Adaptive genetic diversity is a key factor in conservation planning as it relates to the evolutionary potential of populations and their responses to environmental change. Developments in landscape genomics have fostered a proliferation of tests for selection that aim to identify candidate adaptive markers in natural populations. However, these tests rely on different assumptions and may produce contrasting results. Leer más.
The western subspecies clade of the Mediterranean Spur-thighed Tortoise, Testudo graeca (Family Testudinidae) is comprised of small to medium-sized subspecies (maximum straight carapace lengths [SCL] <25 cm) native to northern Africa and southwestern Europe. In North Africa, Testudo graeca occurs in Mediterranean climates from humid to arid. In the Iberian Peninsula, it is restricted to subhumid, semi-arid, and arid regions. In North Africa, it reaches an altitude of 2090 m in the Haut Atlas (Morocco); in the Iberian Peninsula, it occurs at low elevations below 500 m. Leer más.
Our COI metabarcoding approach increased taxonomic resolution and supported a generalist diet in S. salamandra. Between primers, there were no significant differences in the diversity and richness of prey detected. We observed differences in the prevalence of prey identified between sampling regions both in our study and in other studies of S. salamandra diet. This COI metabarcoding study provides recommendations and resources for subsequent research using DNA metabarcoding to study amphibian diets. Leer más.
The presence of Bd in North Africa was described in 2011 and this included the distribution range of the endemic Moroccan midwife toad (Alytes maurus). Here we report new Bd positive occurrences across several distant regions of Morocco, augment the known number of infected species, and describe the first evidence of lethal chytridiomycosis in A. maurus. Thumsová et al. 2021. Thumsova_etal22
Amphibians are considered excellent indicators of ecological and climatic changes with a remarkable phenotypic plasticity. The study of such adaptative capacities is central to understanding the climate and environmental changes that occurred during the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, at around 1.2 Ma, when the persistence of subtropical ecosystems in Europe came to an end, and several reptile and tree taxa were extirpated. The SE Spain sites in the Guadix-Baza Basin offer an exceptional opportunity for studying this change, in addition to the significant findings made in this area in the field of human evolution. Ir al enlace
