Plenary talk in Barcelona

/in /by

I had the pleasure to give an opening plenary at the XVIII. Congress of the Spanish-Portuguese Herpetological Societies in Barcelona. It was one of the best organized congresses I attended and I enjoyed every moment of it. It was held between 1-4 of October in Museu Blau, the Natural History Museum of Barcelona. Nearly 160 herpetologists attended the meeting, giving many-many interesting presentations over three days. The Congress was organized by the Catalan Herpetological Society. My talk was about the monitoring and conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Hungary. More details about the congress can be found here: https://congres.soccatherp.org/

New paper on Vipera phylogenomics

/in /by

In our new paper published in Molecular Ecology we generated chromosome-level genome assemblies for three Vipera species and whole-genome sequencing data for 94 samples representing 15 Vipera lineages. This comprehensive dataset allowed us to disentangle the phylogenomic relationships of this genus, affected by mito-nuclear discordance and pervaded by ancestral introgression. Population-level analyses in the Iberian […]

Read more

Review on Bombina hybrid zones

/in /by

We published a review on Bombina hybrid zones in the journal Amphibia-Reptilia. The paper summarizes the knowledge gained during the past 120 years and gives directions to future research. The paper is available online here.

Litoria raniformis comprises two subspecies

/in /by

We analysed mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences to assess divergence in Litoria raniformis from across its current range in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. This study led us to assign sub-species status to the two divergent lineages, L. r. raniformis for the northern lineage and L. r. major for the southern lineage.

Read the paper here

6th issue of the WCH Newsletter is out

/in /by

The 2/2022 WCH Newsletter has been published! Besides amazing articles about herpetofauna and other herp activities in Sarawak, Borneo, host State of the WCH10 in 2024, the issue contains interviews with Rick Shine and Ox Lennon, plus herp news around the world. Don’t miss to read it!

Download the newsletter here

Global Women in Herpetology

/in /by

I am proud to represent Hungary in this amazing project called Global Women in Herpetology. 50 women from 50 countries give an ars poetica reflecting their culture and background.

Read about the project here

Redescription of Ichthyosaura (Triturus) alpestris bakonyiensis from western Hungary

/in /by

In a recent article we analysed the genetic diversity of the alpine newt in the Carpathian Basin. The results suggested that the western populations (Őrség and Bakony areas) represent a different mitochondrial lineage from the North Hungarian Mountain populations (Mátra, Bükk, Zemplén). We proposed these populations to be referred as Inchthyosaura alpestris bakonyiensis (Dely, 1964).

Read the story here

New frog species (Pristimantis lojanus) from Loja, Ecuador

/in /by
In collaboration with colleagues from the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, using an integrative taxonomy approach (combining molecular, morphological and bioacoustic data) we described a new Pristimantis species from the city of Loja, southern Ecuador.
The species is called Pristimantis lojanus (Loja rain frog, Cutín de Loja).
It is a medium-size species of the P. oxocephalus group, and is known only from the city of Loja and its surroundings.
Read the paper

Future statements for conservation

/in /by

A bunch of researchers from Hungary identified fourteen priority research topics that should be targeted by stakeholders, primarily policy makers and funders to focus research capacity to these topics.

Read the paper

Slow worm distribution in Europe

/in /by

The distribution and biogeography of the five species of slow-worm lizards (Anguis) was summarized in a recent study by a collaboration of herpetologists across the continent.

Read the paper