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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 ...
Non-native species are often introduced in cities, where they take advantage of microclimatic conditions, resources provided by humans, and competitor/predator release to establish and proliferate. However, na...
The chemosymbiotic gastropod Alviniconcha (Provannidae), first described in 1988, is one of the most emblematic hydrothermal-vent taxa described from the Central Indian Ridge and the Southwest (SW) Pacific. Symbi...
Sturgeons (Acipenseriformes) are polyploid chondrostean fish that constitute an important model species for studying development and evolution in vertebrates. To better understand the mechanisms of reproductio...
Courtship vocalizations are used by males of many species to attract and influence the behavior of potential mating partners. Our aim here was to investigate the modulation and reproductive consequences of cou...
Severe hypoxia induces a series of stress responses in mammals; however, subterranean rodents have evolved several adaptation mechanisms of energy metabolisms and O2 utilization for hypoxia. Mammalian brains show...
Genetic and ecological factors influence morphology, and morphology is compatible with function. The morphology and bite performance of skulls of bats show a number of characteristic feeding adaptations. The g...
Research of many mammal species tends to focus on single habitats, reducing knowledge of ecological flexibility. The Javan lutung (Trachypithecus auratus) is considered a strict forest primate, and little is know...
For nearly a decade, the metazoan-focused research community has explored the impacts of ocean acidification (OA) on marine animals, noting that changes in ocean chemistry can impact calcification, metabolism,...
The astonishing variety of sounds that birds can produce has been the subject of many studies aiming to identify the underlying anatomical and physical mechanisms of sound production. An interesting feature of...
Pleuropodia are limb-derived glandular organs that transiently appear on the first abdominal segment in embryos of insects from majority of “orders”. They are missing in the genetic model Drosophila and little is...
Amphibians are one of the most susceptible groups to climate change as their development occurs in aquatic environments or in microhabitats with high humidity. Accordingly, our primary objective was to investi...
In animals with altricial offspring, most growth occurs after birth and may be optimized by post-natal maternal care. Maternal effects on growth may be influenced by individual characteristics of the mothers, ...
The apical organ is the most prominent neural structure in spiralian larvae. Although it has been thoroughly investigated in larvae of the class Pilidiophora in phylum Nemertea, studies on its structure in oth...
The geometric patterns that adorn the shells of many phylogenetically disparate molluscan species are comprised of pigments that span the visible spectrum. Although early chemical studies implicated melanin as...
Brachyuran crabs can effectively modulate cardiac stroke volume independently of heart rate in response to abiotic drivers. Non-invasive techniques can help to improve the understanding of cardiac performance ...
Acoustic signals are used by many animals to transmit information. Variation in the acoustic characteristics of these signals often covaries with morphology and can relay information about an individual’s fitn...
White-nose Syndrome (WNS) is a mycosis caused by a cutaneous infection with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). It produces hibernation mortality rates of 75–98% in 4 bats: Myotis lucifugus, M. septentr...
The origin of birds is marked by a significant decrease in body size along with an increase in relative forelimb size. However, before the evolution of flight, both traits may have already been related: It has...
Social isolation, i.e., the deprivation of social contact, is a highly stressful circumstance that affects behavioral and functional brain development in social animals. Cognitive flexibility, one of the essen...
Fat storage is required for the life cycle of many organisms. The primary fat depot for most vertebrates is white adipose tissue. However, in primitive vertebrates (e.g., agnathan group and elasmobranchs), the...
Within-species skull shape variation of marsupial mammals is widely considered low and strongly size-dependent (allometric), possibly due to developmental constraints arising from the altricial birth of marsup...
Nervous tissue is an inherent component of the many specialized genital structures for transferring sperm directly into the female’s body. However, the male copulatory organ of spiders was considered a puzzlin...
In contrast to traditional models of purifying selection and a single aposematic signal in Müllerian complexes, some communities of unprofitable prey contain members with multiple aposematic patterns. Processe...
Although the sensory drive hypothesis can explain the geographic variation in echolocation frequencies of some bat species, the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still unclear. The three line...
