Christian Berriozabal-Islas

Effects of Habitat Disturbance on Lizard Functional Diversity in a Tropical Dry Forest of the Pacific Coast of Mexico

Tropical dry forests are complex and diverse ecosystems threatened by multiple anthropogenic factors, such as habitat disturbance caused by land use change. We assessed species and functional diversity of lizard communities in areas with different levels of tropical dry forest disturbance in the Chamela region, Mexico. Functional richness, functional evenness, and functional dispersion were assessed considering six lizard functional traits. We recorded 415 lizards of 15 species. Species richness, species diversity, functional richness, functional dispersion, and the number of functional groups are lower in disturbed sites than in undisturbed tropical dry forest sites. On the contrary, abundance and functional evenness were higher in strongly disturbed sites. We suggest that lizard functional diversity should be studied further in order to secure the integrity of herpetofaunal communities and ecosystem processes.

Range extension of the Giant Salamander, Pseudoeurycea gigantea (Taylor 1938) (Caudata: Pletodontidae), and some aspects of its natural history within Hidalgo state, Mexico

This study documents the most northerly known distribution of the giant salamander, Pseudoeurycea gigantea , and provides new details on aspects of its natural history based on specimens of this species collected within Hidalgo state, Mexico.

New record of the snake Drymobius chloroticus (Cope, 1886) (Squamata: Colubridae) from Hidalgo, Mexico

We report the first record of the snake Drymobius chloroticus (Cope 1886) from Hidalgo State, Mexico. This new record is based on a single juvenile male specimen collected in the municipality of Tepehuacan of Guerrero, Hidalgo. This report fills a gap between the closest localities airline 490.1 km2 ca. NW in Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, and airline 42.7 ca. km2 SE in the vicinity Xilitla, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Rediscovery of the Snake Chersodromus rubriventris (Squamata: Colubridae) in Cloud Forest of the Sierra Madre Oriental, México

ABSTRACT. As presently recognized, the snake genus Chersodromus (Colubridae) is composed of 2 species, C. liebmanni and C. rubriventris, both of which are endemic to eastern Mexico. Distribution of the genus is largely restricted to the states of Veracruz and Oaxaca and broadly corresponds to the south of the Sierra Madre Oriental and the eastern portion of the Transvolcanic Belt. Chersodromus liebmanni is the more common species of the genus and is distributed in the foothills of several localities in central Veracruz and northern Oaxaca. However, C. rubriventris is restricted to only a few small localities in San Luis Potosi and now the state of Hidalgo. Both species appear to be restricted to montane forest communities, including pine-oak, cloud forest, and tropical forest habitats.

First records of Urosaurus bicarinatu s (Duméril, 1856) (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae) from Cocinas Island, Chamela Bay, Jalisco, Mexico

We report the first records of Urosaurus bicarinatus from Cocinas Island in Chamela Bay, Jalisco, Mexico. Four adult males were found in tropical deciduous forest on 7 and 10 December 2012.

New records of the snake Leptophis diplotropis (Günther, 1872) (Squamata: Colubridae) from Hidalgo State, México

We report three new records of the snake Leptophis diplotropis from the southeastern and northern regions of Hidalgo State, Mexico. These records represent the first observations of this species in the state of Hidalgo, and represent a range extension of 122.7 km north from the nearest record in Tochimilco, Puebla, Mexico. These new records of L. diplotropis represent the best knowledge of its distribution in the Sierra Madre Oriental.

Effect of climate change in lizards of the genus Xenosaurus (Xenosauridae) based on projected changes in climatic suitability and climatic niche conservatism

Abstract Accelerated climate change represents a major threat to the health of the planets biodiversity. Particularly, lizards of the genus Xenosaurus might be negatively affected by this phenomenon because several of its species have restricted distributions, low vagility, and preference for low temperatures. No study, however, has examined the climatic niche of the species of this genus and how their distribution might be influenced by different climate change scenarios. In this project, we used a maximum entropy approach to model the climatic niche of 10 species of the genus Xenosaurus under present and future suitable habitat, considering a climatic niche conservatism context. Therefore, we performed a similarity analysis of the climatic niche between each species of the genus Xenosaurus. Our results suggest that a substantial decrease in suitable habitat for all species will occur by 2070. Among the most affected species, X. tzacualtipantecus will not have suitable conditions according to its climatic niche requirements and X. phalaroanthereon will lose 85.75% of its current suitable area. On the other hand, we found low values of conservatism of the climatic niche among species. Given the limited capacity of dispersion and the habitat specificity of these lizards, it seems unlikely that fast changes would occur in the distribution of these species facing climate change. The low conservatism in climatic niche we found in Xenosaurus suggests that these species might have the capacity to adapt to the new environmental conditions originated by climate change.

Diversity and conservation status of the herpetofauna for an area from north of Hidalgo, Mexico

Actualmente las medidas de conservacion carecen de informacion adecuada para asignar algunas especies de anfibios y reptiles dentro de las categorias de proteccion. En este estudio se analizo y comparo la herpetofauna de bosque mesofilo de montana (BMM) y bosque tropical perennifolio (BTP) de un area al norte de Hidalgo. Para este estudio, se realizo trabajo de campo (24 sitios) y revision de la literatura. Ademas, se analizo el estado de conservacion de las especies. La herpetofauna del municipio de Tepehuacan de Guerrero, Hidalgo, Mexico consta de 70 especies (20 anfibios y 50 reptiles), nueve de estas especies son registros historicos que no fueron encontrados en el presente estudio. El BMM fue mas diverso (39 especies) que el BTP (37 especies). Existen discrepancias entre las agencias nacionales e internacionales de conservacion con respecto al estado de amenaza de estas especies. La alta biodiversidad en el BMM y BTP podria sugerir que este sitio es un area importante para la conservacion. En este estudio, proponemos reevaluar las categorias de conservacion de la herpetofauna del estado de Hidalgo