About the Authors

Shai Pilosof

spilosof@post.bgu.ac.il

Affiliation Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Carl W. Dick

Affiliation Department of Biology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States of America

Carmi Korine

Affiliation Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Bruce D. Patterson

Affiliation Department of Zoology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Boris R. Krasnov

Affiliation Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SP CK BRK. Analyzed the data: SP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CWD BP. Wrote the paper: SP CWD CK BDP BRK. Compiled the data set: SP CWD BDP.