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In syllids (Annelida, Syllidae), the regenerative blastema was subject of many studies in the mid and late XXth century. This work on syllid regeneration showed that the blastema is developed by a process of dedi...
Trophic interactions are key processes, which determine the ecological function and performance of organisms. Many decapod crustaceans feed on plant material as a source for essential nutrients, e.g. polyunsat...
Animal communities have complex patterns of ecological segregation at different levels according to food resources, habitats, behavior, and activity patterns. Understanding these patterns among the community i...
Interannual variation in resource abundance has become more unpredictable, and food shortages have increasingly occurred in the recent decades. However, compared to seasonal fluctuations in resource abundance,...
For diurnal animals that heavily rely on vision, a nocturnal resting strategy that offers protection when vision is compromised, is crucial. We found a population of a common European jumping spider (Evarcha arcu...
Corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) is a high-affinity plasma protein that binds glucocorticoids (GCs) and regulates their biological activities. The structural and functional properties of CBG are crucial t...
Birds exhibit an enormous diversity in adult skull shape (disparity), while their embryonic chondrocrania are considered to be conserved across species. However, there may be chondrocranial features that are d...
The caudal fin of teleosts is a highly diverse morphological structure and a valuable source of information for comparative analyses. Within the Atherinomorpha a high variation of conditions of the caudal-fin ...
Mating generally occurs after individuals reach adulthood. In many arthropods including spiders, the adult stage is marked by a final moult after which the genitalia are fully developed and functional. In seve...
Postzygote isolation is an important part of species isolation, especially for fish, and it can be divided into two aspects: genetic isolation and ecological isolation. With the increase in parental genetic di...
The jointed appendage is a key novelty in arthropod evolution and arthropod legs are known to vary enormously in relation to function. Among centipedes, the ultimate legs always are distinctly different from l...
We tested the hypothesis that deep-sea fishes have poorly mineralized bone relative to shallower-dwelling species using data from a single family that spans a large depth range. The family Liparidae (snailfish...
Anhydrobiosis can be described as an adaptation to lack of water that enables some organisms, including tardigrades, to survive extreme conditions, even some that do not exist on Earth. The cellular mechanisms...
Understanding the impacts of past and contemporary climate change on biodiversity is critical for effective conservation. Amphibians have weak dispersal abilities, putting them at risk of habitat fragmentation...
Worker reproduction has an important influence on the social cohesion and efficiency of social insect colonies, but its role in the success of invasive ants has been neglected. We used observations of 233 capt...
Competition is considered to rely on the value attributed to resources by animals, but the influence of extrinsic stressors on this value remains unexplored. Although natural or anthropogenic environmental str...
The theory of delayed life history effects assumes that phenotype of adult individual results from environmental conditions experienced at birth and as juvenile. In seasonal environments, being born late in th...
The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is the principal vector of medically-important infectious viruses that cause severe illness such as dengue fever, yellow fever and Zika. The transmission potential of mos...
Meligethes are pollen-beetles associated with flowers of Rosaceae as larvae. This genus currently consists of 63 known species in two subgenera, Meligethes and Odonthogethes, predominantly occurring in the easter...
The connection between testosterone and territoriality in free-living songbirds has been well studied in a reproductive context, but less so outside the breeding season. To assess the effects of seasonal andro...
Insects regulate their body temperature mostly behaviourally, by changing posture or microhabitat. Usually they use heat that is already present in the environment. Sometimes, however, they may manipulate the ...
Nesting in large aggregations provides several important advantages for colonially breeding birds. However, it also imposes certain costs, associated with facilitated pathogen transmission and social stress. T...
Invasive species bring a serious effect on local biodiversity, ecosystems, and even human health and safety. Although the genetic signatures of historical range expansions have been explored in an array of spe...
Captive facilities such as zoos are uniquely instrumental in conservation efforts. To fulfill their potential as bastions for conservation, zoos must preserve captive populations as appropriate proxies for the...
Why a variety of social animals emit foraging-associated calls during group foraging remains an open question. These vocalizations may be used to recruit conspecifics to food patches (i.e. food advertisement h...
