See the Google Scholar page for Rebecca D. Tarvin

In review/revision

Ochoa-Ochoa*, LM, JD Vásquez-Restrepo, M Masache, and RD Tarvin. 2025. Slowing down: A macroevolutionary approach to the hypometabolic strategies of amphibians. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.19.665691

Ramírez-Castañeda†*, V, SA Nixon, D Alarcón-Naforo, F Albderemane-Ali, R Fitch, D Salazar-Valenzuela, DL Minor, JR, RD Tarvin*. 2025. Toxin resistance mechanisms span biological scales in the Royal Ground Snake (Colubridae: Erythrolamprus reginae). EcoEvoRxiv https://doi.org/10.32942/X2R65D

Navarrete Méndez†, MJ, AB Quezada Riera, E Naydenova, A Terán-Valdez, E Naydenova, LA Coloma, RD Tarvin*. Dorsal skin biopsies: A non-lethal sampling method for studying amphibians, including the highly endangered Harlequin frogs (Bufonidae: Atelopus). https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.04.703782

2026

Jeckel§, AM, SJ Draper‡, BP Deters‡, RB Weinberg, ND Tsutsui, and RD Tarvin. In press. Ingestion of the potent neurotoxin epibatidine does not compromise locomotion or behavior in the poison frog Epipedobates tricolor. Toxicon. 10.1016/j.toxcx.2026.100268

O Ruiz Chavarría and RD Tarvin. Dendrobates auratus (Green-and-Black Poison Frog). Predation. Accepted. Herpetological Review

Ramírez-Castañeda†*, V, RD Tarvin, R Márquez. 2026. Snakes (Erythrolamprus spp.) with a complex toxic diet show convergent yet highly heterogeneous voltage-gated sodium channel evolution. Genome Biology and Evolution https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag092 • Twitter Thread

Jervis, PA, C Sullivan, A Manzano Pasquel, GM Rosa, RD Tarvin, SR Ron, V Vrendenberg, MC Fisher, and A Merino-Viteri. 2026. Rapid emergence of an amphibian pathogen coincided with historic amphibian declines in the Neotropics. Diversity and Distributions. 32:e70187. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70187 • PDF

2025

Navarrete Méndez†^, MJ, SS Amini†^, J Saal‡, MH Wake, JC Santos, SR Ron, RD Tarvin*. 2025. Caecilians maintain a functional long-wavelength-sensitive cone opsin gene despite signatures of relaxed selection and more than 200 million years of fossoriality. Evolution 79: 2756—2775. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpaf190 • X Thread (2/13/25) • PDF

Goodheart, JA, R Fiorenza, R Rio, RN Lopez-Anido, NJ Martin‡, TJ Herrlinger, RD Tarvin, and DC Lyons. 2025. A subset of conserved phagocytic genes are likely used for the intracellular theft of cnidarian stinging organelles in nudibranch gastropods. EvoDevo 16:10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13227-025-00241-x • PDF

Douglas*†^, TE, R Márquez*^, VR Holmes, JS Johnston, and RD Tarvin*. 2025. Genome size evolution and life history correlates in the poison frog family Dendrobatidae. Evolution 79: 698—710. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpaf011 • PDF

Betancourth-Cundar*, M, JC Ríos-Orjuela, AJ Crawford, DC Cannatella, and RD Tarvin*. 2025. Honoring the Afro-Colombian musical culture with the naming of Epipedobates currulao sp. nov. (Anura: Dendrobatidae), a frog from the Pacific rainforests. ZooKeys 1226: 139–170. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1226.123803 • PDF • UniAndes Press Release • UC Berkeley Press Release (also in Spanish) • El Espectador • Sacramento Bee • The Daily Californian • Forbes • Pensoft

2024

Kosch*, TA, M Torres-Sánchez, HC Liedtke, K Summers, MH Yun, AJ Crawford, ST Maddock, MS Ahammed, VLN Araújo, LV Bertola, G Bucciarelli, A Carné, CM Carneiro, KO Chan, Y Chen, A Crottini, JM da Silva, RD Denton, C Dittrich, G Espregueira Themudo, KA Farquharson, NJ Forsdick, E Gilbert, J Che, BA Katzenback, R Kotharambath, NA Levis, R Márquez, G Mazepa, KP Mulder, H Müller, MJ O’Connell, P Orozco-terWengel, G Palomar, A Petzold, DW Pfennig, KS Pfennig, MS Reichert, J Robert, MD Scherz, K Siu-Ting, AA Snead, M Stöck, AMM Stuckert, JL Stynoski, RD Tarvin, KC Wollenberg Valero, and The Amphibian Genomics Consortium (AGC). 2024. The Amphibian Genomics Consortium: advancing genomic and genetic resources for amphibian research and conservation. BMC Genomics 25:1025. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-10899-7 • PDF

