Assessing abundance-suitability models to prioritize conservation areas for the dwarf caimans in South America.

Species-environment relationships have been extensively explored through species distribution models (SDM) and species abundance models (SAM), which have become key components to understand the spatial ecology and population dynamics directed at biodiversity conservation. Nonetheless, within the internal structure of species' ranges, habitat suitability and species abundance do not always show similar patterns, and using information derived from either SDM or SAM could be incomplete and mislead conservation efforts. We gauged support for the abundance-suitability relationship and used the combined information to prioritize the conservation of South American dwarf caimans ( and ).

Insights into mammalian TE diversity through the curation of 248 genome assemblies.

We examined transposable element (TE) content of 248 placental mammal genome assemblies, the largest de novo TE curation effort in eukaryotes to date. We found that although mammals resemble one another in total TE content and diversity, they show substantial differences with regard to recent TE accumulation. This includes multiple recent expansion and quiescence events across the mammalian tree.

Conservation status and regional habitat priorities for the Orinoco crocodile: Past, present, and future.

Conservation of large predator species has historically been a challenge because they often overlap in resource utilization with humans; furthermore, there is a general lack of in-depth knowledge of their ecology and natural history. We assessed the conservation status of the Orinoco crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius), defining regional habitat priorities/crocodile conservation units (RHP/CCU) and regional research priorities (RRP) for this species. We also estimated a species distribution model (SDM) to define current suitable areas where the species might inhabit and/or that might be successfully colonized.

Spatial Ecology of the American Crocodile in a Tropical Pacific Island in Central America.

Conservation of large predators has long been a challenge for biologists due to the limited information we have about their ecology, generally low numbers in the wild, large home ranges and the continuous expansion of human settlements. The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is a typical apex predator, that has suffered from all of these characteristic problems, especially the latter one. Humans have had a major impact on the recovery of this species throughout its range, even though most of the countries it inhabits have banned hunting.

Sequencing three crocodilian genomes to illuminate the evolution of archosaurs and amniotes.

The International Crocodilian Genomes Working Group (ICGWG) will sequence and assemble the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and Indian gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) genomes. The status of these projects and our planned analyses are described.