The seventh episode of the SquaMates podcast—more amazing news, including five new herp genomes and a new siren, and a discussion that focusses on taxonomy! The show is hosted by Mark D. Scherz, Gabriel Ugueto, and Ethan Kocak. In this seventh episode, we talk about a selection of new and newsworthy papers, including a new siren, five new reptile genomes (Lonesome George and the high-quality tegu genome!), and lizards in the Andes. Our main discussion is all about taxonomy, which we have a lot of strong opinions about. Our #HERper is the amazing Dr. Helen Beulah Thompson Gaige, an instrumental woman in the establishment of the American Society for Ichthyology and Herpetology! Episode notes sometimes get clipped on your device or by your podcast provider; for full (extensive) notes (and references), go to http://www.squamatespod.com Works in Frogress: Nothing to report for this episode! We are all working hard as always, but have nothing to show for this month. Tragic. Breaking Newts References: Graham, S.P., Kline, R., Steen, D.A. & Kelehear, C. (2018) Description of an extant salamander from the Gulf Coastal Plain of North America: The Reticulated Siren, Siren reticulata. 13, e0207460. Esquerré D, Brennan IG, Catullo RA, Torres-Pérez F, Keogh JS (in press) How mountains shape biodiversity: the role of the Andes in biogeography, diversification and reproductive biology in South America’s most species rich lizard radiation (Squamata: Liolaemidae). Evolution. 10.1111/evo.13657 Kolora, S.R.R., Weigert, A., Saffari, A., Kehr, S., Costa, M.B.W., Spröer, C., Indrischek, H., Chintalapati, M., Lohse, K., Doose, G., Overmann, J., Bunk, B., Bleidorn, C., Grimm-Seyfarth, A., Henle, K., Nowick, K., Faria, R., Stadler, P.F. & Schlegel, M. (in press) Divergent evolution in the genomes of closely-related lacertids, Lacerta viridis and L. bilineata and implications for speciation. GigaScience, giy160. 10.1093/gigascience/giy160 Quesada, V., Freitas-Rodríguez, S., Miller, J., Pérez-Silva, J.G., Jiang, Z.-F., Tapia, W., Santiago-Fernández, O., Campos-Iglesias, D., Kuderna, L.F., Quinzin, M., Álvarez, M.G., Carrero, D., Beheregaray, L.B., Gibbs, J.P., Chiari, Y., Glaberman, S., Ciofi, C., Araujo-Voces, M., Myoral, P., Arango, J.R., Tamargo-Gómez, I., Roiz-Valle, D., Pascual-Torner, M., Evans, B.R., Edwards, D.L., Garrick, R.C., Russello, M.A., Poulakakis, N., Gaughran, S.J., Rueda, D.O., Bretones, G., Marquès-Bonet, T., White, K.P., Caccone, A. & López-Otín, C. (in press) Giant tortoise genomes provide insights into longevity and age-related disease. Nature Ecology & Evolution. Roscito, J.G., Sameith, K., Pippel, M., Francoijs, K.-J., Winkler, S., Dahl, A., Papoutsoglou, G., Myers, G. & Hiller, M. (in press) The genome of the tegu lizard Salvator merianae: combining Illumina, PacBio, and optical mapping data to generate a highly contiguous assembly. GigaScience, giy141. 10.1093/gigascience/giy141 Roscito, J.G., Sameith, K., Parra, G., Langer, B.E., Petzold, A., Moebius, C., Bickle, M., Rodrigues, M.T. & Hiller, M. (2018) Phenotype loss is associated with widespread divergence of the gene regulatory landscape in evolution. Nature Communications, 9, 4737. 10.1038/s41467-018-07122-z Bergmann, P.J. & Morinaga, G. (in press) The convergent evolution of snake-like forms by divergent evolutionary pathways in squamate reptiles. Evolution. 10.1111/evo.13651 Ali, J.R. & Meiri, S.