A. Antonelli

Worldwide Soundscapes: a synthesis of passive acoustic monitoring across realms

The paper synthesizes passive acoustic monitoring data across ecosystems to assess global coverage and identify gaps in biodiversity monitoring.

Morphometrics and phylogenomics of coca (Erythroxylum spp.) illuminate its reticulate evolution, with implications for taxonomy

This study uses morphometrics and phylogenomics to analyze coca species and their relatives, revealing gene flow and taxonomic implications for coca classification.

Plant diversity darkspots for global collection priorities

The paper identifies global plant diversity darkspots with limited species data and prioritizes regions for collection efforts based on environmental and socio-economic scenarios.

Spiny but photogenic: amateur sightings complement herbarium specimens to reveal the bioregions of cacti

This paper uses herbarium specimens and citizen science observations to define cactus bioregions, finding that human observations significantly enhance data in areas with collection biases.

Large-scale assessment of habitat quality and quantity change on declining European butterflies

This study assesses habitat quality and quantity changes in European butterflies and finds habitat quality, not area, is the main driver of biodiversity decline.

Two major extinction events in the evolutionary history of turtles: one caused by a meteorite, the other by hominins

The paper analyzes the fossil record of turtles to identify extinction events, finding two major ones linked to the K-Pg meteorite and hominins, with the latter affecting terrestrial turtles.

A call for improving the Key Biodiversity Areas framework

The paper evaluates the Key Biodiversity Areas framework by assessing how many terrestrial areas could qualify as KBAs if all species were considered, finding that up to 68% of land could be classified as KBAs.

Estimating alpha, beta, and gamma diversity through deep learning

This paper develops a deep learning method to estimate alpha, beta, and gamma plant diversity by predicting species richness from spatial variables, without requiring individual species range mapping.

Increased resolution in the face of conflict: phylogenomics of the Neotropical bellflowers (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae), a rapid plant radiation

This study improves phylogenetic resolution of the Neotropical bellflowers using phylogenomic data, revealing conflicts and convergent evolution in capsular species.

Landscape dynamics promoted the evolution of mega-diversity in South American freshwater fishes

The paper tracks how landscape dynamics and river network changes over 100 million years influenced diversification and dispersal of South American freshwater fishes.

Functional and historical drivers of leaf shape evolution in Palms (Arecaceae)

This study investigates the evolutionary drivers of leaf shape in palms, finding associations between plant height, precipitation, and leaf morphology, while temperature had less impact.

The evolution of open habitats in North America revealed by deep learning models

This paper uses a deep learning model to reconstruct the evolution of open habitats in North America, finding they originated 25-20 Ma and expanded rapidly starting 8 Ma.

Above- and below-ground biodiversity responses to the prolonged flood pulse in central-western Amazonia, Brazil.

The paper examines how prolonged flooding affects soil and litter biodiversity in Amazonian forests, finding that flooding gradients and woody plant diversity partially explain bacterial community composition but not overall diversity.

Optimising biodiversity protection through artificial intelligence

This paper introduces CAPTAIN, an AI framework for conservation prioritisation that outperforms existing methods and highlights the value of biodiversity monitoring.

Unbiased clade age estimation using a Bayesian Brownian Bridge

The paper defends the Bayesian Brownian Bridge method against criticism, showing its estimates of angiosperm clade ages are valid despite concerns about fossil data scarcity and sampling bias.

The origins and drivers of Neotropical diversity

The paper evaluates four evolutionary scenarios for Neotropical diversification using 150 phylogenies, finding that most clades show increasing diversity over time, while plants and tetrapods exhibit different diversification patterns.

Mesoamerica is a cradle and the Atlantic Forest is a museum of Neotropical butterfly diversity: Insights from the evolution and biogeography of Brassolini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

This study examines the evolutionary and biogeographical patterns of Neotropical butterflies, finding that Mesoamerica acts as a cradle of diversity while the Atlantic Forest functions as a museum.

Archaeogenomics of a ~2,100-year-old Egyptian leaf provides a new timestamp on date palm domestication

The paper analyzes an ancient date palm leaf to determine the timing of gene flow from wild relatives to domesticated date palms, finding hybridization occurred at least 2,100 years ago.

Plastid phylogenomics resolves ambiguous relationships within the orchid family and provides a solid timeframe for biogeography and macroevolution

This study uses plastid phylogenomics to resolve ambiguous relationships within the orchid family and provides divergence times for biogeography and macroevolution.

No one-size-fits-all solution to clean GBIF

The paper evaluates the impact of 13 automatic filters on biodiversity analyses using GBIF data for 18 Neotropical taxa, finding significant variation in problematic records across taxonomic groups.

Unravelling the phylogenomic relationships of the most diverse African palm genus Raphia (Calamoideae, Arecaceae)

This study uses phylogenomic analysis to clarify the relationships within the African palm genus Raphia, finding five clades and supporting morphological classification while highlighting unresolved species boundaries.

Exploring the impact of political regimes on biodiversity

The paper quantifies how different political regimes affect biodiversity management by linking democracy levels to natural history specimen registrations.

WEGE: A NEW METRIC FOR RANKING LOCATIONS FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

The paper develops and validates the WEGE index to rank biodiversity importance of sites based on species endemism and threat status, outperforming existing metrics for conservation prioritization.

sampbias, a method for quantifying geographic sampling biases in species distribution data

The paper introduces sampbias, a method to quantify geographic sampling biases in species occurrence data using a Bayesian approach, demonstrating its application on mammal data from Borneo.

iucn_sim: A new program to simulate future extinctions based on IUCN threat status

The paper introduces a software tool to simulate future species extinctions using IUCN threat status and generation length data, predicting bird extinction rates and biodiversity loss over 100 years.

Dispersal ability predicts evolutionary success among mammalian carnivores

This study shows that dispersal ability is positively linked to diversification rates in mammalian carnivores when including extinct species.

Species limits in butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): Reconciling classical taxonomy with the multispecies coalescent

The paper applies coalescent-based methods to resolve species limits in butterflies, identifying 22 species and addressing taxonomic and genetic uncertainties.

Improved estimation of macroevolutionary rates from fossil data using a Bayesian framework

The paper updates PyRate, a Bayesian software for estimating macroevolutionary rates from fossil data, showing significant shifts in marine mammal origination and extinction rates.

Allele Phasing Greatly Improves the Phylogenetic Utility of Ultraconserved Elements

This paper develops a pipeline to recover allele sequences from sequence capture data and shows that phased allele sequences improve phylogenetic accuracy compared to contig sequences.

Human activity is altering the world’s zoogeographical regions

This study shows human activity can reconfigure zoogeographical regions by altering species distributions, challenging the assumption that these regions are stable over time.