After training with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in San Diego for the next month, I will depart on a six-month research expedition in Fiji that will focus on the ecology and conservation of the critically endangered Fijian crested iguana (Brachylophus vitiensis). Working on a large collaborative project supported by San Diego Zoo Global, USGS, International Iguana Foundation, and the National...

Herpetology Collection Manager Jessa Watters joined an expedition led by Earlham College’s Dr. John Iverson to the uninhabited Allen’s Cays and Bushhill Cay, Exuma Islands, Bahamas from May 16-27.  The trip included a total of 16 field researchers and 6 crew of the ship, the Beacon Won.  We visited a total four islands and studied demography and physiology of two endangered iguana...

As part of the Spring 2015 Herpetology Course (BIOL 4083) taught by Dr. Cameron Siler at the University of Oklahoma, students took part in a semester long, small group writing assignment that formed a large basis of their final course grade. The class was broken up into three groups of seven or eight students, and each group was assigned a distinct lineage of...

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Soon after the description of the Sail Mountain Dragon (Japalura vela) from eastern Tibet, China, two more new species of Japalura, namely J. laeviventris and J. iadina, were described from the approximate same region in the Hengduan Mountain Range of China. Despite the distinct scalation and coloration, the two new species have long been confused with a known congener, J. flaviceps. Like other...

A new species of dragon lizard was discovered from the valleys Eastern Tibet, PR China, which provides further information about the biogeography of the river system in the region. As the direct result of continental collision, the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions provide an ideal system to investigate how complex geographic events affect the evolution of living organisms. However, because of...

A new species of the agamid genus Japalura is described based on 15 specimens from the upper Lancang (Mekong) Valley of eastern Tibet, PR China. Populations of the new species, Japalura vela sp. nov., were previously recognized as J. flaviceps. The new species is morphologically most similar to J. batangensis, J. micangshanensis, J. variegata, and J. zhaoermii, but is distinguished from the...

In this paper, a new species of nematode helminth parasite is described: Cosmocerca leytensis. In addition, this paper represents the first descriptive list of parasites found in the gecko, Cytodactylus gubuaot, which is known to reside only on the Leyte Island of the Philippines. Although C. leytensis is the 30th species within the genus, it is the first to be found from...

Cosmocerca leytensis sp. nov. (Ascaridida, Cosmocercidae) from the large intestine of Cyrtodactylus gubaot (Squamata: Gekkonidae) collected on Leyte Island, Philippines is described and illustrated. Cosmocerca leytensis sp. nov. is the 30th species assigned to the genus, the 4th from the Oriental region, and the first from the Philippine Islands. The new species is most similar to those species possessing 4 pairs of...

Recent investigations into the species diversity of false geckos (genus Pseudogekko Taylor) have revealed several cryptic species, highlighting the need for a more thorough understanding of diversity within this enigmatic genus of endemic Philippine geckos. Newly available genetic data reveal that two of the four currently recognized species are complexes of mul- tiple deeply divergent evolutionary lineages. In this paper we evaluate...

Two of the Siler Lab members who received internal research grants presented their findings at OU’s annual Undergraduate Research Day on April 18, 2015.  Tucker Walton gave an oral presentation entitled “Delineating morphometric characters for use in snake species descriptions” with the help of Matt DeRuyter, Jessa Watters, and Cameron Siler.  Matt DeRuyter presented a poster entitled “Preliminary Phylogenetic Study of the Lizard Genus...