Towards digital descriptions of all extant reptile species

Abstract

Vertebrate databases have been slow to digitize species descriptions. One of them, the Reptile Database (http://www.reptile-database.org), has accumulated ~8,000 species descriptions for ~3,000 species of snakes, ~5,000 species of lizards, and ~150 species of turtles and crocodiles. Here we discuss how this data contributes to character analysis, species identification, but also to integration with other data sources such as citizen science observations (which depend on correct identifications). Importantly, the data described here may serve as training data for machine learning projects and we present examples of species comparisons using ChatGPT. While these AI-driven comparisons are still erroneous, we expect substantial improvements in the near future. We request the herpetological community to help complete our public collection of species descriptions and suggest that other species databases follow suit and provide similar data for their taxa.

A reference database of reptile images

“…Each of our photos shows dozens or hundreds of individual scales and their features (size, shape, relationships, pattern, surface features etc), hence we cautiously estimate that we have documented at least a million, but probably millions of individual characters with our project. This database will become especially valuable when used in combination with other data sources such as the Reptile Database which now has descriptions of about 8000 species, mostly from the primary literature (Uetz et al 2023). Most of these descriptions are of little use without images and many of the images in the primary literature are hard to find or behind paywalls (or there are no images, as in the majority of older descriptions).…”

Lista comentada de las serpientes de la Argentina, con referencias a su sistemática, distribución geográfica, dieta, reproducción, potencial peligrosidad y etimologías

“…Distribución: Centro y sudeste de Brasil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay y norte y centro de la Argentina. Una de las especies (T. dorsatus) ha sido mencionada para la Guayana Francesa, pero Cacciali et al (2016a) la consideran una cita incorrecta; otra de las especies (T. ocellatus) se indica también para Perú (Uetz & Hallermann, 2020b).…”

“…También en Uruguay y Paraguay. Uetz & Hallermann (2020b) en su reconocida base de datos digital también mencionan Perú. En la Argentina en Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, La Pampa y Santa Fe.…”

<em>De Novo</em> Assembly of Venom Gland Transcriptome of Tropidolaemus wagleri (Temple Pit Viper, Malaysia) and Insights into the Origin of Its Major Toxin, Waglerin

“…Together with Deinagkistrodon acutus, Calloselasma rhodostoma, Garthius chaseni, and Hypnale spp., they are regarded as basal pit vipers from Asia with somewhat species-poor genera known to date. Currently, four species of Tropidolaemus are established [13,24], including the most vastly described in literature and media, Tropidolaemus wagleri whose type locality was determined based on a neotype from the Sumatera Barat Province of Sumatra, Indonesia [25].…”

“…The species is known by the name Wagler's Pit Viper, Speckled Pit Viper, and more commonly Temple Pit Viper owing to its famous association with the Temple of Azure Clouds (Snake Temple) in Penang Island, Malaysia. Tropidolaemus wagleri mainly distributes in the Indo-Malayan Archipelago, occurring in Southern Thailand and Southern Viet Nam, Peninsular Malaysia (including Penang Island and Pulau Pangkar), Singapore, and West Indonesia (Sumatra, Mentawei Archipelago, Natuna Islands, Nias, Riau Archipelago, and Bangka, but not Belitung) [13,25]. As with other Tropidolaemus species, the male and female snakes have similar external morphology in their juvenile phase while the adult snakes demonstrate remarkable sexual dimorphism, especially in length and girth where the female's body size (up to about 100 cm in length) can be many times larger than a male's (see graphical abstract in this work, and images in [12]).…”