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Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:56 pm
by Thomas Bader
Finally online in german and english

http://www.herpetofauna.at/index.php/he ... isebericht

http://www.herpetofauna.at/index.php/he ... eport-2012

Shortly before the season gets really started

Thomas

ps. the second pic gallery has more than 50 photos (otherwise you'll miss the sandboa)

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:57 am
by Peter Oefinger
Fantastic article with great photos und impressive landscapes. Thanks!

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:46 am
by Jeroen Speybroeck
Outstanding!

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 9:53 am
by Peter Oefinger
I really love the Acanthodactylus shots.
The lily in the second section is Limodorum abortivum (an orchid), I guess.

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:19 am
by Mario Schweiger
Very nice trip report with astonishing pictures!
Just to cooments:
Your Rhinotyphlops simonii is now Letheobia simonii ;)
And your Micrelaps muelleri might be Micrelaps tchernovi. Reading Werner et al. 2006 (PDF-4976), muelleri shouldnt occur in this area you found them and is replaced there by the much more seldom tchernovi.

Mario

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:39 am
by Jeroen Speybroeck
There's a Lacerta kulzeri in the text as well.

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:44 am
by Jürgen Gebhart
Great Report!!

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:49 pm
by Thomas Bader
Micelaps tchernovi is a endemic species of the hot Jordan valley. In area around Irbid there is M. muelleri - so ours should be muelleri.
BUT: In Werner et. al there is a description of the surrounding bars and regarding this feature one is muelleri and one is tchernovi - BTW: I am not really sure about these two species.
Rhinotyphlops: I know it should be Letheobia. Just used to the olde name...

What is the latest news about Bufo viridis/variabilis. Why did Bobby use viridis for Turkey? - is there viridis or variabilis? Or is this name not valid anymore???

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 1:34 pm
by Jeroen Speybroeck
Thomas Bader wrote:What is the latest news about Bufo viridis/variabilis. Why did Bobby use viridis for Turkey?

Because he listens to reason and sometimes to me :twisted:

I should remember where I posted this before ;)

Here's the proposal I submitted to the SEH Taxonomic Committee in 2011, which was subsequently voted and accepted. To my knowledge, no new data has been published since.

"After Stöck et al. (2006) elevated a number of green toad mitochondrial lineages to species level and subsequently described a new species from Sicily based on the same pool of evidence, Speybroeck et al. (2010) argued against accepting species on the basis of mitochondrial DNA only. Subsequently, Colliard et al. (2010) provided additional evidence of limited gene flow in a natural contact zone and of an elevated degree of reproductive isolation between Bufo siculus and Bufo balearicus sensu Stöck et al. (2006). Thus, it seems indeed rightful to consider a species level split. However, as no additional evidence is available to clarify the relationships between Stöck et al.’s balearicus on one hand and viridis s.s. and variabilis on the other, the situation remains as assessed by Speybroeck et al. (2010). This also goes for Bufo siculus and Bufo boulengeri. Conclusively, we would like to propose to accept for now two species – Bufo viridis (with subspecies viridis, balearicus and variabilis) and Bufo boulengeri (with subspecies boulengeri and siculus).

Colliard, C.; Sicilia, A.; Turrisi, G.F.; Arculeo, M.; Perrin, N.; Stöck, M. 2010
Strong reproductive barriers in a narrow hybrid zone of West-Mediterranean green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup) with Plio-Pleistocene divergence
BMC Evolutionary Biology 10: 232.

Speybroeck, J.; Beukema, W.; Crochet, P.-A. 2010
A tentative species list of the European herpetofauna (Amphibia and Reptilia) — an update
Zootaxa 2492: 1–27.

Stöck, M.; Moritz, C.; Hickerson, M.; Frynta, D.; Dujsebayeva, T.; Eremchenko, V.; Macey, J.R.; Papenfuss, T.J.; Wake, D.B. 2006
Evolution of mitochondrial relationships and biogeography of Palearctic green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup) with insights in their genomic plasticity
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41: 663-689.

Stöck, M.; Sicilia, A.; Belfiore, N.M.; Buckley, D.; Brutto, L.; Valvo, L.; Arculeo, M. 2008
Post-Messinian evolutionary relationships across the Sicilian channel: Mitochondrial and nuclear markers link a new green toad from Sicily to African relatives
BMC Evolutionary Biology 8: 56 (19 pp.)"

Re: Trip report jordan 05/2012

PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 2:17 pm
by Jeroen Speybroeck
The keen observer will notice that this is in disagreement with the Glandt list on www.herpetofauna.at ;)
Not the only case.. :?