Published in Swiss Journal of Palaeontology
The Miocene aquatic and terrestrial fossil record from western Amazonia constitute a clear evidence of the palaeoenvironmental diversity that prevailed in the area, prior to the establishment of the Amazon River drainage. During the Miocene, the region was characterized by a freshwater megawetland basin, influenced by episodic shallow-marine incurs...
Published in Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
BackgroundSpecies with direct uses, such as sources of food, shelter, building material and medicine tend to have more specific local names. But could the same apply for species that people fear?MethodsTo address this question, here we explore the behavior and perception of species diversity and dangerousness through a survey of 1037 households in ...
Published in BMC Genomics
BackgroundRapid anthropogenic climate change will require species to adapt to shifting environmental conditions, with successful adaptation dependent upon current patterns of genetic variation. While landscape genomic approaches allow for exploration of local adaptation in non-model systems, most landscape genomics studies of adaptive capacity are ...
Published in Frontiers for Young Minds
At first glance, crocodiles and birds appear to be two very different groups of animals. Crocodiles tend to inhabit marshes and wetlands, while most birds tend to nest on dry land or in trees. Not only do they look very different, but while crocodiles walk on all fours and are excellent swimmers, most birds fly. Interestingly, researchers have foun...
Published in Ambio
Urbanisation is rapidly transforming natural landscapes with consequences for biodiversity. Little is documented on the response of African wildlife to urbanisation. We reviewed case studies of vertebrate species' responses to urbanisation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to determine trends. Connected habitat mosaics of natural and anthropogenic gre...
Published in Frontiers in Zoology
BackgroundQuantity discrimination, the ability to discriminate a magnitude of difference or discrete numerical information, plays a key role in animal behavior. While quantitative ability has been well documented in fishes, birds, mammals, and even in previously unstudied invertebrates and amphibians, it is still poorly understood in reptiles and h...
Published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Population monitoring is fundamental for informing management decisions aimed at reducing the rapid rate of global biodiversity decline. Herpetofauna are experiencing declines worldwide and include species that are challenging to monitor. Raw counts and associated metrics such as richness indices are common for monitoring populations of herpetofaun...
Published in Parasites & Vectors
BackgroundLeishmania tarentolae is a protozoan isolated from geckoes (Tarentola annularis, Tarentola mauritanica), which is considered non-pathogenic and is transmitted by herpetophilic Sergentomyia spp. sand flies. This species occurs in sympatry with Leishmania infantum in areas where canine leishmaniasis is endemic. In the present study, we inve...
Published in Journal of Zoological Research
Brazil has six species of crocodiles belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae,one of them being Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Cuvier, 1807) (dwarf caiman).It is considered one of the smallest crocodilian species, and is sensitive toenvironmental changes. The anatomical and histological descriptions ofthe reproductive tract of reptiles are scarce, so it is ...
Published in The Science of the total environment
The toxicity of carbon-based nanomaterials (CNs) has been observed in different organisms; however, little is known about the impact of water polluted with carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on reptiles. Thus, the aim of the current study was to assess the chronic effects (7.5 months) of 1 and 10 mg/L of CNF on Podocnemis expansa (Amazon turtle) juveniles (4...
