Extensive sampling and citizen science expand the distribution of the threatened freshwater turtle Ranacephala hogei (Mertens, 1967).

Ranacephala hogei is a South American freshwater turtle considered one of the 25 most endangered chelonian species in the world. Endemic to the Atlantic Forest hotspot of southeastern Brazil, the conservation status of R. hogei is subject to continuous assessment at various levels.

Comparative skull osteology of Amphisbaena arda and Amphisbaena vermicularis (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae).

The skull anatomy of amphisbaenians directly influences their capacity to burrow and is crucial for the study of their systematics, which ultimately contributes to our comprehension of their evolution and ecology. In this study, we employed three-dimensional X-ray computed tomography to provide a detailed description and comprehensive comparison of the skull anatomy of two amphisbaenian species with similar external morphology, Amphisbaena arda and Amphisbaena vermicularis. Our findings revealed some differences between the species, especially in the sagittal crest of the parietal bone, the ascendant process, and the transverse occipital crest of the occipital complex.

Geographic patterns of distribution and ecological niche of the snake-necked turtle genus .

Biotic and abiotic factors play a crucial role in determining the distribution of species. These factors dictate the conditions that must be met for a species to thrive in a particular area. Sister species that present some degree of niche overlap can shed light on how they are distributed and coexist in their environment.

Environmental drivers of tropical forest snake phenology: Insights from citizen science.

Museum specimens and citizen science initiatives are valuable sources of information on how anthropogenic activities affect biodiversity and how species respond to rapid global change. Although tropical regions harbor most of the planet's biodiversity, investigations on species' phenological changes are heavily biased toward temperate regions. Such unevenness in phenological research is also taxonomically biased, with reptiles being the least studied group among tetrapod species regarding animal phenology.

Unwrapping broken tails: Biological and environmental correlates of predation pressure in limbless reptiles.

Studying species interactions in nature often requires elaborated logistics and intense fieldwork. The difficulties in such task might hinder our ability to answer questions on how biotic interactions change with the environment. Fortunately, a workaround to this problem lies within scientific collections.

A new tale of lost tails: Correlates of tail breakage in the worm lizard .

Predator-prey interactions are important evolutionary drivers of defensive behaviors, but they are usually difficult to record. This lack of data on natural history and ecological interactions of species can be overcome through museum specimens, at least for some reptiles. When facing aggressive interactions, reptile species may exhibit the defensive behavior of autotomy by losing the tail, which is also known as "urotomy".

Amphisbaena mensae Catro-Mello, 2000 is a synonym of Amphisbaena talisiae Vanzolini, 1995 (Squamata: Amphisbaenia: Amphisbaenidae).

Amphisbaena talisiae and A. mensae, two worm lizard species endemic to the Cerrado ecoregion, in central Brazil, are considered synonyms based on morphological characters. With the proposed synonymy, the name A.

Environmental constraints on the compositional and phylogenetic beta-diversity of tropical forest snake assemblages.

The ongoing biodiversity crisis increases the importance and urgency of studies addressing the role of environmental variation on the composition and evolutionary history of species assemblages, but especially the tropics and ectotherms remain understudied. In regions with rainy summers, coexistence of tropical ectothermic species may be determined by the partitioning of the climatic niche, as ectotherms can rely on water availability and thermoregulatory behaviour to buffer constraints along their climatic niche. Conversely, tropical ectotherms facing dry summers would have fewer opportunities to climatic niche partitioning and other processes rather than environmental filtering would mediate species coexistence.

The correct authorship and date of lizard names Teiinae, Tupinambinae,and Gymnophthalmidae.

Teiidae and Gymnophthalmidae are lizard families endemic to the Neotropical region (Vitt & Caldwell 2014), with about 150 and 245 valid living species, respectively (Uetz & Hošek 2015). Extinct teiid taxa are known from the Cretaceous to the Holocene (Albino 2005; Estes 1983b; Sullivan & Estes 1997). The authorship of Teiidae is undoubtedly attributed to Gray (1827) (ICZN 1985), but there is some confusion in literature regarding its subfamilies Teiinae and Tupinambinae.

A new Amphisbaena (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae) from southern Espinhaço Range, southeastern Brazil.

A new species of Amphisbaena is described from a semi-deciduous forest in Conceição do Mato Dentro, southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The following combined characters can diagnose the new species from all congeners: head round-shaped; two or three precloacal pores sequentially arranged; 190-199 body annuli; 2-3 lateral annuli; 23-25 caudal annuli; autotomy sites on caudal annuli 7-9; 12-14 dorsal segments on midbody annulus; 14-16 ventral segments on midbody annulus; three supralabials; three infralabials; postmalar row present or absent; dorsum light brown, with cream intersegmental sutures; venter cream. To date, the new species is known only from the Espinhaço Range, highlighting the importance of conservation actions for these mountains.

Taxonomic revision of Drymoluber Amaral, 1930 (Serpentes: Colubridae).

The present study is a taxonomic revision of the genus Drymoluber Amaral, 1930, using meristic and morphometric characters, aspects of external hemipenial morphology and body coloration. Sexual dimorphism occurs in D. dichrous and D.