The rutting vocal display of male impala Aepyceros melampus is unique for its complexity among ruminants. This study investigates bouts of rutting calls produced towards potential mates and rival males by free-ra...
Condition indices (CIs) are used in ecological studies as a way of measuring an individual animal’s health and fitness. Noninvasive CIs are estimations of a relative score of fat content or rely on a ratio of ...
The Chinese monal (Lophophorus lhuysii) is an endangered bird species, with a wild population restricted to the mountains in southwest China, and only one known captive population in the world. We investigated th...
In small hibernators, global downregulation of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is involved in modulating neuronal signaling, feeding behavior, energy metabolism, and circannual rhythms, has been report...
The feeding apparatus of salamanders consists mainly of the cranium, mandible, teeth, hyobranchial apparatus and the muscles of the cranial region. The morphology of the feeding apparatus in turn determines th...
Explanations for the ecological dominance of ants generally focus on the benefits of division of labour and cooperation during foraging. However, the principal innovation of ants relative to their wasp ancesto...
Fitness is strongly related to locomotor performance, which can determine success in foraging, mating, and other critical activities. Locomotor performance on different substrates is likely to require differen...
The initiation of desert conditions in the Tarim Basin in China since the late Miocene has led to the significant genetic structuring of local organisms. Tarim Red Deer (Cervus elaphus yarkandensis, TRD) have ada...
Metamorphic climax is the crucial stage of amphibian metamorphosis responsible for the morphological and functional changes necessary for transition to a terrestrial habitat. This developmental period is sensi...
Growth trajectories should be adapted to selective factors of each species’ environment. However, major shaping forces of growth and development are unclear, especially when studying several traits at once. Bi...
Despite the diverse morphology of the adult squamate naso-palatal complex – consisting of the nasal cavity, vomeronasal organ (VNO), choanal groove, lacrimal duct and superficial palate – little is known about...
Understanding how wild species respond to novel situations with associated risk can provide valuable insights for inter-specific behavioral variation and associations with pace-of-life (POL). Rodents, a global...
Behaviour during hibernation contributes to energy conservation in winter. Hibernating bats select roosts with respect to physiological and environmental stressors, available local microclimate and species-spe...
Temperature affects many aspects of performance in poikilotherms, including how prey respond when encountering predators. Studies of anti-predator responses in fish mainly have focused on behaviour, whereas ph...
Morphological novelties have been acquired through evolutionary processes and related to the adaptation of new life-history strategies with new functions of the bodyparts. Cephalopod molluscs such as octopuses...
Invasive species are of substantial concern because they may threaten ecosystem stability and biodiversity worldwide. Not surprisingly, studies examining the drivers of biological invasion have increased in nu...
Identifying the factors that contribute to divergence among populations in mate preferences is important for understanding of the manner in which premating reproductive isolation might arise and how this isola...
The gut is the major organ for nutrient absorption and immune response in the body of animals. Although effects of fasting on the gut functions have been extensively studied in model animals (e.g. mice), littl...
The ground pattern underlying the nervous system of the last common ancestor in annelids was long thought to be settled, consisting of a dorsal brain, circumoesophageal connectives and a subepithelial, ladder-...
Ascidians (phylum Chordata, class Ascidiacea) represent the closest living invertebrate relatives of the vertebrates and constitute an important model for studying the evolution of chordate development. The so...
With more than 30,000 species, teleosts comprise about half of today’s living vertebrates, enriched with a wide set of adaptations to all aquatic systems. Their evolution was marked by modifications of their t...
Using Froude numbers (Fr) and relative stride length (stride length: hip height), trackways have been widely used to determine the speed and gait of an animal. This approach, however, is limited by the ability to...
The “German Darwin” Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) was a key figure during the first “Darwinian revolution“, a time when the foundations of the modern evolutionary theory were laid. It was Haeckel, who crucially co...
Sirtuins (SIRTs) are master regulators of metabolism, and their expression patterns in gilthead sea bream (GSB) reveal different tissue metabolic capabilities and changes in energy status. Since little is know...
Obligate brood parasites exert strong selective pressure on target hosts. In response, hosts typically evolve anti-parasitism strategies, of which egg recognition is one of the most efficient. Generally, host ...
Frontiers in Zoology