Non-lethal scute transcriptomics reveals biomarker candidates for environmental stress in Mexican Morelet's crocodiles.
Aquatic ecosystems in southeastern Mexico face increasing chemical pollution, yet non-lethal molecular tools to monitor native reptile populations remain limited. We profiled RNA-seq from non-lethal caudal scute biopsies of 43 Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii) across six wild populations and a captive referen...