Genomic Data Reveal Conserved Female Heterogamety in Giant Salamanders with Gigantic Nuclear Genomes.

Systems of genetic sex determination and the homology of sex chromosomes in different taxa vary greatly across vertebrates. Much progress remains to be made in understanding systems of genetic sex determination in non-model organisms, especially those with homomorphic sex chromosomes and/or large genomes. We used reduced representation genome sequencing to investigate genetic sex determination systems in the salamander family Cryptobranchidae (genera and ), which typifies both of these inherent difficulties.

A multiscale natural community and species-level vulnerability assessment of the Gulf Coast, USA.

Vulnerability assessments combine quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of species or natural communities to current and future threats. When combined with the economic, ecological or evolutionary value of the species, vulnerability assessments quantify the relative risk to regional species and natural communities and can enable informed prioritization of conservation efforts. Vulnerability assessments are common practice in conservation biology, including the potential impacts of future climate scenarios.

Imperfect morphological convergence: variable changes in cranial structures underlie transitions to durophagy in moray eels.

Convergence is central to the study of evolution because it demonstrates the power of natural selection to deterministically shape phenotypic diversity. However, the conditions under which a common morphology repeatedly evolves may be restrictive. Many factors, such as differing genetic and environmental backgrounds and many-to-one mapping of form to function, contribute to variability in responses to selection.

A vulnerability assessment of 300 species in Florida: threats from sea level rise, land use, and climate change.

Species face many threats, including accelerated climate change, sea level rise, and conversion and degradation of habitat from human land uses. Vulnerability assessments and prioritization protocols have been proposed to assess these threats, often in combination with information such as species rarity; ecological, evolutionary or economic value; and likelihood of success. Nevertheless, few vulnerability assessments or prioritization protocols simultaneously account for multiple threats or conservation values.

Threatened and endangered subspecies with vulnerable ecological traits also have high susceptibility to sea level rise and habitat fragmentation.

The presence of multiple interacting threats to biodiversity and the increasing rate of species extinction make it critical to prioritize management efforts on species and communities that maximize conservation success. We implemented a multi-step approach that coupled vulnerability assessments evaluating threats to Florida taxa such as climate change, sea-level rise, and habitat fragmentation with in-depth literature surveys of taxon-specific ecological traits. The vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and ecological traits of 12 threatened and endangered subspecies were compared to non-listed subspecies of the same parent species.

Molecular phylogenetics of moray eels (Muraenidae) demonstrates multiple origins of a shell-crushing jaw (Gymnomuraena, Echidna) and multiple colonizations of the Atlantic Ocean.

Moray eels (Muraenidae) are apex predators on coral reefs around the world, but they are not well studied because their cryptic habitats and occasionally aggressive behaviors make them difficult to collect. We provide a molecular phylogeny of moray eels including 44 species representing two subfamilies, eight genera, and all tropical ocean basins. Phylogenetic relationships among these taxa are estimated from portions of mitochondrial loci cytochrome b (632 bp) and cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (596 bp), and portions of the nuclear loci RAG-1 (421 bp) and RAG-2 (754 bp).

Phylogeography of two moray eels indicates high dispersal throughout the indo-pacific.

Reef fishes disperse primarily as oceanic "pelagic" larvae, and debate continues over the extent of this dispersal, with recent evidence for geographically restricted (closed) populations in some species. In contrast, moray eels have the longest pelagic larval stages among reef fishes, possibly providing opportunities to disperse over great distances. We test this prediction by measuring mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA variation in 2 species of moray eels, Gymnothorax undulatus (N = 165) and G.