Safety first. There is an invisible enemy that is devastating the European populations of salamanders and reptiles. We are talking about Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans; a fungus which causes a deadly infectious disease for these animals. Asian amphibians carried this disease when they were brought here as pets. But even if the fungus has settled in Europe, it is still possible to prevent local species from catching it. The Bern Convention has encouraged its Contracting Parties to improve their biosafety practices following a set of Recommendations.  Leer más.

Os vindeiros 23 e 24 de novembro desenvolveremos na Escola Universitaria de Enxeñería Forestal do Campus de Pontevedra a segunda edición da Xornadas Galegas de Patrimonio Natural e Biodiversidade. O día 23 está adicado a presentación de varios relatores e o día 24 proxectarase no Museo de Pontevedra o documental «El legado de las rías gallegas», de D. Jorge J. Candán. Leer más.

Aspaldiko partez sarrera berri batekin nator, aurten ikusitxako sugegorri batzuen argazkixak erakusteko asmotan. 

Después de un tiempo sin publicar nada vuelvo con una nueva entrada, esta vez para mostraros varias fotos de algunas víboras que he visto este año. Leer más.

Results from ecological niche modelling show that the hybrid zone is in a climatically homogenous area with suitable habitat for the species, suggesting that contact between the two lineages is unlikely to occur further south as their distributions are currently separated by an extensive area of unfavourable habitat. Taken together, our findings suggest the genetic structure of this hybrid zone results from the interplay of historical (biogeographic) and population‐level processes. The narrowness and coincidence of genetic clines can be explained by weak selection against hybrids and reflect a degree of reproductive isolation that is consistent with cryptic speciation. Leer más.

Assuming that midwife toads are able to disperse in the area of contact, we conclude that these taxa experience partial reproductive isolation and represent incipient species, i.e. Alytes almogavarii and Alytes obstetricans. Interestingly, their evolutionary age and mitochondrial divergence fall below the thresholds proposed in molecular systematics studies, emphasizing the difficulty of predicting the outcome of secondary contacts between young lineages entering the grey zone of speciation. Leer más.