Publications by authors named "Manuel Feria-Ortiz"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on the short-nosed skink species *Plestiodon brevirostris* from south-central Mexico, assessing species boundaries using environmental, molecular, and morphological data.
  • - Researchers utilized DNA from both mitochondrial and nuclear sources to construct phylogenetic trees, analyze population structure, and apply species delimitation techniques, ultimately identifying four distinct species within the skink group.
  • - Findings indicate that some newly recognized lineages exhibit limited morphological differences but vary in habitat preferences, and that certain lineages are microendemic or parapatric, suggesting the potential presence of species complexes within the *P. brevirostris* grouping.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

For most of its history, the name Anolis boulengerianus Thominot, 1887 has been regarded as a junior synonym of Anolis nebulosus (Wiegmann, 1834) or Anolis nebuloides Bocourt, 1873. However, a comparison of the syntypes and additional topotypical specimens of A. boulengerianus with three topoparatypes and additional specimens of the species currently referred to as Anolis isthmicus Fitch, 1978 showed that these two names pertain to the same species.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identifying and dating historical biological events is a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology, and recent analytical advances permit the modeling of factors known to affect both the accuracy and the precision of molecular date estimates. As the use of multilocus data sets becomes increasingly routine, it becomes more important to evaluate the potentially confounding effects of rate heterogeneity both within (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oceanic islands are well known for harboring diverse species assemblages and are frequently the basis of research on adaptive radiation and neoendemism. However, a commonly overlooked role of some islands is their function in preserving ancient lineages that have become extinct everywhere else (paleoendemism). The island archipelago of Bermuda is home to a single species of extant terrestrial vertebrate, the endemic skink Plestiodon (formerly Eumeces) longirostris.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF