Texas Wesleyan University. The other records were collected by us or found among material originally deposited in the UTA collection.
Key Words continental margin, crustal genesis, geologic history, orogen, tectonics s Abstract The Cordilleran orogen of western North America is a segment of the Circum-Pacific orogenic belt where subduction of oceanic lithosphere has been under-way along a great circle of the globe since breakup of the supercontinent Pangea began in Triassic time. Early stages of Cordilleran evolution involved Neoproterozoic rifting of the supercontinent Rodinia to trigger miogeoclinal sedimentation along a passive continental margin until Late Devonian time, and overthrusting of oceanic allochthons across the miogeoclinal belt from Late Devonian to Early Triassic time. Subsequent evolution of the Cordilleran arc-trench system was punctuated by tectonic accretion of intraoceanic island arcs that further expanded the Cordilleran continental margin during mid-Mesozoic time, and later produced a Cretaceous batholith belt along the Cordilleran trend. Cenozoic interaction with intra-Pacific seafloor spreading systems fostered transform faulting along the Cordilleran continental margin and promoted incipient rupture of continental crust within the adjacent continental block.
We investigated the phylogeography of the closely related relict leopard frog Rana onca (=Lithobates onca) and lowland leopard frog Rana yavapaiensis (=Lithobates yavapaiensis) – two declining anurans from the warm-desert regions of south-western North America. We used sequence data from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to assess 276 individuals representing 30 sites from across current distributions. Our analysis supports a previously determined phylogenetic break between these taxa, and we found no admixing of R. onca and R. yavapaiensis haplotypes within our extensive sampling of sites. Our phylogeographic assessment, however, further divided R. yavapaiensis into two distinct mtDNA lineages, one representing populations across Arizona and northern Mexico and the other a newly discovered population within the western Grand Canyon, Arizona. Estimates of sequence evolution indicate a possible Early Pleistocene divergence of R. onca and R. yavapaiensis, followed by a Middle Pleistocene separation of the western Grand Canyon population of R. yavapaiensis from the main R. yavapaiensis clade. Phylogeographic and demographic analyses indicate population or range expansion for R. yavapaiensis within its core distribution that appears to predate the latest glacial maximum. Species distribution models under current and latest glacial climatic conditions suggest that R. onca and R. yavapaiensis may not have greatly shifted ranges.
The subspecies concept has received considerable debate throughout the past century. Subspecies were originally used to delineate potential incipient species, but were later employed to simply capture geographical variation. There is a recent trend to eliminate the trinomial in light of new evidence. Discrete, diagnosable lineages are elevated to specific status, while those that show clinal variation and/or appear to represent ecological pattern classes are placed in synonymy with the parent species and the subspecific epithets are disregarded. Here, I examine the species boundaries of nightsnakes (Hypsiglena torquata) using standard phylogeographic methods and mtDNA data from 178 individuals. Previously, seventeen subspecies of H. torquata were described. In this study, I recognize six species in what was previously considered H. torquata: one is novel, two were previously recognized subspecies, while the remaining three are wide-spread, polymorphic lineages, composed of multiple subspecies. I make the case to maintain the subspecific lineages in these wide-ranging species because they are geographically cohesive, morphologically discrete, and may represent incipient species within each complex, which have not yet achieved speciation. These subspecies are maintained, not only pending future investigations, but because they provide a useful identity for the taxonomy of this diverse lineage.
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Herein, we assess whether there are effects of thermal environments and seasonality on the body temperature of a P. braconnieri population. Materials and MetHods The fieldwork was carried out from
Herein, we assess whether there are effects of thermal
environments and seasonality on the body temperature of a P.
braconnieri population.
Materials and MetHods
The fieldwork was carried out from September 2014 to
May 2015 at La Magdalena Cuaxixtla, municipality of Tecali
de Herrera, Puebla, Mexico (18.8708°N, 97.9477°W, WGS 84;
Substrate temperature (T s , measured in the place where lizards were found) and air temperature (T a , in shade and 1 m above ground level) were recorded with Kestrel weather and environmental meter (± 1°C) (Ramírez-Bautista and Benabib
- Vitt
2033 m elev.). The mean annual temperature and precipitation
are 18.7°C and 724 mm, respectively (CONAGUA 2010). The
vegetation is xeric scrubland, composed of succulent plants,
some of which live in colonies (Rzedowski 1978). Sampling
effort was equally distributed among months and days, from
0900-2000 h. Lizards were collected by hand. Once captured,
we recorded cloacal temperature (T c ) with a Miller-Weber
rapid registering thermometer (± 0.2°C). Substrate temperature
(T s, measured in the place where lizards were found) and air
temperature (T a, in shade and 1 m above ground level) were
recorded with Kestrel weather and environmental meter (±
1°C) (Ramírez-Bautista and Benabib 2001). All temperatures
were taken within 30 sec after the capture of a lizard (Vitt et
al. 2003). We also recorded SVL (with a plastic ruler ± 1 mm),
date, time of day, microhabitat, weather (sunny or cloudy),
and lizard exposure to light (direct sun, filtered sun, or shade;
Lizards that needed a major effort to capture
- Vitt
Vitt et al. 2003). Lizards that needed a major effort to capture