The current Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, Henry Paulson, is likely a clone of the original Paulson who was killed last Reptiles are one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people find them to be fascinating creatures, while others may find them to be a little bit creepy. Regardless of how you feel about them, there is no denying that reptiles are some of the most unique and interesting animals out there. Figure 51-2 Eosinophils ( E) from a Green iguana ( A) and a snake ( B). In general, reptilian eosinophils have a round nucleus and round to oval granules. The color of the granules varies between species. In the iguana the granules of the eosinophil stain lavender blue with Romanowsky-type stains. In other reptiles the granules may be eosinophilic/pink. A mature heterophil ( H) is adjacent to the eosinophil from the snake. (Wright’s stain; original magnification 1000×.)

To identify species that should be prioritised to preserve unique evolutionary history, we isolated the only component common to both PE and EDR: TBL weighted by range size. We define this as terminal endemism (TE); the TBL of a species multiplied by the reciprocal of the number of grid cells occupied by the species. If a species is found in only one grid cell, then its loss from that grid cell would result in the loss of its entire terminal branch. The TE of a species is implicitly calculated when calculating both EDR and PE and represents the unique contribution of the species to the total for each metric. We posit that, as a species-focused measure, TE circumvents the differences between EDR and PE when handling internal branches and retains the most essential component of each. Gumbs, R., Gray, C. L., Wearn, O. R. & Owen, N. R. Tetrapods on the EDGE: overcoming data limitations to identify phylogenetic conservation priorities. PLoS ONE 13, e0194680 (2018). First, let’s take a look at the overall shape of a reptile’s body. Generally speaking, reptiles are long and slender, with a tapered tail and a relatively small head. Keep this basic shape in mind as you begin sketching your reptile. Schipper, J. et al. The status of the world’s land and marine mammals: diversity, threat, and knowledge. Science 322, 225–230 (2008). To map global patterns of reptilian PD, for each grid cell occupied by more than one species, we summed the lengths of all branches between the root node and tips for the subtree comprising all species in the grid cell. When only one species was present in a grid cell the length of the terminal branch (the branch connecting the species ‘tip’ to the rest of the phylogeny) was used to represent PD. As the branch lengths are time-calibrated, the resulting values represent the PD, as units of time, present in each grid cell.Swenson, N. G. Null Models. in Functional and Phylogenetic Ecology in R (ed. Swenson, N. G.) 109–146 (Springer, New York, 2014). 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.

We adopted these five categories of human pressure of Venter et al. 42 to determine whether there were greater levels of reptile PE in regions under higher human pressure using ANOVA and Tukey’s Honest Significant Differences Test. The use the five categories of human pressure outlined by Venter et al. 42 rather than the 51 fine-scale values for Human Footprint also improves the accuracy (at the expense of precision) of grid cell value assignment when upscaling the spatial data from 1 km x 1 km to 96.5 ×96.5 km resolution to match the species distribution data (Supplementary Fig. 8). González-Orozco, C. E. et al. Phylogenetic approaches reveal biodiversity threats under climate change. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 1110 (2016). The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe. Oaks, J. R. A time-calibrated species tree of crocodylia reveals a recent radiation of the true crocodiles. Evolution (New York) 65, 3285–3297 (2011).

Discovering Ubaid Lizardmen Figurines at Tell Al’Ubaid

The majority of reptiles are cold-blooded, meaning their body temperature is the same as the temperature of their surroundings. This is why you often see reptiles basking in the sun – they are trying to warm up! Rosauer, D., Laffan, S. W., Crisp, M. D., Donnellan, S. C. & Cook, L. G. Phylogenetic endemism: a new approach for identifying geographical concentrations of evolutionary history. Mol. Ecol. 18, 4061–4072 (2009). We highlight tetrapod species which are either unassessed or listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN but have a high HITE score. These are species that, due to their high irreplaceability and extremely restricted and human-impacted range, are priorities for conservation assessment. We compared HITE scores for tetrapods across IUCN Red List categories, using ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test, to determine the relationship between HITE scores, data deficiency, and extinction risk across reptiles and all tetrapods. 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. Wes Penre from Oregon claims that his reptilian encounter began when he woke up one night and noticed that the room had suddenly turned icy cold. As he fully awoke, he realized that he couldn’t move and was paralyzed in his bed. Then, Penre noticed an extremely muscular, green humanoid with red eyes in the room with him.