Posted by:
moxologist
at Sat Dec 13 09:36:52 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by moxologist ]
I am pleased to see folks discussing E. beniensis. I'd like to add my 2 cents to the discussion. I am a biogeographer who specializes in the Llanos de Moxos savannas of the Beni Department of Bolivia, home of E. beniensis. The Beni Department has records of E. beniensis, E. murinus, and E. notaeus.
There are reasonable ecological and biogeographic grounds for presuming the validity of E. beniensis. First, E. beniensis is restricted to seasonally inundated savannas while E. murinus is restricted to forested riverine environments (in the Beni at least). E. notaeus is a Pantanal and Humid Chaco species that enters the Beni via the upper Iténez/Guaporé connections to the Pantanal (upper Paraguay) basin. The Moxos savannas are isolated from the other major savannas of South America and contain a few known endemic vertebrates such as the blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis); thus E. beniensis would not be an anomaly in region without other examples of local speciation.
Greetings from the southern edge of Amazonia,
Robert Langstroth
Llanos de Moxos
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RE: Eunectes beniensis - moxologist, Sat Dec 13 09:36:52 2003