Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss will be the defining ecological, political, and humanitarian challenge of our time. Alarmingly, policymakers face a narrowing window of opportunity to prevent the worst impacts, necessitating complex decisions about which land to set aside for biodiversity preservation. Yet, our ability to make these decisions is hindered by our limited capacity to predict how species will respond...

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Despite rampant coastal development throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific, studies of conservation genetics and ecology of vulnerable, coastal species are rare. Large bodied vertebrates with highly specialized habitat requirements may be at particular risk of extinction due to habitat degradation and fragmentation, especially if these habitats are naturally patchily distributed, marginal, otherwise geographically limited, or associated in space with high human...

Jessa Watters’ master’s research covered diet, feeding behavior, and activity budgets for two species of spiny lizard, Scleoporis jarrovi (Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard) and Sceloporus virgatus (Striped Plateau Lizard).  Her research was conducted in SE Arizona in the Chiricahua Mountain range, which is a unique high elevation habitat that is surrounded by open desert.  Her research asked the following questions: (1) How do...

Over the last few years we have explored the patterns and processes of morphological character evolution and species-level diversification, focusing on understanding the biogeographic and evolutionary histories of Southeast Asian amphibians and reptiles.  Biodiversity in many complex landscapes is likely affected by similar geologic events and climatic changes. We am now pursuing several broader, more comparative approaches to understanding mechanisms driving diversification, and...

We provide a phylogenetic and population genetic evaluation of the illegal pet and bush meat trade of monitor lizards in the Philippines. We use a molecular dataset assembled from vouchered samples with known localities throughout the country, as a reference for statistical phylogenetic, population genetic, and DNA barcoding analyses of genetic material obtained during a three year survey of the Manila pet...

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In this note, we question the hypothesis of a widespread case of mimicry, report on additional observations of the sympatric association of Bracca and Hemibungarus , and compare banding and color patterns between two subspecies of Hemibungarus  and the sympatric lepidopteran from Luzon Island, Philippines.  These observations suggest that a mismatch in color and pattern exists between the model (snake) and potential...