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...

Aim To highlight the significant conservation challenge of evaluating peripheral endemic vertebrates in island archipelago systems and to assess empirically the complexities of approaches to conservation genetic studies across political and biogeographic boundaries. To demonstrate the poignant need for international collaboration and coordination when species delimitation problems with high conservation concern involve island endemics with biogeographically peripheral ranges. Location Southeast Asia, Lanyu...

The genus Hologerrhum is one of four endemic snake genera found only in the Philippines. Because there were no male specimens of H. philippinum in collections, taxonomists thought this might have been an all-female, parthenogenetic species which could reproduce without the presence of a male. During recent fieldwork in the northern Philippines, an adult male H. philippinum was collected in mixed primary-...

Island ecosystems often consist of many types of unique organisms and therefore are very important to conservation efforts. Deforestation, pollution, and a lack of protection of these islands cause many species to go endangered or extinct. In order to protect these endemic species it is important for scientists to study and identify the phylogenetic lineages of the many species living here. This...

Recent studies of forest lizards in Southeast Asia have revealed both physical and genetic differences within this family. These lizards are currently being threatened by the deforestation that is occurring in the region. Lizards in the Philippines are particularly vulnerable, as 84% of the lizard species there are found nowhere else on the planet. Though the threats faced by these lizards are...

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...

Elyse Freitas – Research Statement: With more than 1600 species, the lizard Family Scincidae is the most biodiverse group of lizards. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution and is found on every continent except Antarctica and on numerous oceanic islands. Consequently, Scincidae is ecologically and morphologically diverse and is a good system for studying the evolution and distribution of body form in...

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...

Recent conceptual, technological and methodological advances in phylogenetics have enabled increasingly robust statistical species delimitation in studies of biodiversity. As the variety of evidence purporting species diversity has increased, so too have the kinds of tools and inferential power of methods for delimiting species. Here, we showcase an organismal system for a data-rich, comparative molecular approach to evaluating strategies of species delimitation...

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