Results were compatible with a TSD pattern with males generated at low and females at high incubation temperatures. Estimated pivotal temperature coincided with the temperature producing lower embryonic mortality, evidencing selection towards balanced sex ratios.  Leer más.

Midwife Toads The Genus Alytes: History, Ecology, Systematics, Captive Breeding (2023). Midwife toads of the genus Alytes form a small group of primarily Iberian anurans. These fascinating toads hold cultural and scientific recognition on account of their distinctive, bell-like peeping call and their unusual strategy of paternal care, all of which trump their small, brown appearance and the rarity of encountering them in the wild. Leer más,

Physiological and metabolic performance are key mediators of the functional response of species to environmental change. Few environments offer such a multifaceted array of stressors as high-altitude habitats, which differ markedly in temperature, water availability, UV radiation and oxygen pressure compared to low-altitude habitats. Species that inhabit large altitudinal gradients are thus excellent models to study how organisms respond to environmental variation. Leer más.

Paleoclimatic models suggested a high instability of the range of this lineage in the last 3 Mya, with niche contractions during the colder glacial periods and expansions following the glacier retreat. This suggested an allopatric diversification process, with subspecies boundaries upon secondary contact maintained by competitive interactions, at least between closely related pairs. The great mountain systems of the Mediterranean Peninsulas constituted stable refugia during the Pliocene–Pleistocene cycles, favouring the evolution of endemic subclades.  Leer más.

Here, the gradual deterioration of one of the network’s main ponds is described in detail by characterizing vegetation patterns within the pond’s basin using orthophotos taken between 1956 and 2019. Leer más.