PONE-D-20-06980

High levels of population genetic differentiation in the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Rossi,

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Tzen-Yuh Chiang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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"Dr. Rossi’s research was carried out with financial support of the Sackler Institute of Comparative Genomics of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) (https://www.amnh.org/research/sicg ). AMNH support included the provisioning of laboratory space, laboratory materials and technical training. The Wildlife Conservation Society (https://www.wcs.org/) provided financial support to carry out C. acutus ‘skin tissue sample collection in the Wildlife Refuge Monte Cabaniguan, Cuba. The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (http://e3b.columbia.edu/ ) and the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University (http://ilas.columbia.edu/ ) in the City of New York provided financial support via travel grants for Dr. Rossi to conduct fieldwork at the Wildlife Refuge Monte Cabaniguan in Cuba and the Everglades National Park in the United States."

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Author do not consider and include other threats as habitat destruction for many purposes even with more important.

An update of bibliography is required. There are updated information about C. acutus surveys and general information and should be included.

Also, an update of CITES app for some countries should be added.

Reviewer #2: The authors addressed an exciting and essential question, which was population genetics of the American crocodile, to provide relevant information for the conservation and recovery of the species. Results revealed genetic differentiation between the Cuban and Jamaican populations and among the Greater Antillean populations.

I enjoyed reading this manuscript. It is well-written and organized other than errors on links to figure 1. It is better to discuss more how the results would improve the conservation of the American crocodile. It would be helpful for the non-specialist reader (like me) if the authors provide the general-purpose and characteristic of each statistical analysis.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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High levels of population genetic differentiation in the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)

PONE-D-20-06980R1

Dear Dr. Rossi,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Tzen-Yuh Chiang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: The authors addressed all of my concerns. It is a fascinating manuscript, although it is still not crystal clear how the authors would apply this information for the conservation purpose. However, I don’t have any additional concerns about the publication.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No