No abstract

Conservation of species and ecosystems is increasingly difficult because anthropogenic impacts are pervasive and accelerating. Under this rapid global change, maximizing conservation success requires a paradigm shift from maintaining ecosystems in idealized past states toward facilitating their adaptive and functional capacities, even as species ebb and flow individually. Developing effective strategies under this new paradigm will require deeper understanding of the long-term dynamics that govern ecosystem persistence and reconciliation of conflicts among approaches to conserving historical versus novel ecosystems. Integrating emerging information from conservation biology, paleobiology, and the Earth sciences is an important step forward on the path to success. Maintaining nature in all its aspects will also entail immediately addressing the overarching threats of growing human population, overconsumption, pollution, and climate change.

No abstract

A survry of 35 specks indicates that monitor lizards (Vurunu~) typically hunt ovrr largr areas, srarch in particular microhabitats, and feed frequently on a wide varirty of prry, many of which are rclativcly small. Thcrc is ontogmetic, seasonal, and grographic variation in dirt. With some exceptions, invertebrates arc the predominant prey, but rare predation on vertebrates is oftcn cnergctically significant. A Tcw monitors specialize on prry types that occur as occasional items in the diet of sperics with more grricralized dirts; tlirse include crabs, snails, orthopterans, lizards, and largc mammals. For most species, prcy sprcialization occurs via habitat selection and a variety of prry types arid sizrs are eaten, as expected for widely srarching predators. Comparisons with other anguirnorphans susgcst that derivcd featurcs of Varanus arr associatrd with high body tcmprraturr and activity levrls; sprcialized clicmoreccption; arid rapid, skillful rapture of hidden and/or potentially hard to catch prey. Orcasioiial ingestion of modrratrly large prcy is primitive for Varanoidca (Helodrrmatidar + Varanidac), accentuating a trcnd that is perhaps primitive for anguimorphan lizards. Reduction of vrry largr prey prior to ingrstion is a derived attribute within Varunus, seen infrequently in several larger species and commonly i n V. komodoensis. This study illustrates thc synthesis of comparativc natural history in a phylogrnrtic context, a mrthod that addrcssrs the history of organismal change.