Tarvin*, RD, JL Coleman, DA Donoso, M Betancourth-Cundar, K López-Hervas, KS Gleason, JR Sanders, JM Smith, SR Ron, JC Santos, BE Sedio, DC Cannatella, and R Fitch. 2024. Passive accumulation of alkaloids in inconspicuously colored frogs refines the evolutionary paradigm of acquired chemical defenses. eLife 13:RP100011. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100011.3 • PDF

López-Hervas‡, KS, SR Ron, JC Santos, M Betancourth-Cundar, DC Cannatella*, and RD Tarvin*. 2024. Deep divergences among inconspicuously colored clades of Epipedobates poison frogs. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 195: 108065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108065 • PDF

2023

Nachman*, MW, EJ Beckman, RCK Bowie, C Cicero, CJ Conroy, R Dudley, TB Hayes, MS Koo, EA Lacey, CH Martin, JA McGuire, JL Patton, CL Spencer, RD Tarvin, MH Wake, IJ Wang, A Achmadi, ST Álvarez-Castañeda, MJ Andersen, JA Arroyave Gutiérrez, CC Austin, FK Barker, LN Barrow, GF Barrowclough, J Bates, AM Bauer, KC Bell, RC Bell, AW Bronson, RM Brown, FT Burbrink, KJ Burns, CD Cadena, DC Cannatella, TA Castoe, P Chakrabarty, JP Colella, JA Cook, JL Cracraft, DR Davis, AR Davis Rabosky, G D'Elía, JP Dumbacher, JL Dunnum, SV Edwards, JA Esselstyn, J Faivovich, J Fjeldså, OA Flores-Villela, K Ford, J Fuchs, MK Fujita, JM Good, E Greenbaum, S Hackett, A Hamidy, J Hanken, T Haryoko, MTR Hawkins, LR Heaney, DM Hillis, BD Hollingsworth, AD Hornsby, PA Hosner, M Irham, S Jansa, RA Jiménez, L Joseph, JJ Kirchman, TJ LaDuc, AD Leaché, EP Lessa, H López-Fernández, NA Mason, J McCormack, CD McMahan, RG Moyle, RA Ojeda, LE Olson, CK Onn, LR Parenti, G Parra-Olea, BD Patterson, GB Pauly, SE Pavan, AT Peterson, S Poe, DL Rabosky, CJ Raxworthy, S Reddy, A Rico-Guevara, A Riyanto, LA Rocha, SR Ron, SM Rovito, KC Rowe, J Rowley, S Ruane, D Salazar-Valenzuela, AJ Shultz, B Sidlauskas, DS Sikes, NB Simmons, MLJ Stiassny, JW Streicher, BL Stuart, AP Summers, JJ Tavera Vargas, P Teta, CW Thompson, RM Timm, O Torres-Carvajal, G Voelker, RS Voss, K Winker, C Witt, EA Wommack, RM Zink. 2023. Specimen collection is essential for modern science. PLoS Biology 21:e3002318. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002318 • PDF

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 54: 283-306. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102320-102117 • PDF

Wan‡^, YC, MJ Navarrete Méndez^†, 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)

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

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)

2022

Ramírez Castañeda^†, V, EP Westeen^, J Frederick, S Amini, D Wait, AS Achmadi, N Andayanie, E Arida, U Arifin, MA Bérnal, E Bonaccorso, MB Sanguila, RM Brown, J Che, FP Condori, D Hartiningtias, AE Hiller, DT Iskandar, RA Jiménez, R Khelifa, R Márquez, JG Martínez-Fonseca, JL Parra, JV Peñalba, L Pinto-García, OH Razafindratsima, SR Ron, S Souza, J Supriatna, RCK Bowie, C Cicero, JA McGuire, RD Tarvin*. 2022. A set of principles and practical suggestions for equitable fieldwork in biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119: e2122667119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2122667119 (Open Access) • Press Release • Public Talk

Supplementary tools and Spanish translation available here: https://osf.io/wbnf6/

Steigerwald, E, V Ramírez-Castañeda†, DYC Brandt, A Báldi, JT Shapiro, L Bowker*, RD Tarvin*. 2022. Overcoming language barriers in academia: machine translation tools and a vision for a multilingual future. BioScience 72(10): 988–998. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biac062 (Open Access) Press Release in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian

Translations of the article are available in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Hungarian here: https://osf.io/7sn2c/

