Amphibian and Reptile Biology

This study examines how urbanization and environmental factors affect phenotypic traits in a tropical frog, finding that body size decreases with urbanization while trait variability changes in response to environmental conditions.

The paper shows how interactions with yellow-legged gulls help the Tenerife speckled lizard survive in a suboptimal habitat through diet and predation protection.

The paper shows how lineage-specific trait variation in an amphibian parasite leads to different coexistence and competitive exclusion dynamics in Europe and Africa.

A study identifies two novel strains of chytrid fungus in New Hampshire amphibians, revealing unique mutations that may influence their impact on local populations.

The paper investigates Bd infection prevalence in Ecuadorian Amazonian anurans, finding 58% overall infection rate and significant negative association between host weight and infection proportion.

The paper identifies morphometric traits to distinguish native Iguana delicatissima from introduced green iguanas, enabling rapid in-situ conservation efforts.

The paper shows that juvenile agile frogs avoid infected conspecifics but do not isolate themselves, suggesting spatial avoidance may reduce disease transmission while lack of self-isolation may not be pathogen-driven.

The paper presents a standardized reference database of 14,000 reptile images from 20 collections, aiming to improve accessibility, interoperability, and comparability of reptile image data.

This study examines how elevation and land use affect two endemic shrub frogs in the Western Ghats, finding elevation-specific distributions and negative impacts of agroforestry on population densities and body condition.

This study examines how converting lateritic plateaus to mango orchards in Maharashtra affects reptile community composition, finding greater species diversity and generalist species dominance in orchards.

This study examines how spring temperature and land use changes affect Rana temporaria reproductive success and phenology, finding temperature impacts on breeding timing and spawn mortality, while land use variables correlate with temperature but not spawn area.

The paper investigates the skin microbiome of Hong Kong newts, finding that environmental factors and host sex influence its composition, with core microbes potentially aiding resistance to chytridiomycosis.

The paper analyzes pigmentation changes in common frogs over 7 years using mark recapture data, finding stable spot numbers and increasing pigmented area with age, but no significant sex differences in pigmentation.

The paper develops a demographic model for the Eastern Hellbender to assess extinction risk from habitat loss, nest failure, and adult mortality, finding that high nest failure rates can drive populations to extinction over decades.

This study examines the impact of different leaf litter types on the survivorship of Microhyla ornata tadpoles, finding that Leucaena litter significantly reduces survival while Themeda litter supports higher survival.

The paper shows that cold-induced skin darkening in amphibian larvae does not reduce UV-induced DNA damage, suggesting DNA repair mechanisms, not melanin, are responsible for protection.

This study investigates whether chytrid fungus infection causes sex ratio distortion in common toads through sex reversal rather than sex-dependent mortality.

This study compares immune responses in toadlets infected with two Bd lineages, showing lineage-specific differences in response magnitude, timing, and resolution.

The paper develops a computer vision model to automatically categorize color patterns in community science images, finding striped morphs of salamanders have wider niche breadth.

The paper investigates the correlation between Bd-GPL genotype and host species identity in amphibians, revealing a previously unknown association and identifying the eastern US as a Bd diversity hotspot.

The paper examines lens transmittance in frogs to assess its relationship with diel activity patterns, finding no significant correlation but suggesting phylogenetic influences.

This study investigates how red-eyed treefrog embryos detect motion during predator attacks and finds that vestibular mechanoreception is crucial for escape-hatching behavior.

The paper investigates genetic factors associated with Bd resistance in southern corroboree frogs and identifies potential for restoring genetic diversity and disease resistance.