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The leading causes of the worldwide decline in biodiversity are global warming, allied with natural habitat loss and fragmentation. Here, we propose an analysis of the synergistic effects of these two factors in 63 species of Amazonian lizards. We predicted that the high-climatic suitability areas of species would be significantly impacted by different deforestation scenarios and the resultant landscape structure and considered that forest-dwelling species would be especially susceptible to deforestation scenarios. We also pointed out species threatened by both drivers and suggested critical areas for their future conservation. According to our results, most species will face future reductions in suitable areas for their occurrence according to five different patterns, two of which represent significant risks for 15 species. Some of these species already deal with severe habitat loss and fragmentation of their current distribution ranges, whereas others will suffer a considerable area reduction related to future range shifts. We emphasize the importance of protected areas (PAs), especially indigenous lands, and the need to plan combined strategies involving PAs' maintenance and possible implementation of ecological corridors. Finally, we highlight eight species of thermoconformer lizards that constitute present and future conservation concerns related to the combined effects of climate change and habitat loss and that should be carefully evaluated in extinction risk assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the contribution of different types of prey to the diet of Pithecopus hypochondrialis in two urban fragments of Amazonian forest. Specimens were collected weekly between August 2010, and May 2011, at the Gunma Ecological Park and the privately owned Fazenda Soté in the municipality of Santa Bárbara, in the Brazilian state of Pará. A total of 15 types of items were identified through direct observations and the analysis of the stomach contents of 175 Pithecopus hypochondrialis (130 males, 42 females and three juveniles). Hemipterans were the most frequent item for both sexes (IAi% = 58.61%), followed by Araneae (25.81%), which together corresponded to more than 80% of the diet of Pithecopus hypochondrialis. Males tended to consume more spiders than females, whereas females ingested much more plant material. Whereas males consumed both these items throughout the year, females fed on spiders almost exclusively during the dry season and fed on plant material primarily during the rainy season. The diet of males did not vary along seasonal periods, while that of females varied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present information about a snake community in a preserved forest in central Amazonia and describe the composition, habitat use, daily activity, diet, and reproduction. The study area is mainly in the municipality of Itaituba in Parque Nacional da Amazonia, state of Pará, Brazil. We set up 26 plots along of a 135 km on a stretch of the BR-230 highway. We used three quantifiable capture methods: Time Constrained Visual Search (TCS), Road Search by Car (RS) and Pitfall Traps with drift fence (PTS). We also recorded all snakes eventually found by the team outside the collection protocol (occasional encounters) and those obtained by other people (third-party encounters). Reproductive (sexual dimorphism, reproductive maturity, recruitment, and fecundity), and feeding biology (diet composition and frequency of food items) are presented. We recorded 61 species from 38 genera and seven families. Imantodes cenchoa, Helicops angulatus, and Bothrops atrox were the most abundant species. Most species have terrestrial habits and nocturnal activity. The most consumed prey was lizards and frogs. Observing the number of specimens distributed monthly, we noted that most specimens with eggs and embryos were recorded in the dry season, while births occurred throughout the year. Compared to some snake communities located south and north of the Amazon River, the snake community of Parque Nacional da Amazonia has high species diversity, resulting from the presence of different lineages as well as different functional groups, which reflect past and present events that have occurred in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arboreal snake Imantodes lentiferus (Cope, 1894) is distributed in lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin and Guiana region, reported from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Brazil. In Brazil it occurs in the north and central-west regions, in the states of Acre, Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso. This study reports new records of Imantodes lentiferus from Pará and Mato Grosso. These new records fill a large gap in the known distribution of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The region of Carajás in the southeast of the state of Pará, Brazil, harbors five reserves, with various managing categories, distributed throughout five municipalities. A list of amphibians known to occur in this region was compiled using information on the specimens deposited in the herpetological collection of the Goeldi Museum, collected during the past four decades (1969 - 2010). According to the available metadata, the species were tabulated in three environments: ombrophylous forest (rainforest), metalophic savanna (MS) and anthropic areas (AA - secondary forest - disturbed areas), resulting in 13 families and 71 species (66 anurans and 5 Gymnophiona). Ombrophylous forest has 50 species, anthropic areas has 49 species, while metalophic savanna has 38 species of anuran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leading causes of the worldwide decline in biodiversity are global warming, allied with natural habitat loss and fragmentation. Here, we propose an analysis of the synergistic effects of these two factors in 63 species of Amazonian lizards. We predicted that the high-climatic suitability areas of species would be significantly impacted by different deforestation scenarios and the resultant landscape structure and considered that forest-dwelling species would be especially susceptible to deforestation scenarios. We also pointed out species threatened by both drivers and suggested critical areas for their future conservation. According to our results, most species will face future reductions in suitable areas for their occurrence according to five different patterns, two of which represent significant risks for 15 species. Some of these species already deal with severe habitat loss and fragmentation of their current distribution ranges, whereas others will suffer a considerable area reduction related to future range shifts. We emphasize the importance of protected areas (PAs), especially indigenous lands, and the need to plan combined strategies involving PAs' maintenance and possible implementation of ecological corridors. Finally, we highlight eight species of thermoconformer lizards that constitute present and future conservation concerns related to the combined effects of climate change and habitat loss and that should be carefully evaluated in extinction risk assessments., Competing Interests: Daniel de Paiva Silva is an Academic Editor for PeerJ., (© 2022 Teixeira et al.)