Womack, MC, E Steigerwald, DC Blackburn, DC Cannatella, A Catenazzi, J Che, MS Koo, JA McGuire, SR Ron, C Spencer, VT Vredenburg, RD Tarvin*. 2022. State of the Amphibia 2020: Five years of amphibian research, diversity and resources. Journal of Ichthyology and Herpetology 110: 638–661. https://doi.org/10.1643/h2022005 • PDF

Douglas†, TE, SG Beskid‡, CE Gernand‡, BE Nirtaut‡, K Tamsil‡, R Fitch, RD Tarvin*. 2022. Trade-offs between cost of ingestion and rate of intake drive defensive toxin use. Biology Letters 18(2): 20210579. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0579 • PDF

Pearson†‡, K, and RD Tarvin*. 2022. A review of chemical defense in harlequin toads (Bufonidae; Atelopus). Toxicon: X 13:100092. (Open Access) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxcx.2022.100092 • PDF • UC Berkeley Press Release

2021

Akram, A, M Rais, K López-Hervas, RD Tarvin, M Saeed, DI Bolnick, and DC Cannatella. An insight into molecular taxonomy of bufonids, microhylids, and dicroglossid frogs: First genetic records from Pakistan. 2021. Ecology and Evolution 11: 14175–14216. PDF• https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8134

Uetz P, MS Koo, R Aguilar, E Brings, A Catenazzi, AT Chang, R Chaitanya, P Freed, J Gross, M Hammermann, J Hosek, M Lambert, Z Sergi, CL Spencer, K Summers, R Tarvin, VT Vredenburg, DB Wake. 2021. A Quarter Century of Reptile and Amphibian Databases. Herpetological Review 52(2): 246-255. PDF • link

2020

Tarvin*, RD. 2020. A sucker for taste. Cell 183: 587–588. (invited preview article) PDF • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.012

2018

Santos, JC, RD Tarvin, LA O'Connell, D Blackburn, and LA Coloma. 2018. Diversity within diversity: Transcriptomic characterization of eukaryotic symbionts in poison frogs. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 125: 40–50. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.03.015

2017

Tarvin^*, RD, CM Borghese^*, W Sachs, JC Santos, L Yu, LA O'Connell, DC Cannatella, RA Harris, and HH Zakon*. 2017. Interacting amino acid replacements allow poison frogs to evolve epibatidine resistance. Science 357: 1261–1266. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan5061

Tarvin*, RD, E Powell‡, JC Santos, SR Ron, and DC Cannatella. 2017. The birth of aposematism: High phenotypic divergence and low genetic diversity in a young clade of poison frogs. ​Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 109: 283–295. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2016.12.035

2016

Tarvin*, RD, JC Santos, LA O’Connell, HH Zakon, and DC Cannatella. 2016. Convergent substitutions in sodium channel suggest multiple origins of toxin resistance in poison frogs. Molecular Biology and Evolution 33:1068-1081. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msv350

Santos*^, JC, RD Tarvin*^, and LA O'Connell*^. 2016. A review of chemical defense in poison frogs (Dendrobatidae): Ecology, pharmacokinetics and autoresistance. In: Schulte, BA, TE Goodwin, MH Ferkin, editors. Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 13. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. p. 305-337. PDF • link • book

2015 & before

Tarvin, RD, CS Bermúdez, VS Briggs, and KM Warkentin. 2015. Carry-over effects of size at metamorphosis in red-eyed treefrogs: higher survival but slower growth of larger metamorphs. Biotropica 47:218-226. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12198 [college thesis]

Tarvin*, RD, P Peña, and SR Ron. 2014. Changes in population size and survival in Atelopus spumarius (Anura: Bufonidae) are not correlated with chytrid prevalence. Journal of Herpetology 48:291-297. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1670/11-269

Muñoz, M, NG Crawford, TJ McGreevy, NJ Messana, RD Tarvin, LJ Revell, RM Zandvliet, JM Hopwood, E Mock, AL Schneider, and CJ Schneider. 2013. Divergence in coloration and ecological speciation in the Anolis marmoratus species complex. Molecular Ecology 22:2668-2682. PDF • https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.12295

Commentaries

Bernal, XE, B Rojas, MA Pinto, ÁM Mendoza-Henao, A Herrera-Montes, MI Herrera-Montes, A del Pilar Cáceres Franco, 254 signatories (including RD Tarvin). 2019. Empowering Latina scientists. Science 363: 825-826. PDF • link

Tarvin, RD*, Acosta, D, and S Ron. 2015. Is habitat destruction more dangerous for Atelopus than chytrid? Froglog 113:38. PDF • link

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