The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation
The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Macmillan Publishers Limited
2017
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| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/7/The%20global%20distribution%20of%20tetrapods%20reveals%20%28abstract%29.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848838544140795904 |
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| author | Roll, Uri Das, I. |
| author_facet | Roll, Uri Das, I. |
| author_sort | Roll, Uri |
| building | UNIMAS Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been
fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles,
representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented the incorporation of reptiles into
conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here,
we present and analyse the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness
patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of
snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap
very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation
schemes represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to
effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation
priority scheme identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the
world’s arid, grassland and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:57:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | unimas-18587 |
| institution | Universiti Malaysia Sarawak |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T06:57:14Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Macmillan Publishers Limited |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | unimas-185872023-03-31T07:54:37Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/ The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation Roll, Uri Das, I. Q Science (General) The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented the incorporation of reptiles into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation schemes represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation priority scheme identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the world’s arid, grassland and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2017-10-09 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/7/The%20global%20distribution%20of%20tetrapods%20reveals%20%28abstract%29.pdf Roll, Uri and Das, I. (2017) The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1 (11). pp. 1677-1682. ISSN 0028-1042 https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/ DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0332-2 |
| spellingShingle | Q Science (General) Roll, Uri Das, I. The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation |
| title | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| title_full | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| title_fullStr | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| title_full_unstemmed | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| title_short | The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| title_sort | global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need
for targeted reptile conservation |
| topic | Q Science (General) |
| url | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/18587/7/The%20global%20distribution%20of%20tetrapods%20reveals%20%28abstract%29.pdf |