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Sex allocation theory predicts that in small mating groups simultaneous hermaphroditism is the optimal form of gender expression. Under these conditions, male allocation is predicted to be very low and overall...
The song of oscines provides an extensively studied model of age-dependent behaviour changes. Male and female receivers might use song characteristics to obtain information about the age of a signaller, which ...
Animals are capable of using information from recent experiences to modify subsequent behavioral responses. Animals' ability or propensity to modify their behavior in the light of new information has repeatedl...
The marine α-taxonomist often encounters two problems. Firstly, the "environmental dirt" that is frequently present on the specimens and secondly the difficulty in distinguishing key-features due to the unifor...
While blood parasites are common in many birds in the wild, some groups seem to be much less affected. Seabirds, in particular, have often been reported free from blood parasites, even in the presence of poten...
Taxonomy or biological systematics is the basic scientific discipline of biology, postulating hypotheses of identity and relationships, on which all other natural sciences dealing with organisms relies. However, ...
Maternal effects mediated by egg size and quality may profoundly affect offspring development and performance, and mothers may adjust egg traits according to environmental or social influences. In avian specie...
The mechanisms underlying the switching from an asexual to a sexual mode of reproduction, and vice versa, remain unknown in metazoans. In planarians, asexual worms acquire cryptic sexuality when fed with sexual w...
Copepods outnumber every other multicellular animal group. They are critical components of the world's freshwater and marine ecosystems, sensitive indicators of local and global climate change, key ecosystem s...
Insects are known to rely on terrestrial landmarks for navigation. Landmarks are used to chart a route or pinpoint a goal. The distant panorama, however, is often thought not to guide navigation directly durin...
Hybridization can have complex effects on evolutionary dynamics in ants because of the combination of haplodiploid sex-determination and eusociality. While hybrid non-reproductive workers have been found in a ...
In the adult males of helminthomorph millipedes, one or two pairs of legs in the anterior part of the trunk are strongly modified into sexual appendages (gonopods) used for sperm transfer during the copula. Go...
Near the end of the nineteenth century the hypothesis was presented for the homology of book lungs in arachnids and book gills in the horseshoe crab. Early studies with the light microscope showed that book gi...
The now thriving field of neurophylogeny that links the morphology of the nervous system to early evolutionary events relies heavily on detailed descriptions of the neuronal architecture of taxa under scrutiny...
While the gene flow in some organisms is strongly affected by physical barriers and geographical distance, other highly mobile species are able to overcome such constraints. In southern South America, the Ande...
The spider Cupiennius salei (Keyserling 1877) has become an important study organism in evolutionary and developmental biology. However, the available staging system for its embryonic development is difficult to ...
Evolutionary arms-races between avian brood parasites and their hosts have typically resulted in some spectacular adaptations, namely remarkable host ability to recognize and reject alien eggs and, in turn, so...
Cooperation and conflict in social insects are closely linked to the genetic structure of the colony. Kin selection theory predicts conflict over the production of males between the workers and the queen and b...
Holocentrids (squirrelfish and soldierfish) are vocal reef fishes whose calls and sound-producing mechanisms have been studied in some species only. The present study aims to compare sound-producing mechanisms...
Ectoprocta is a large lophotrochozoan clade of colonial suspension feeders comprising over 5.000 extant species. Their phylogenetic position within the Lophotrochzoa remains controversially discussed, but also...
Dispersal rates, i.e. the effective number of dispersing individuals per unit time, are the product of dispersal capacity, i.e. a species physiological potential for dispersal, dispersal behaviour, i.e. the de...
Susceptibility to parasite infection affects fitness-related processes, such as mate choice and survival, yet its genetic regulation remains poorly understood. Interleukin-4 (IL4) plays a central role in the humo...
Rescuing amphibian diversity is an achievable conservation challenge. Disease mitigation is one essential component of population management. Here we assess existing disease mitigation strategies, some in earl...
The genetic structure of the marble trout Salmo trutta marmoratus, an endemic salmonid of northern Italy and the Balkan peninsula, was explored at the macro- and micro-scale level using a combination of mitochond...
Magnetic orientation is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom, but has been little studied in anuran amphibians. We collected Common Toads (Bufo bufo) during their migration towards their sp...
