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Abstract: A new species of skink in the genus Epibator is described from Ile Walpole, a small, isolated, raised vegetated limestone platform, ~200km ESE of southern New Caledonia. The new [...]

Abstract: New Caledonia is recognized globally as a biodiversity hot spot due, in part, to the high levels of endemism seen among the region's unique fauna and flora. Although substantial [...]

A new species of diplodactylid gecko, Bavayia nubila Bauer, Sadlier, Jackman & Shea, n. sp., is described from forests at two sites in the drainage of the Tontouta Valley in the ultramafic ranges of southeastern New Caledonia. The new gecko is the sister species of the much smaller Bavayia goroensis; both species are basal within the B. cyclura clade. The area from which the species is recorded so far is the focus of extensive nickel mining operations, and because of its restricted distribution and the potential threats posed by mining in the region, it is here regarded as Endangered under IUCN red list criteria., THE MOST SPECIES-RICH genus of New Caledonian diplodactylid geckos is Bavayia Roux. These geckos are generally small and nondescript, and occupy forested habitats across the Grande Terre, He des Pins, [...]

Abstract: A new species of diplodactylid genus Bavayia, B. goroensis, is described from the Plaine des Lacs region of the Province Sud, New Caledonia. The new gecko is the smallest [...]

Author(s): Jonathan B. Losos (corresponding author) [1]; Manuel Leal [2, 7]; Richard E. Glor [1]; Kevin de Queiroz [3]; Paul E. Hertz [4]; Lourdes Rodríguez Schettino [5]; Ada Chamizo Lara [...]

EN conservation cytochrome c oxidase subunit I DNA barcode geckos lizards NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 New Caledonia phylogeny skinks systematics threatened species. Clades highlighted in green represent the formally described species (sensu stricto); unhighlighted groups represent putative species (Bavayia cyclura spp. 1-16 or Bavayia sauvagii spp. 1-11) based on a minimum branch length between formally described forms. It is worth noting that while BOLD algorithmically distributes BINs to cluster DNA sequences together, the number of lizard BINs in this study (212: see Supplementary Table S1) greatly exceeds the number of described and potentially undescribed species we recognise in our sampling and results (100 described species, several putative species or undescribed lineages). Keywords: conservation; cytochrome c oxidase subunit I; DNA barcode; geckos; lizards; NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2; New Caledonia; phylogeny; skinks; systematics; threatened species. [Extracted from the article]

Marker selection has emerged as an important component of phylogenomic study design due to rising concerns of the effects of gene tree estimation error, model misspecification, and data-type differences. Researchers must balance various trade-offs associated with locus length and evolutionary rate among other factors. The most commonly used reduced representation data sets for phylogenomics are ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE). Here, we introduce Rapidly Evolving Long Exon Capture (RELEC), a new set of loci that targets single exons that are both rapidly evolving (evolutionary rate faster than RAG1) and relatively long in length (>1,500 bp), while at the same time avoiding paralogy issues across amniotes. We compare the RELEC data set to UCEs and AHE in squamate reptiles by aligning and analyzing orthologous sequences from 17 squamate genomes, composed of 10 snakes and 7 lizards. The RELEC data set (179 loci) outperforms AHE and UCEs by maximizing per-locus genetic variation while maintaining presence and orthology across a range of evolutionary scales. RELEC markers show higher phylogenetic informativeness than UCE and AHE loci, and RELEC gene trees show greater similarity to the species tree than AHE or UCE gene trees. Furthermore, with fewer loci, RELEC remains computationally tractable for full Bayesian coalescent species tree analyses. We contrast RELEC to and discuss important aspects of comparable methods, and demonstrate how RELEC may be the most effective set of loci for resolving difficult nodes and rapid radiations. We provide several resources for capturing or extracting RELEC loci from other amniote groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]