Herpetology articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The contribution of adaptive radiation to species and phenotypic diversity within major clades is not clear. Here, the authors use morphological and phylogenetic data for 1226 species of frogs, finding that less than half of families resemble adaptive radiation, but that adaptive radiation contributed to 75% of diversity.

    • Gen Morinaga
    • , John J. Wiens
    •  & Daniel S. Moen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Living snakes replace their teeth without external resorption. Here, the authors use histology to show that odontoclasts resorb dentine internally and investigate this mechanism in fossil snakes.

    • A. R. H. LeBlanc
    • , A. Palci
    •  & M. W. Caldwell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors use reproductive mode data with matching phylogenetic data to explore the evolution of reproductive mode, transitions between reproductive modes, and diversification rates in amphibians.

    • H. Christoph Liedtke
    • , John J. Wiens
    •  & Ivan Gomez-Mestre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Empirical evidence on the process of founding new populations for assisted colonisations is limited. This work examined two wild populations of green turtles in the Cayman Islands following a reintroduction program started 50 years ago. They show both populations are highly related to the captive population and that philopatry may reinforce the success of new populations.

    • Anna Barbanti
    • , Janice M. Blumenthal
    •  & Carlos Carreras

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Islands can provide insights into the evolution of diverse adaptations. The genomes of 34 major lineages of Mediterranean wall lizards reveal a highly reticulated pattern of evolution across the group, characterised by mosaic genomes and showing that hybrid lineages gave rise to several extant endemics.

    • Weizhao Yang
    • , Nathalie Feiner
    •  & Tobias Uller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of metamorphic species may be constrained by different ecologies of the larval and adult stages. Here, Bardua et al. show that in frogs, adult ecology is more important than larval ecology for skull evolution, but species that don’t feed as tadpoles evolve faster than those that do.

    • Carla Bardua
    • , Anne-Claire Fabre
    •  & Anjali Goswami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (BD) associated with widespread amphibian declines is present in Europe but has not consistently caused disease-induced declines in that region. Here, the authors suggest that an endemic strain of BD with low virulence may protect the hosts upon co-infection with more virulent strains.

    • Mark S. Greener
    • , Elin Verbrugghe
    •  & An Martel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are gaps in international efforts to monitor the wildlife trade, with many species potentially being undetected by the established monitoring groups. Here the authors use an automated web search to document the sale of reptiles online, revealing over 36% of all known reptile species are in trade, including many missing from official databases.

    • Benjamin M. Marshall
    • , Colin Strine
    •  & Alice C. Hughes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cerebellum is critical in sensory-motor control and is structurally diverse across vertebrates. Here, the authors investigate the evolutionary relationship between locomotory mode and cerebellum architecture across squamates by integrating study of gene expression, cell distribution, and 3D morphology.

    • Simone Macrì
    • , Yoland Savriama
    •  & Nicolas Di-Poï

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parental care can take many forms but how this diversity arises is not well understood. Here, the authors compile data for over 1300 amphibian species and show that different forms of care evolve at different rates, prolonged care can be easily reduced, and biparental care is evolutionarily unstable.

    • Andrew I. Furness
    •  & Isabella Capellini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicted responses to climate change may be informed by evolutionary history. Here, the authors reconstruct the phylogeny of lacertid lizards and investigate how the evolution of this clade has varied with paleoclimates and how closely adapted extant species are to modern climates.

    • Joan Garcia-Porta
    • , Iker Irisarri
    •  & Katharina C. Wollenberg Valero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The biogeographic drivers of reptile diversity are poorly understood relative to other animal groups. Here, using a dataset of distributions of African squamates, the authors show that environmental filtering explains diversity in stressful habitats while competition explains diversity in benign habitats.

    • Till Ramm
    • , Juan L. Cantalapiedra
    •  & Johannes Müller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three alternatives have been proposed for the ecological state of the ancestral snake: fossorial (burrowing), aquatic, or terrestrial. Here, the authors use an integrative geometric morphometric approach that suggests evolution from terrestrial to fossorial in the most recent common ancestor of extant snakes.