An opinion currently shared by taxonomists and non taxonomists alike is that the work of inventorying biodiversity is unbalanced: firstly, in favour of countries in which taxonomy has been studied for a long t...
The axial musculoskeletal system represents the plesiomorphic locomotor engine of the vertebrate body, playing a central role in locomotion. In craniates, the evolution of the postcranial skeleton is character...
The detailed interpretation of mass phenomena such as human escape panic or swarm behaviour in birds, fish and insects requires detailed analysis of the 3D movements of individual participants. Here, we descri...
There is a long-standing controversial about how parthenogenetic species can be defined in absence of a generally accepted species concept for this reproductive mode. An integrative approach was suggested, com...
Most species of birds exhibit well-defined seasonality in their various physiological and behavioral functions like reproduction, molt, bill color etc. such that they occur at the most appropriate time of the ...
The polychaete annelid Platynereis dumerilii is an emerging model organism for the study of molecular developmental processes, evolution, neurobiology and marine biology. Annelids belong to the Lophotrochozoa, th...
The nemertean pilidium is one of the most notable planktotrophic larval types among marine invertebrates. The juvenile forms inside the larva from a series of isolated rudiments, called the imaginal discs. The...
Invertebrate nervous systems are highly disparate between different taxa. This is reflected in the terminology used to describe them, which is very rich and often confusing. Even very general terms such as 'br...
Mating plugs that males place onto the female genital tract are generally assumed to prevent remating with other males. Mating plugs are usually explained as a consequence of male-male competition in multiply ...
Intra-specific competition occurs in all animal species and can lead to escalated conflict. Overt fighting entails the risk of injury or death, and is usually avoided through the use of conventions or pre-figh...
The identification of vast numbers of unknown organisms using DNA sequences becomes more and more important in ecological and biodiversity studies. In this context, a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c ox...
Several lineages within the Crustacea conquered land independently during evolution, thereby requiring physiological adaptations for a semi-terrestrial or even a fully terrestrial lifestyle. Birgus latro Linnaeus...
European robins, Erithacus rubecula, show two types of directional responses to the magnetic field: (1) compass orientation that is based on radical pair processes and lateralized in favor of the right eye and (2...
In the Namib Desert fog represents an alternative water source. This is utilised by Darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) that employ different strategies for obtaining the fog water. Some dig trenches in the sand,...
In free-living flatworms somatic differentiated cells do not divide, and a separate population of stem cells (called neoblasts) is responsible for cell proliferation and renewal. In cestodes, there is evidence...
Theria (marsupials and placental mammals) are characterized by a highly mobile pectoral girdle in which the scapula has been shown to be an important propulsive element during locomotion. Shoulder function and...
Ants typically distinguish nestmates from non-nestmates based on the perception of colony-specific chemicals, particularly cuticular hydrocarbons present on the surface of the ants' exoskeleton. These recognit...
Territoriality functions to monopolize access to resources including mates, but is costly in terms of energy and time investment. Some species reduce these costs by being less aggressive towards their neighbou...
In social insects, the queen is essential to the functioning and homeostasis of the colony. This influence has been demonstrated to be mediated through pheromone communication. However, the only social insect ...
Members of Family Nereididae have complex neural morphology exemplary of errant polychaetes and are leading research models in the investigation of annelid nervous systems. However, few studies focus on the de...
Taxonomy is the biological discipline that identifies, describes, classifies and names extant and extinct species and other taxa. Nowadays, species taxonomy is confronted with the challenge to fully incorporat...
During the non-breeding period, many birds migrate to milder areas, found closer to the equator than their breeding sites. Opposite movements are very rare. In the Southern Ocean, the abundance of 13C declines ma...
The allosteric respiratory protein hemocyanin occurs in gastropods as tubular di-, tri- and multimers of a 35 × 18 nm, ring-like decamer with a collar complex at one opening. The decamer comprises five subunit...
Paired mushroom bodies, an unpaired central complex, and bilaterally arranged clusters of olfactory glomeruli are among the most distinctive components of arthropod neuroarchitecture. Mushroom body neuropils, ...
Planktonic life history stages of spiralians share some muscular, nervous and ciliary system characters in common. The distribution of these characters is patchy and can be interpreted either as the result of ...
Frontiers in Zoology