Genomic analyses indicate resilience of a commercially and culturally important marine gastropod snail to climate change.

Genomic vulnerability analyses are being increasingly used to assess the adaptability of species to climate change and provide an opportunity for proactive management of harvested marine species in changing oceans. Southeastern Australia is a climate change hotspot where many marine species are shifting poleward. The turban snail, is a commercially and culturally harvested marine gastropod snail from eastern Australia.

Influence of ecological factors on the presence of a triatomine species associated with the arboreal habitat of a host of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Background: The white-naped squirrel, Simosciurus nebouxii (previously known as Sciurus stramineus), has recently been identified as an important natural host for Trypanosoma cruzi in Ecuador. The nests of this species have been reported as having high infestation rates with the triatomine vector Rhodnius ecuadoriensis. The present study aims to determine the levels of nest infestation with R.

Phylogeny, diversity and biogeography of Neotropical sipo snakes (Serpentes: Colubrinae: Chironius).

Neotropical sipo snakes (Chironius) are large diurnal snakes with a long tail and big eyes that differ from other Neotropical snakes in having 10 or 12 dorsal scale rows at midbody. The 22 currently recognized species occur from Central America south to Uruguay and northeastern Argentina. Based on the largest geographical sampling to date including ∼90% of all species, we analyzed one nuclear and three mitochondrial genes using phylogenetic methods to (1) test the monophyly of Chironius and some of its widely distributed species; (2) identify lineages that could represent undescribed species; and (3) reconstruct ancestral distributions.

Phylogeny and biogeography of the most diverse clade of South American gymnophthalmid lizards (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae, Cercosaurinae).

Nearly 50% of the diversity of the speciose Neotropical lizard clade Gymnophthalmidae is nested within the subclade Cercosaurinae. The taxonomy of Cercosaurinae lizards has been historically confusing because many diagnostic characters of those clades traditionally ranked as genera do not represent true diagnostic apomorphies. Even though molecular phylogenies of several 'genera' have been presented in the last few years, some of them remain poorly sampled (e.

Bats, Trypanosomes, and Triatomines in Ecuador: New Insights into the Diversity, Transmission, and Origins of Trypanosoma cruzi and Chagas Disease.

The generalist parasite Trypanosoma cruzi has two phylogenetic lineages associated almost exclusively with bats-Trypanosoma cruzi Tcbat and the subspecies T. c. marinkellei.

Phylogeny of Neotropical Cercosaura (Squamata: Gymnophthalmidae) lizards.

Among Neotropical lizards, the geographically widespread gymnophthalmid Cercosaura as currently defined includes lowland and highland taxa from Panama to Argentina, with some species occurring in the northern Andes. In this study we analyze three mitochondrial (12S, 16S, ND4) and one nuclear (c-mos) gene using Bayesian methods to clarify the phylogenetic relationships among most species of Cercosaura based on a well-supported phylogenetic hypothesis that also includes a large sample of other taxa within Cercosaurini. The phylogenetic tree obtained in this paper shows that Cercosaura as currently defined is not monophyletic.

A new species of Alopoglossus lizard (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae) from the tropical Andes, with a molecular phylogeny of the genus.

We describe a new species of Alopoglossus from the Pacific slopes of the Andes in northern Ecuador based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species differs most significantly from all other congeners in having a double longitudinal row of widened gular scales, lanceolate dorsal scales in transverse rows, 29-32 dorsal scales in a transverse row at midbody, and 4 longitudinal rows of ventrals at midbody. It is most similar in morphology to A.