Quickly wanted to highlight some of our lab’s publications this year:

1. Out in March, from a side project during my PhD and a collaboration with friend Anne Chambers: Chambers^, EA, RD Tarvin^, JC Santos, SR Ron, M Betancourth-Cundar, DM Hillis, MV Matz, and DC Cannatella. 2023. 2b or not 2b? 2bRAD is an effective alternative to ddRAD for phylogenomics. Ecology and Evolution 13: e9842. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9842 • Twitter Thread (3/10/23)

2. Out in June, Kate Montana’s undergraduate thesis: Montana, KO, V Ramírez-Castañeda† and RD Tarvin. 2023. Are Pacific Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris regilla) resistant to tetrodotoxin (TTX)? Characterizing potential TTX exposure and resistance in an ecological associate of Pacific Newts (Taricha). Journal of Herpetology 57: 220—228. (Open Access) https://doi.org/10.1670/22-002 • PDF

3. Out in October, Yin Chen Wan’s undergraduate thesis: Wan^, YC, MJ Navarrete^†, LA O’Connell, LH Uricchio, A Roland, ME Maan, SR Ron, M Betancourth-Cundar, MR Pie, K Howell, CL Richards-Zawacki, ME Cummings, DC Cannatella, JC Santos*, and RD Tarvin*. 2023. Selection on visual opsin genes in diurnal Neotropical frogs and loss of the SWS2 opsin in poison frogs. Molecular Biology and Evolution 40: msad206. (Open Access) https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad206 • PDF • Twitter Thread (10/21/22)

4. Out in November, a Tarvin lab collaborative review paper: Tarvin*, RD, KC Pearson*, TE Douglas, V Ramírez-Castañeda, María José Navarrete. 2023. The diverse mechanisms animals use to resist toxins. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102320-102117 • PDF

5. Also out in November, a response to a commentary about specimen collection: Nachman, MW, … RD Tarvin, et al. 2023. Specimen collection is essential for modern science. PLoS Biology 21:e3002318. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002318 • PDF

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kate Montana, Becca, and Lawrence Uricchio were able to conduct a safe field collection trip to the Presidio, with the help of Jonathan Young in early October 2020. The animals that we collected that day are in the process of being accessioned — the first Pseudacris from San Francisco that have been added to the MVZ collection since 1923!

9:45am 03/11/2021. Adding some more information: This population of P. regilla is actually pretty interesting. The frog hadn’t been present in the Presidio for some time. They were recently reintroduced from a community garden in the potrero hill area. According to Jonathan Young, when that pond was removed by MUNI, some frog-loving folks relocated the frogs to the then recently created Presidio "dune pond." Thus, the frogs in this marsh are from SF, and actually there are still some P. regilla on private property near potrero hill, at least as of 5 years ago. This marshy area is marked off-limits to dog-walkers, to help preserve the area for the frogs to rebound.

The mostly drained east arm of Mountain Lake, where frogs (Pseudacris regilla) were found on dewy plants near the marshy pond.

Presidio of San Francisco, 11 October 2020