Jetz, W. & Pyron, R. A. The interplay of past diversification and evolutionary isolation with present imperilment across the amphibian tree of life. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2, 850–858 (2018).

To determine the extent of human pressure on regions of irreplaceable reptilian diversity, we explored the relationship between the Human Footprint index 42 and reptilian PE globally. We find that PE and Human Footprint are positively correlated globally (spatially corrected correlation: r = 0.16, e.d.f. = 514.011, p< 0.001). Regions containing the two highest pressure categories (‘high’ and ‘very high’, with Human Footprint ≥ 6 and ≥ 12, respectively 42) harbour significantly greater amounts of reptilian PE than categories of lower human pressure (Tukey HSD < 0.05). Faith, D. P. Phylogenetic diversity, functional trait diversity and extinction: avoiding tipping points and worst-case losses. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B: Biol. Sci. 370, 200140011 (2015). We ranked all tetrapod groups by their HITE scores to identify priority species that are irreplaceable and restricted to regions under high human pressure (Supplementary Table 4). Worryingly, four of the ten highest-ranking lizards and eight of the top ten snakes are listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN (ten highest-ranking HITE species for each clade in Supplementary Table 4). These 12 Data Deficient reptiles alone embody more than 500 million years of unique PD.In March 1972 in Loveland, Ohio, there were two separate sightings of a strange, reptile-like creature that became known as the Loveland Frogman. Both sightings were made by Ohio police officers, and both took a lot of ridicule as a result. Any binning of the original HF data into broader categories has the potential to amplify relatively small differences in the raw data (e.g. under our categorisation method, a grid cell of HF = 11 and one of HF = 12 are considered less similar than they are to grid cells where HF = 6 and HF = 50, respectively), leading to potential under- and over-estimations of human pressure across grid cells, relative to one another. However, this problem is inherent in any categorisation of human pressure data—from the original 51 HF categories (0–50) at one extreme to a binary categorisation at the other—due to the non-linear, and currently poorly understood, relationship between HF and its impact on biodiversity.

Redding, D. W. & Mooers, A. O. Ranking mammal species for conservation and the loss of both phylogenetic and trait diversity. PLoS ONE 10, e0141435 (2015).The relationship between Human Footprint scores and the impact of human activities on biodiversity is not linear: a Human Footprint score of just 4 (out of 50) is equivalent to pasture, or “human dominated” landscapes 69, a score of 7 is equivalent to agriculture and scores above this represent highly modified landscapes 50. This means the difference between grid cells with Human Footprint scores of 0 (pristine) and 4 (pasture) is likely much greater than the difference between grid cells with Human Footprint scores of 46 and 50. Meiri, S. et al. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Divers. Distrib. 24, 262–273 (2018). We felt that the UFO story was a softer way to introduce a debate about current issues,” explains Grafik. “There’s a sense now that, if the world doesn’t fit your view, you can create your own reality through the web, where forums foster enclosed debates. You no longer have to subjugate your own opinion to the realities of the world.”

If you’re looking to add a reptile to your art repertoire, you’ll need to gather the necessary materials first. Here’s a list of what you’ll need to get started drawing reptiles: We used updated distribution polygons for turtles, crocodilians and lepidosaurs from the Global Assessment of Reptile Distributions (GARD) 32. We used published phylogenies for lepidosaurs 47, crocodilians 53 and turtles 54. The crocodilian and turtle phylogenies used were single, consensus, fully resolved phylogenies. To capture phylogenetic uncertainty around the taxonomically imputed lepidosaur phylogenies, we randomly sampled 100 fully resolved phylogenies from a distribution of 10,000 trees 47 and used each phylogeny in our analyses to generate median values of PD and PD-based metrics. We matched the species in each phylogeny to the distribution data using the taxonomy from the July 2018 version of the Reptile Database 27.

Di Marco, M. & Santini, L. Human pressures predict species’ geographic range size better than biological traits. Glob. Chang. Biol. 21, 2169–2178 (2015). Davis, M., Faurby, S. & Svenning, J.-C. Mammal diversity will take millions of years to recover from the current biodiversity crisis. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 115, 11262–11267 (2018). Daru, B. H. et al. Spatial overlaps between the global protected areas network and terrestrial hotspots of evolutionary diversity. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 28, 757–766 (2019). Safi, K. & Pettorelli, N. Phylogenetic, spatial and environmental components of extinction risk in carnivores. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 19, 352–362 (2010).

Several months prior to Berra’s sighting, a local man reported seeing a dark creature walk out of the woods and cross the Scape Ore Bridge. Another man captured 24 seconds of footage of a strange creature in the woods near Scape Ore Swamp, before ending the footage abruptly when it appeared that the creature had noticed him. He claimed that he had shot the footage in May 2015 while hunting, but he’d kept it secret—even from his wife—for fear of being labeled as crazy. Only when Berra came forward with her story did he volunteer the video. Jetz, W. et al. Global distribution and conservation of evolutionary distinctness in birds. Curr. Biol. 24, 919–930 (2014). Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ, UK Next, let’s focus on thIt is common to measure the deviation of PD from expected given the observed species richness using randomisation methods 23, 33, 63, as the variance of the residuals around a regression decreases as the species richness of a grid approaches the number of species in the phylogeny 64. However, the maximum grid cell richness for lepidosaurs never reaches 2% of the number of species in the phylogeny in our analyses (max grid cell richness = 161, with 9557 species in the phylogeny) nor 10% for turtles (max grid cell richness = 22, with 280 species in the phylogeny). Concurrently our model residual variance is independent of cell richness (Supplementary Fig. 9). On the other hand, using null models to estimate deviation from expectation when applied to our data resulted in extreme decreases in variance as richness increased, leading to only regions of very low species richness to exhibit deviation from expectation (Supplementary Fig. 9). We therefore consider the use of residuals as valid in our case of extreme low grid cell species richness relative to number of species in the phylogeny. Start by drawing a basic outline of the reptile’s body. Then, add the legs, tail, and head. Be sure to make the head slightly larger than the body.