The snake fauna of Paraíba Atlantic Forest: faunistic composition and comparisons between the upland forests and the coastal Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 12/19753-6
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Applied Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Hussam El Dine Zaher
• Grantee: Gentil Alves Pereira Filho
• Home Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is the second largest tropical rainforest in the Americas, which originally stretched continuously along the Brazilian coast covering more than 1.5 million km, which 92% were in the Brazilian territory. The knowledge about the snakes that inhabit the Atlantic Forest is small and due to the panorama of devastation that the biome has suffered much information may have been lost. The vast majority of work on the snake fauna of Atlantic Forest is concentrated in the Southeast, this contrast with the lack of information from other parts of the Atlantic Forest, mainly the septentrional northeast. In this region, little information is available and even basic data such as number of species and information about ecology and natural history are punctual or nonexistent. From the standpoint of biogeographic information there is no data about these areas, making it impossible to discern broadly about biogeography of snakes of the Atlantic Forest. This proposal, which is expected to last two years, has as main objective to verify through Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity and Cladistic Analysis of Distribution and Endemism how the snake fauna of the northern Atlantic Forest is related to the other portions of the biome. Another objective is to verify through Canonical Phylogenetic Ordination the influence of historical and ecological factors in the morphology of snakes. Others objectives of this proposal are also compared in terms of faunal composition the fragments of coastal Atlantic Forest and the ones found in the countryside of Paraiba state; carried out inventories in two areas of Brejos de Altitude making a significant zoological collection of specimens, tissues and images bank of all recorded species and ultimately develop a guide for identifying snakes of the Atlantic Forest of Paraiba, with identification key and data about natural history. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RODRIGUES, JEFTER BARBOSA; ALVES GAMA, SAMARA CINTIA; PEREIRA FILHO, GENTIL ALVES; RODRIGUES FRANCA, FREDERICO GUSTAVO. Composition and Ecological Aspects of a Snake Assemblage on the Savanna Enclave of the Atlantic Forest of the Guaribas Biological Reserve in Northeastern Brazil. South American Journal of Herpetology, v. 10, n. 3, p. 1-8, DEC 2015. Web of Science Citations: 1.

GRABOSKI, ROBERTA; PEREIRA FILHO, GENTIL ALVES; ARAUJO DA SILVA, ARIANE AUXILIADORA; DA COSTA PRUDENTE, ANA LUCIA; ZAHER, HUSSAM. A new species of Amerotyphlops from Northeastern Brazil, with comments on distribution of related species. Zootaxa, v. 3920, n. 3, p. 443-452, FEB 23 2015. Web of Science Citations: 3.

PIRES, MATHEUS GODOY; DA SILVA, JR., NELSON JORGE; FEITOSA, DARLAN TAVARES; DA COSTA PRUDENTE, ANA LUCIA; PEREIRA FILHO, GENTIL ALVES; ZAHER, HUSSAM. A new species of triadal coral snake of the genus Micrurus Wagler, 1824 (Serpentes: Elapidae) from northeastern Brazil. Zootaxa, v. 3811, n. 4, p. 569-584, JUN 5 2014. Web of Science Citations: 12.