The conservation status of the world’s reptiles

Abstract

2016-12-23T18:52:10

Current extinction rates of reptiles and amphibians

“…There is substantial decoupling among regions and between groups (Table 1). For example, the number of extinctions in the southeastern United States and southern Europe is apparently zero, in line with previously published expectations that tropical species are more threatened (1,4,5), and frog extinctions usually exceed squamate losses in the same regions. Because most of the apparent squamate extinctions except those in Mesoamerica, Madagascar, and possibly South Asia seem to represent either local extirpations or other confounding factors (Supporting Information), the data only provide clear evidence of extinction pulses of frogs and only in a few specific areas: Mesoamerica, Brazil, Madagascar, and the Sahul region.…”

“…The cane toad Rhinella marina has been introduced to Australia and New Guinea, where it might be a factor, but also the Philippines, the United States, and other countries where no major losses of amphibians appear to have occurred (Table 1). Economic exploitation has been implicated by the IUCN in very few major population declines of individual amphibians and reptile species and appears to have spatially restricted effects (5,8). Finally, this analysis is unable to directly quantify the effects of climate change, but the early onset and steady pace of extinctions in most areas (Fig.…”

“…amphibians | Bayesian methods | extinction rates | reptiles O btaining concrete estimates of extinction tallies for major taxonomic groups has proven to be elusive, with the literature veering between conservative counts based on thorough assessments of well-known species to much higher figures based on global-scale considerations of threat levels (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Uncertainty is so great that, for example, the 2004 Global Amphibian Assessment (1) used by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) hazarded that anywhere between 9 and 122 amphibians might have gone extinct since 1980.…”

“…Another analysis (2) suggested a range of . Meanwhile, comprehensive reviews of threats to reptiles (5) offered no estimate of the number of extinct species and sidestepped the matter of whether it might be large.…”

Notes on the reproduction of Kentropyx altamazonica (Squamata: Teiidae) and Imantodes lentiferus (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) from southeast Peru

“…Although much remains to be learned about the ecology of tropical forest reptiles (Böhm et al 2013), these observations contribute important information about two poorly known Amazonian species.…”