Untangling the Wallacean Shortfall: The herpetofauna of central-eastern Afghanistan including two snake species new for the reptiles list of the country.

Afghanistan's herpetological diversity is not well studied due to limited access, environmental conditions, and historical socio-political instability. This study aims to address this gap by documenting the amphibians and reptiles found in central-eastern Afghanistan. Specifically, we focus on two new country records of colubrid snakes, Lycodon bicolor and Spalerosophis arenarius, presented in the study, provide updated provincial data on herpeto-diversity, and present an updated checklist of the family Colubridae for Afghanistan.

Speciation and historical invasions of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus).

Animal translocations provide striking examples of the human footprint on biodiversity. Combining continental-wide genomic and DNA-barcoding analyses, we reconstructed the historical biogeography of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), a toxic commensal amphibian that currently threatens two biodiversity hotspots through biological invasions (Wallacea and Madagascar). The results emphasize a complex diversification shaped by speciation and mitochondrial introgression that comprises two distinct species.

The last of their kind: Is the genus Scutiger (Anura: Megophryidae) a relict element of the paleo-Transhimalaya biota?

The orographic evolution of the Himalaya-Tibet Mountain system continues to be a subject of controversy, leading to considerable uncertainty regarding the environment and surface elevation of the Tibetan Plateau during the Cenozoic era. As many geoscientific (but not paleontological) studies suggest, elevations close to modern heights exist in vast areas of Tibet since at least the late Paleogene, implicating the presence of large-scale alpine environments for more than 30 million years. To explore a recently proposed alternative model that assumes a warm temperate environment across paleo-Tibet, we carried out a phylogeographic survey using genomic analyses of samples covering the range of endemic lazy toads (Scutiger) across the Himalaya-Tibet orogen.

Kukri snakes Fitzinger, 1826 of the Western Palearctic with the resurrection of Nikolsky, 1902 (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae).

The kukri snakes of the genus Fitzinger, 1826 reach the westernmost limits of their distribution in Middle and Southwest Asia (Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan), and the Palearctic portions of Pakistan. In this article, we review the systematics and distribution of the two species native to this region, (Shaw, 1802) and (Jerdon, 1853) based on an integrative approach combining morphological, molecular, and species distribution modeling (SDM) data. Phylogenetic analyses recover populations from Iran and Turkmenistan in a clade with the species complex, rendering the former species paraphyletic relative to stricto on the Indian subcontinent.

Global Protected Areas as refuges for amphibians and reptiles under climate change.

Protected Areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. Here, we collated distributional data for >14,000 (~70% of) species of amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) to perform a global assessment of the conservation effectiveness of PAs using species distribution models. Our analyses reveal that >91% of herpetofauna species are currently distributed in PAs, and that this proportion will remain unaltered under future climate change.

Appearances often deceive in racerunners: integrative approach reveals two new species of Eremias (Squamata: Lacertidae) from Pakistan.

Based on newly provided morphological and previously published genetic data, we describe two new distinctive sympatric lacertid lizards of the genus Eremias (subgenus Aspidorhinus) from the arid mountains of northwestern Balochistan Province, Pakistan. The new species, Eremias killasaifullahi sp. nov.

The evolutionary history of an accidental model organism, the leopard gecko Eublepharis macularius (Squamata: Eublepharidae).

The leopard gecko, Eublepharis macularius, is a widely used model organism in laboratory and experimental studies. The high phenotypic diversity in the pet trade, the fact that the provenance of different breeding lines is unknown, and that distinct Eublepharis species are known to hybridize, implies that the continued use of E. macularius as a model requires clarity on the origin of the lineages in the pet trade.

Morphological and molecular data on tadpoles of the westernmost Himalayan spiny frog (Dubois & Khan, 1979).

Little is known about the life history, ecology, and distribution of the genus (Dicroglossidae) and far less recent data are available about the larvae of this taxon. Here, we provide data on the larval stage of (Dubois & Khan, 1979) from northern Pakistan based on the examination of three tadpoles. Specimens were obtained from two sites in Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan.

Relict groups of spiny frogs indicate Late Paleogene-Early Neogene trans-Tibet dispersal of thermophile faunal elements.

Background: The Himalaya-Tibet orogen (HTO) presents an outstanding geologically active formation that contributed to, and fostered, modern Asian biodiversity. However, our concepts of the historical biogeography of its biota are far from conclusive, as are uplift scenarios for the different parts of the HTO. Here, we revisited our previously published data set of the tribe Paini extending it with sequence data from the most western Himalayan spiny frogs and and using them as an indirect indicator for the potential paleoecological development of Tibet.

Out of the blue: The first record of the genus Gray, 1845 (Squamata, Scincidae) from Pakistan.

The genus Gray, 1845 is endemic to the Western Palearctic region, containing morphologically similar species with a not well resolved taxonomy. The genus has a broad distribution from North Africa to Central Asia, with the only known record from northeastern Afghanistan. Three species are currently recognized in the genus with one, (Reuss, 1834), representing populations at the eastern edge of the genus range.

The genus Microhyla (Anura: Microhylidae) in Pakistan: species status and origins.

The territory of Pakistan has been influenced by biota from different geographic directions, and is divided zoogeographically into the Palearctic and Oriental regions (Khan 2006; Masroor 2012). This makes Pakistan one of the important territories in Eurasia in the understanding of past biodiversity dynamics. Well-known examples of Oriental elements among its amphibian fauna are observed in all four families of toads and frogs currently known from Pakistan: Bufonidae, Microhylidae, Megophryidae, and Dicroglossidae.

A new species of Eremias (Squamata: Lacertidae) from the arid mountains of Pakistan.

A new, morphologically distinctive lacertid lizard of the genus Eremias (Rhabderemias) is described from the arid mountains of northwestern Balochistan Province in Pakistan. Eremias kakari sp. nov.

A new species of Microgecko Nikolsky, 1907 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Pakistan.

Members of the dwarf geckos of the genus Microgecko Nikolsky, 1907 are distributed from western Iran to northwestern India, with seven currently recognized species. Three taxa have been reported from Pakistan, M. depressus, M.

Fifteen shades of green: The evolution of Bufotes toads revisited.

The radiation of Palearctic green toads (Bufotes) holds great potential to evaluate the role of hybridization in phylogeography at multiple stages along the speciation continuum. With fifteen species representing three ploidy levels, this model system is particularly attractive to examine the causes and consequences of allopolyploidization, a prevalent yet enigmatic pathway towards hybrid speciation. Despite substantial efforts, the evolutionary history of this species complex remains largely blurred by the lack of consistency among the corresponding literature.

The sparid fishes of Pakistan, with new distribution records.

The family sparidae is represented in Pakistan by 14 species belonging to eight genera: the genus Acanthopagrus with four species, A. berda, A. arabicus, A.

A preliminary phylogeny of the Palearctic naked-toed geckos (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) with taxonomic implications.

Palearctic naked-toed geckos are a group of gekkonid geckos that range from North Africa to northern India and western China, with their greatest diversity in Iran and Pakistan. Relationships among the constituent genera remain incompletely resolved and the monophyly of key genera remains unverified. Further, competing classifications are in current use and many species have been allocated to different genera by different authors.