Research efforts toward Philippine biodiversity have increased significantly due to concerns about its natural resources and biodiversity. However, there is an imbalance in the distribution of published studies, with specific territories and organisms receiving more attention. Mindanao, a southern Philippine Island, is known for its high levels of endemism for amphibians and reptiles. Despite this, research on these groups remains unconsolidated. To address this gap, we conducted a biodiversity synthesis focusing on amphibians and reptiles in the faunal region of Mindanao. We found an increasing effort towards herpetofauna over the two decades, yet there is a clear bias in the effort towards amphibians compared to reptiles. In addition, we found that amphibians have a significantly higher species threat index than reptiles and all other vertebrate groups, regardless of ecological status. Yet, threatened herpetofauna species and those facing a greater number of threats are poorly studied, in general. Understanding the factors driving research biases in Mindanao and the Philippines is essential to allow us to redirect research efforts to the most needed areas, particularly to understudied and neglected taxa in Mindanao. This is especially urgent in the face of changing climate, where diverse communities of herpetofauna are at increased risk of extinction. Consequently, by bridging these gaps in biodiversity information, we can effectively contribute to the conservation and understanding of biodiversity in the region.

Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot with a long history of trading in its wildlife, especially its hyper diverse Amphibian taxa. Due to globally raised concerns over the conservation for harvested amphibian species on Madagascar, CITES was introduced as a global mechanism to monitor and regulate the trade. Utilising data collated from the CITES Trade database, this study sought to investigate the trade and CITES effectiveness in managing the trade. Over the 28 year period investigated, 20 known amphibian species were exported from Madagascar with a total of nearly 271,000 individuals. Formal descriptions of Malagasy amphibian species has and continues to increase greatly over time, there has not been a concomitant, longitudinal relationship in the numbers of individuals traded. Overall, the numbers of individuals traded has declined over time but, where assessments were provided by the IUCN Redlist, population declines were reported in all but one species of Malagasy amphibian. Mantella (97.5%) continue to dominate the trade with certain, high conservation concern species continuing in the trade. Despite early concerns over the effectiveness of CITES actions, after concerted efforts it appears that CITES actions were having an impact in regulating the trade. However, going forward, concerns remain over the appropriateness of the quotas set and the robustness of their underpinning NDFs. Furthermore, with the increase in recognised species raises the potential for incorrect species labelling on CITES permits that needs attention.

Gymnophiona, the most poorly known group of extant amphibians, includes elongated limbless tetrapods, with compact ossified skulls and reduced eyes, mainly adapted to fossorial life (only the Typhlonectidae exhibits adaptations for an aquatic or semiaquatic behavior). Caecilians are poorly represented in the fossil record, and despite the low number of fossil specimens described until now (only four taxa, in addition to indeterminate fragmentary material), their fossils play a key role in the knowledge of Lissamphibia origin and evolution, as well as contribute directly to a better understanding of phylogeny, taxonomy and biogeography of extant gymnophionan taxa. These records are scattered throughout geological time (from the Jurassic to the Neogene) and space (they are represented only on North and South America and Africa). Here, we revisit the caecilian fossil record, providing a brief description of all known extinct taxa described so far, along with general remarks about their impact on systematics, time range and geographic distribution of the clade, as well as prospects for future research. Possible calibration constraints based on the caecilian fossil record are provided.

The Harmonious Protected Landscape of Ambohitr'Antsingy Montagne des Français is one of the protected area located in the extreme northern of Madagascar. An assessment of the Herpe-tofauna community were made on the eastern and western slopes regarding the forest degrada-tion level, the availability of the streams and the habitat types in the massif during the years of 2014 and 2020. This survey was done in order to updating the herpetofaunal database and re-cording the distribution ranges of the Herpetofauna community in the PA. Three methods were used, including direct observation, systematic microhabitat searching and pitfall-traps with drift fences at three sampling sites during the day and night with headlamp. Twenty species of am-phibians and 50 species of reptiles were recorded. Four species of Amphibians, and 03 species of Reptiles (snake) are potentially new to science and/or newly recorded at Montagne des Français. One snake (Langaha pseudoalluaudi) last inventoried in 2007 has reappeared during this investiga-tion. Here, we present the mapping of all species recorded. This new database can help the manager site to update the management plan to guarantee the herpetofaunal conservation facing habitat change. That is what we think also for all of the current PA in Madagascar.