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Václav Gvoždík – HerpDiv Research Group

Research on the Evolutionary biology and diversity of amphibians & reptiles

Welcome to the homepage of the   HerpDiv

(Herpetological Diversity)   Research Group

Our research group focuses on the Herpetology and all aspects of evolutionary biology of amphibians and reptiles, with special emphasis to study their organismal, genetic and phenotypic Diversity, evolutionary histories, phylogeography, systematics, and taxonomy, including descriptions of new species. We use phylogenetic applications, including new technological advances of the high-throughput sequencing, phylogenomics, and population genomics. To infer historical biogeography and population genomics we supplement our genomic research by environmental data from geographic information systems, i.e. GIS-based applications. We also study phenotype of amphibians and reptiles to understand morphological and acoustic (anurans) evolution.

Geographically, we cover the Afrotropic and Western Palearctic ecozones, i.e. Africa, Europe & western Asia, with occasional studies in other ecozones.

We also help our colleagues with molecular aspects of the biodiversity research of other groups of animals.

Our findings are very often crucial for conservation management.

Summarized, we are interested in the evolutionary biology, biogeography, biodiversity science, and conservation biology.