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Copyright © Notice: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) SONORAN HERPETOLOGIST 37 (3) 2024 139 Introduction The Common Checkered Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tesselatus; Say, 1823) has the most extensive natural geographic distribution among the eight diploid parthenogenetic species recognized in that genus [i.e., A. cozumela (Gadow, 1906), A. maslini (Fritts, 1969), and A. rodecki (McCoy and Maslin, 1962) in the A. cozumela species group; A. laredoensis (McKinney et al., 1973) and A. preopatae (Barley et al., 2021) in the A. sexlineatus group; A. dixoni (Scudday, 1973), A. neomexicanus (Lowe and Zweifel, 1952), and A. tesselatus (Say in James, 1823) in the A. tesselatus group]. The adaptability of A. tesselatus will become even more apparent in a forthcoming report by other scientists on its introduction to and establishment in habitats in California a great distance west of its natural geographic distribution area. Although Zweifel (1965) categorized the extensive color pattern variation in Cnemidophorus = Aspidoscelis tesselatus by recognition of informal pattern classes A, B, C, D, E, and F, subsequent studies have recognized A and B as belonging to the triploid parthenogenetic species Cnemidophorus = Aspidoscelis neotesselatus (Walker, Cordes, and Taylor, 1997) described by Walker et al. (1997) from southeastern Colorado and F as belonging to the diploid parthenogenetic species Cnemidophorus = Aspidoscelis dixoni (Scudday, 1973) described by Scudday (1973) from Hidalgo County, New Mexico, and arrays in Presidio County, Texas. These taxonomic reallocations of some of the pattern classes recognized by Zweifel (1965) to different species reduced the known distribution area of what we currently recognize as A. tesselatus by relatively small areas in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, USA. Walker et al. (1994), Walker et al. (1997), Cordes and Walker (2006), and Cole et al. (2007) recognized the arrays (we reserve the term population for species with males and females) of lizards in a small area of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA, as pattern class C of A. dixoni, and restricted pattern classes A and B of that species to relatively small areas in Presidio County, Texas. Two of us (JEC and JMW) have found one or more arrays of pattern classes C, D, and E of diploid A. tesselatus to be easily located, abundant, and readily observable at close range in a variety of habitats in parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and Chihuahua state, México, as also indicated by Zweifel (1965), Taylor et al. (1996, 2005), Walker et al. (1997), and Taylor (2021). The only exception to the preceding statement pertains to the small geographic area of occurrence of A. tesselatus in Oklahoma, specifically in Cimarron County, which is the westernmost extension of the panhandle of the state. In fact, all the whiptail lizard specialists coauthoring this report (i.e., MAP, JEC, and JMW) have felt the sting of disappointment during repeated attempts to locate and study this species in the state! The total number of A. tesselatus pattern class C lizards observed during the many individual visits to Cimarron County by members of that group was one adult by JEC on 31 July 2015. The purpose of this report is to review what little is known about A. tesselatus in the state of Oklahoma and to document its current presence in the state through a series of recent observations made of this species in Cimarron County, Oklahoma.
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Nothing Goes to Waste: Perspectives from Sea Star Wasting Synthesis
The global biodiversity crisis unfurling around us often re-quires that we have more complete information to predict how emerging threats will affect ecosystems. We must be able to derive mechanisms from events that we were not prepared to study before they happened. Biologists have learned from undesirable outcomes many times before; the tremendous impacts of species translocations to new localities through human activities are unfortunate—but informative—“experiments” from which we could gain new insights into changing organismal interactions and distributions (Sax et al., 2005. Species Invasions: Insights into Ecology, Evolution, and Biogeography). Similarly, major disruptions to ecosystems have been a source of new understanding when experiments of similar magnitude are not possible, such as new models for community assembly following the massive volcanic eruption that wiped the Krakatau Islands clean of life (MacArthur and Wilson,1963. Evolution 17: 373–387). Although our scientific community can gather more precise and more comprehensive data, collectively glean more insights (e.g., Hewson et al., 2018.Front. Mar. Sci. 5: 77; Wares and Duffin, 2019. bioRxiv:10.1101/584235v1), and continue to reevaluate what we have seen and will see in the years to come, what will such effort achieve? We already have enough evidence that—whether sea stars died as a result of heat, dysoxia, and/or pathogen(s)or some additional combination—this event was the most extreme on record and an illustration of a decline in resilience (e.g., Menge et al., 2021. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.119: e2114257119). To avoid another decade of death, it is time to focus on pathways toward recovery of threatened species (Hamilton et al., 2021. Proc. R. Soc. B 288: 20211195)and ecosystem feedback loops (Aquino et al., 2021. Front.Microbiol. 11: 3278) that can rebalance how and where sea stars can thrive, remembering that these animals are typi-cally important consumers that drive diversity in marine ecosystems (Fig. 1F). One way or another, this massive SSW “experiment” is a component of a global problem thatwe must urgently resolve how to address.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1737091
- PAR ID:
- 10521036
- Publisher / Repository:
- The Biological Bulletin
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Biological Bulletin
- Volume:
- 244
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0006-3185
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 139 to 142
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- sea star wasting mass mortality climate change sea star asteroid
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1086/729512
