Howard Bradley Shaffer

This study shows retro-orbital blood sampling temporarily reduces feeding efficiency in western fence lizards.

This study shows urban fence lizards can detect and respond to visual cues of domestic cats, suggesting cat-induced mortality is not due to undetectability.

The paper presents a chromosome-level genome assembly for the Western Spadefoot, Spea hammondii, using long-read and proximity ligation data, enabling population genomic studies for conservation.

NewtCap is a target capture method for Salamandridae genomes, effective across multiple lineages but not other salamander families, enabling phylogenomics and conservation studies.

The paper shows that the amphibian fungal pathogen Bd proliferates during winter dormancy in toads, increasing prevalence and intensity of infection.

The paper presents a chromosome-level genome assembly of Azolla caroliniana, improving upon previous assemblies and aiding in understanding its population genetics and taxonomy.

The paper characterizes the microbiome of the nitrogen-fixing fern Azolla, revealing multiple endosymbionts with varying transmission modes and stages of symbiosis evolution.

The paper evaluates genetic rescue for an endangered butterfly, finding low genetic diversity and potential outbreeding depression, suggesting caution before implementing rescue efforts.

This study evaluates species distribution models using new predictor datasets and finds ClimateNA outperforms WorldClim for most species, with Random Forests and random background points providing best results.

The paper presents a high-quality genome assembly of the bicolored carpenter ant, C. vicinus, providing a resource for evolutionary ecology studies and clarifying cryptic diversity within the species complex.

The paper analyzes genomes of leatherback and green turtles to identify gene family expansions and demographic differences that may influence their ecological adaptations and conservation status.

The paper investigates transgressive thermal tolerance in hybrids of California tiger salamanders and barred tiger salamanders, finding that allele-specific expression correlates with improved thermal tolerance.

The paper uses genomic data from Mojave desert tortoises to infer demographic parameters in a spatially explicit ecological model, showing a simple statistical method can estimate population density and migration distance within 10% accuracy.