Extinct,obscure or imaginary: The lizard species with the smallest ranges |
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| Authors: | Shai Meiri Aaron M. Bauer Allen Allison Fernando Castro‐Herrera Laurent Chirio Guarino Colli Indraneil Das Tiffany M. Doan Frank Glaw Lee L. Grismer Marinus Hoogmoed Fred Kraus Matthew LeBreton Danny Meirte Zoltán T. Nagy Cristiano de C. Nogueira Paul Oliver Olivier S. G. Pauwels Daniel Pincheira‐Donoso Glenn Shea Roberto Sindaco Oliver J. S. Tallowin Omar Torres‐Carvajal Jean‐Francois Trape Peter Uetz Philipp Wagner Yuezhao Wang Thomas Ziegler Uri Roll |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;2. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;3. Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA;4. Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI, USA;5. Physiology Sciences Department, School of Basic Sciences, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia;6. 14, rue des roses, Grasse, France;7. Department of Zoology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil;8. Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia;9. Division of Natural Sciences, New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL, USA;10. Zoologische Staatssammlung München, München, Germany;11. Herpetology Laboratory, Department of Biology, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA, USA;12. Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Herpetologia, Belem, Pará, Brazil;13. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann‐Arbor, MI, USA;14. Mosaic (Environment, Data, Technology), Yaoundé, Cameroon;15. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium;16. Department of Recent Vertebrates, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium;17. Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil;18. Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia;19. Institut Royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium;20. School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK;21. Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia;22. Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Torino, Italy;23. Museo de Zoología, Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador;24. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), MIVEGEC, Dakar, Senegal;25. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA;26. Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China;27. AG Zoologischer Garten K?ln, Cologne, Germany;28. Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany;29. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel;30. School of Geography & the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK |
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| Abstract: | Aim Small geographic ranges make species especially prone to extinction from anthropogenic disturbances or natural stochastic events. We assemble and analyse a comprehensive dataset of all the world's lizard species and identify the species with the smallest ranges—those known only from their type localities. We compare them to wide‐ranging species to infer whether specific geographic regions or biological traits predispose species to have small ranges. Methods We extensively surveyed museum collections, the primary literature and our own field records to identify all the species of lizards with a maximum linear geographic extent of <10 km. We compared their biogeography, key biological traits and threat status to those of all other lizards. Results One in seven lizards (927 of the 6,568 currently recognized species) are known only from their type localities. These include 213 species known only from a single specimen. Compared to more wide‐ranging taxa, they mostly inhabit relatively inaccessible regions at lower, mostly tropical, latitudes. Surprisingly, we found that burrowing lifestyle is a relatively unimportant driver of small range size. Geckos are especially prone to having tiny ranges, and skinks dominate lists of such species not seen for over 50 years, as well as of species known only from their holotype. Two‐thirds of these species have no IUCN assessments, and at least 20 are extinct. Main conclusions Fourteen per cent of lizard diversity is restricted to a single location, often in inaccessible regions. These species are elusive, usually poorly known and little studied. Many face severe extinction risk, but current knowledge is inadequate to properly assess this for all of them. We recommend that such species become the focus of taxonomic, ecological and survey efforts. |
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| Keywords: | accessibility endemism extinction geckos holotype range size skinks threat type locality |
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