Pallenopsis patagonica (Hoek, 1881) is a morphologically and genetically variable sea spider species whose taxonomic classification is challenging. Currently, it is considered as a species complex including sever...
Novel feeding adaptations often facilitate adaptive radiation and diversification. But the evolutionary origins of such feeding adaptations can be puzzling if they require concordant change in multiple compone...
In Southeast Asia, males of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens have been selected across centuries for paired-staged fights. During the selection process, matched for size males fight in a small tank until...
Monogononta is a large clade of rotifers comprised of diverse morphological forms found in a wide range of ecological habitats. Most monogonont species display cyclical parthenogenesis, where generations of as...
Large numbers of endemic species inhabit subantarctic continental coasts and islands that are characterised by highly variable environmental conditions. Southern hemisphere populations of taxa that are morphol...
Selecting high-quality habitat and the optimal time to reproduce can increase individual fitness and is a strong evolutionary factor shaping animal populations. However, few studies have investigated the inter...
Over the last years, the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis has developed into an attractive marine animal model for evolutionary developmental studies that offers several advantages over existing experiment...
Selective landscapes in rivers are made up by an array of selective forces that vary from source to downstream regions or between seasons, and local/temporal variation in fitness maxima can result in gradual s...
The trochozoan excitatory peptide (EP) and its ortholog, the arthropod CCHamide, are neuropeptides that are only investigated in very few animal species. Previous studies on different trochozoan species focuse...
Evidence from humans suggests that the expression of emotions can regulate social interactions and promote coordination within a group. Despite its evolutionary importance, social communication of emotions in ...
Birdsong, a key model in animal communication studies, has been the focus of intensive research. Song traits are commonly considered to reflect differences in individual or territory quality. Yet, few studies ...
Animals inhabiting high altitudes consistently show slow life-histories. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis posits behavioural, physiological and/or morphological traits that mediate the trade-off bet...
Mechanical defenses are very common and diverse in prey species, for example in oribatid mites. Here, the probably most complex form of morphological defense is known as ptychoidy, that enables the animals to ...
One set of the developmentally important Doublesex and Male-abnormal-3 Related Transcription factors (Dmrt) is subject of intense research, because of their role in sex-determination and sexual differentiation...
Male-male aerial contests of territorial butterflies are difficult to explain by major contest models based on game theory because of butterflies’ apparent inability to inflict substantial costs on their oppon...
Mammals in the far north are exposed to extreme seasonal changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature and photoperiod, which have notable effects on animal physiology and behaviour. The wolverine (Gul...
Poaching is a prominent source of ‘hidden hurdles’, cryptic impacts of human activities that may hinder the conservation of animal populations. Estimating poaching mortality is challenging, as the evidence for...
Mucus and mucus glands are important features of the amphibian cutis. In tree frogs, the mucus glands and their secretions are crucial components of the adhesive digital pads of these animals. Despite a variet...
Immunohistochemical studies of hearts from the lesser spotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula (Chondrichthyes) revealed that the pan-myosin heavy chain (pan-MyHC) antibody MF20 homogeneously labels all the myocard...
Lizards are excellent models to study the adaptations of the visual system to different scenarios, and surface-dwelling representatives have been relatively well studied. In contrast, very little is known abou...
Onychophorans, commonly known as velvet worms, display a remarkable diversity of reproductive strategies including oviparity, and placentotrophic, lecithotrophic, matrotrophic or combined lecithotrophic/matrot...
Marine and intertidal organisms face the rhythmic environmental changes induced by tides. The large amplitude of spring tides that occur around full and new moon may threaten nests of ground-nesting birds. The...
The Data Descriptor to this article has been published in Scientific Data 2020 7:149
Researchers often document wildlife surveys using images. These images contain data that can be used to understand alterative research objectives, even years after they were originally captured. We have develo...
Animal vocal signals encode very important information for communication during which the importance of temporal and spectral characteristics of vocalizations is always asymmetrical and species-specific. Howev...
In mammals, the hibernating state is characterized by biochemical adjustments, which include metabolic rate depression and a shift in the primary fuel oxidized from carbohydrates to lipids. A number of studies...
Frontiers in Zoology