Data from: The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation

The distributions of amphibians, birds and mammals have underpinned global and local conservation priorities, and have been fundamental to our understanding of the determinants of global biodiversity. In contrast, the global distributions of reptiles, representing a third of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, have been unavailable. This prevented the incorporation of reptiles into conservation planning and biased our understanding of the underlying processes governing global vertebrate biodiversity. Here, we present and analyse the global distribution of 10,064 reptile species (99% of extant terrestrial species). We show that richness patterns of the other three tetrapod classes are good spatial surrogates for species richness of all reptiles combined and of snakes, but characterize diversity patterns of lizards and turtles poorly. Hotspots of total and endemic lizard richness overlap very little with those of other taxa. Moreover, existing protected areas, sites of biodiversity significance and global conservation schemes represent birds and mammals better than reptiles. We show that additional conservation actions are needed to effectively protect reptiles, particularly lizards and turtles. Adding reptile knowledge to a global complementarity conservation priority scheme identifies many locations that consequently become important. Notably, investing resources in some of the world’s arid, grassland and savannah habitats might be necessary to represent all terrestrial vertebrates efficiently.

两栖类、鸟类与哺乳类的分布格局，不仅支撑了全球及区域保护优先级的制定，也为我们理解全球生物多样性的决定因素奠定了核心基础。与之形成对比的是，占陆地脊椎动物多样性三分之一的爬行类，其全球分布格局此前一直缺乏系统数据。这一缺口使得爬行类无法被纳入保护规划，也导致我们对全球脊椎动物生物多样性背后驱动机制的认知产生偏差。本研究整合并分析了10064种爬行类（占现存陆地爬行类物种的99%）的全球分布数据。研究表明，其余四足动物类群的物种丰富度格局，可较好地作为爬行类整体及蛇类物种丰富度的空间替代指标，但却难以准确反映蜥蜴与龟类的多样性分布特征。全域及特有蜥蜴物种丰富度的热点区域，与其他类群的热点区域重叠度极低。此外，现有保护区、生物多样性重要区域及全球保护计划，对鸟类与哺乳类的覆盖效果均优于爬行类。本研究证实，需采取额外的保护行动才能有效保护爬行类，尤其是蜥蜴与龟类。将爬行类分布数据纳入全球互补式保护优先级方案后，可识别出大量新的关键保护区域。值得注意的是，若要高效覆盖所有陆地脊椎动物类群，可能需要将保护资源投入全球部分干旱区、草原与稀树草原生境。