Jhonny J. M. Guedes

Universidade Federal de Goiás | UFG · Departamento de Ecologia

Most species remain unknown to science and might go extinct before we recognize their existence. Although specimens belonging to many of these unknown taxa may already be housed in scientific collections, they can remain 'shelved' for years bearing the wrong name or without a formal name. We investigate factors underlying variation in time lag betw...

Exotic species are major threats to biodiversity worldwide. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are among the most common invasive predators in the world, interacting with wildlife in many ways. We present ecological data based on camera traps and occasional observations of free–roaming domestic dogs from localities within the Brazilian Atlantic fores...

Studying species interactions in nature often requires elaborated logistics and intense fieldwork. The difficulties in such task might hinder our ability to answer questions on how biotic interactions change with the environment. Fortunately, a workaround to this problem lies within scientific collections. For some animals, the inspection of preser...

More than two million species have been described so far, but our knowledge on most taxa remains scarce or inexistent, and the available biodiversity data is often taxonomically, phylogenetically and spatially biased. Unevenness in research effort across species or regions can interact with data biases and compromise our ability to properly study a...

Domestic cats (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) can interact with and cause several negative impacts upon wildlife if unconstrained by their owners. These impacts occur especially because of their innate predatory behavior and, usually the lack of any natural predators, as well as due to their high abundances relative to native carnivores. Although thes...

Raw data and R-code for the research approach on phylogenetic multiple imputation of natural history traits for tetrapod species. In brief, the code computes the phylogenetic filters, reproduces the grid search procedure to tune XGBoost hyperparameters; compute phylogenetic multiple imputations for traits related to body length, body mass, activity...

Please, access the file through its DOI. Version 1.0.0 (19 April 2024). TetrapodTraits, the full phylogenetically coherent database we developed, is being made publicly available to support a range of research applications in ecology, evolution, and conservation and to help minimise the impacts of biassed data in this model system. The database inc...

This review assesses the potential applications of alkali-activated silico-manganese slag (SiMnS). It covers four main sections: (i) the characteristics of SiMnS, (ii) its use as cementitious materials, (iii) its use as an alkaliactivated precursor, and (iv) environmental perspectives. SiMnS shows promise as an alkali-activated material with divers...

Museum specimens and citizen science initiatives are valuable sources of information on how anthropogenic activities affect biodiversity and how species respond to rapid global change. Although tropical regions harbor most of the planet's biodiversity, investigations on species' phenological changes are heavily biased toward temperate regions. Such...

Species are the currency of most biodiversity studies. However, many shortfalls and biases remain in our biodiversity estimates, preventing a comprehensive understanding of the eco-evolutionary processes that have shaped the biodiversity currently available on Earth. Biased biodiversity estimates also jeopardize the effective implementation of data...

Several metrics exists to evaluate the impact of publications and researchers, but most are based on citation counts, which usually fail to capture the temporal aspect of citations. Time to first citation represents a useful metric for research evaluation, and informs the speed at which scientific knowledge is disseminated through the scientific co...

Tetrapods (amphibian, reptiles, birds and mammals) have become a central model system for global ecology, conservation, and biodiversity science at large. But continuing data gaps, limited data standardisation, and ongoing dynamics of taxonomic nomenclature put constraints on robust integrative research in this group and potentially causes biased i...

A plethora of semi-aquatic species perform seasonal migrations to reproduce, with migration timing often relating to several factors. Human-induced environmental changes may disrupt the migration phenology of many taxa. Improving our knowledge on drivers of migration phenology helps to elucidate the impacts of climate change upon biodiversity. Here...

The Tegu lizard Salvator merianae has a wide geographical distribution, occurring from northern South America to northern Argentine Patagonia. Recently, the species has been introduced in the USA, in the southern states of Florida and Georgia. It is found throughout most of Brazil, inhabiting natural environments, such as open areas, clearings and...

Predator–prey interactions are important evolutionary drivers of defensive behaviors, but they are usually difficult to record. This lack of data on natural history and ecological interactions of species can be overcome through museum specimens, at least for some reptiles. When facing aggressive interactions, reptile species may exhibit the defensi...

We present information on the reproduction of Gymnodactylus darwinii based on macroscopic analysis of its gonads. We found no sexual dimorphism in body size (SVL) between adult males and females, but males had, on average, wider heads and longer forearms. Both sexes had very similar sizes at sexual maturity and maximum body sizes, suggesting male–m...

Anti-predator mechanisms are essential for species survival and the description of defensive behaviour may improve our understanding about the ecology, biology and evolution of species. Herein, we describe new anti-predator behaviour for the False Coral Snake Oxyrhopus rhombifer in south-eastern Brazil, through direct observation of a juvenile spec...

The genus Dendropsophus Fitzinger, 1843 is divided in nine groups and currently comprises 105 species with a wide geographical distribution, ranging from south Mexico to most of tropical South America. The D. microcephalus group includes 34 species and is characterized by mutations in nuclear and mitochondrial gene fragments, besides tadpoles not p...

Zachaenus carvalhoi is an endemic frog from the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. It is considered a rare species, being currently classified as Data Deficient by the IUCN due to the shortage of information about its natural history and ecological requirements. In the present study, we aim to fill gaps into the current knowledge of this speci...

The Zona da Mata is located in the southeastern region of the state of Minas Gerais. It has 142 municipalities and a total area of 35.726 km2.Along with its mountainous and rugged relief, composed by hills and narrow valleys, the region is embedded in the Atlantic forest biome. The Zona da Mata covers five watersheds, two of which have great import...

The genus Ischnocnema Reinhardt & Lütken, 1862 comprises 33 recognized species found in central and eastern Brazil and northern Argentina. Among them, Ischnocnema penaxavantinho Giaretta, Toffoli & Oliveira, 2007 is a small species endemic to the Cerrado biome, occurring in areas with “Vereda” physiognomy. This species is closely related to I. juip...

Mesmo em áreas sob grande pressão antrópica, a Mata Atlântica ainda suporta uma elevada diversidade biológica e inúmeras espécies endêmicas. Cerca de 220 espécies de serpentes já foram registradas para este bioma, muitas das quais são restritas a pequenos fragmentos florestais. Nesse guia, nós examinamos uma pequena parte dessa riqueza. As espécies...

The 'Zona da Mata' of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, has less than 10% of remaining native vegetation and is home of a rich herpetofauna, still poorly surveyed. We present the results of an assessment of lizard and amphisbaenian species at Atlantic Forest fragments in the municipality of Cataguases, state of Minas Gerais, from 2009 to 2013. We...

Snakes of the genus Thamnodynastes Wagler 1830 are viviparous, opisthoglyphous and have elliptical vertical pupil. Among all of the 11 species that occur in Brazil, T. rutilus is easily diagnosed by having a reddish spot in the sixth infralabial. Information about biology , ecology, distribution and behavior of T. rutilus is very scarce in the lite...