    • Filipe O. Da Silva
    • , Anne-Claire Fabre
    •  & Nicolas Di-Poï

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To avoid being eaten, poisonous prey animals must rely on fast passage of toxins across a predator’s oral tissue, a major barrier to large molecules. Here, Raaymakers et al. show that antimicrobial peptides co secreted with frog toxins enhance intoxication of a snake predator by permeabilizing oral cell layers.

    • Constantijn Raaymakers
    • , Elin Verbrugghe
    •  & Kim Roelants

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The globally-distributed Ranidae (true frogs) are the largest frog family. Here, Hammond et al. present a draft genome of the North American bullfrog, Rana (Lithobates) catesbeiana, as a foundation for future understanding of true frog genetics as amphibian species face difficult environmental challenges.

    • S. Austin Hammond
    • , René L. Warren
    •  & Inanc Birol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Early-life microbiota alterations can affect infection susceptibility later in life, in animal models. Here, Knutie et al. show that manipulating the microbiota of tadpoles leads to increased susceptibility to parasitic infection in adult frogs, in the absence of substantial changes in the adults’ microbiota.

    • Sarah A. Knutie
    • , Christina L. Wilkinson
    •  & Jason R. Rohr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In animals with complex life cycles, selection on one life phase may constrain adaptation in another phase. Here the authors find that, during the adaptive radiation of mantellid frogs, the evolution of tadpole and adult morphologies has been uncoupled through phase-specific gene expression.

    • Katharina C. Wollenberg Valero
    • , Joan Garcia-Porta
    •  & Miguel Vences

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Toxic and venomous species often have conspicuous warning colouration that is mimicked by harmless species. Here, Davis Rabosky et al. combine phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses to reveal that mimicry of venomous coral snakes has been a major driver of snake colour evolution in the New World.

    • Alison R. Davis Rabosky
    • , Christian L. Cox
    •  & Jimmy A. McGuire

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Geckos are small, agile reptiles with nocturnal habits. Here, the authors sequence the genome of the Schlegel’s Japanese Gecko and reveal gene family expansions and reductions associated with formation of adhesive setae, nocturnal vision, tail regeneration, and diversification of olfactory sensation.

    • Yan Liu
    • , Qian Zhou
    •  & Xiaosong Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolutionary origins of the costal and neural bony plates of the turtle shell have long remained elusive. Here the authors show, through comparative morphological and embryological analyses, that the most of the carapace is derived from endoskeletal ribs.

    • Tatsuya Hirasawa
    • , Hiroshi Nagashima
    •  & Shigeru Kuratani

  • Article |

    The Hula painted frog was the first amphibian to be declared extinct, and it has survived undetected for almost 60 years. Here Gafny and colleagues report a surviving Hula painted frog and provide evidence that it belongs to the otherwise extinct genus Latonia.

    • Rebecca Biton
    • , Eli Geffen
    •  & Sarig Gafny

  • Article |

    Our understanding of the evolutionary sequence of tetrapod characters is hindered by a limited fossil record of primitive finned tetrapods. This study reports a new stem-tetrapod from ~409 million years ago, which displays morphological features shared by tetrapods and lungfishes, and extends the earliest record of tetrapods by ~10 million years.

    • Jing Lu
    • , Min Zhu
    •  & Tuo Qiao

  • Article |

    The evolution of venom toxins is an area of intense study but has been hampered by the lack of non-toxin protein homologues. Here, phylogenetic analyses of non-toxin genes sourced from transcriptomic studies are found placed within groups of venom toxins, revealing dynamic changes in the sites of toxin expression.

    • Nicholas R. Casewell
    • , Gavin A. Huttley
    •  & Wolfgang Wüster

Browse broader subjects

Browse Herpetology across other nature.com journals