Matching habitat choice is a particular form of habitat selection based on self?assessment of local performance that offers individuals a means to optimize the match of phenotype to the environment. Despite the advantages of this mechanism in terms of increased local adaptation, examples from natural populations are extremely rare. One possible reason for the apparent rarity of matching habitat choice is that it might be manifest only in those segments of a population for which the cost of a...

For the first time the unique coloured pattern of the iris of buttonquails (Turnicidae) is described. This unique pattern is due to the presence of a dark-brown crescent in the iris below the pupil, whose form and extent varies in response to light conditions. This dark crescent is present in the eyes of all individuals of Turnix species at every life stage, a consistency that has not been previously observed for the iridal marks found in other avian groups.

Identification of the genomic regions under selection during dog domestication is extremely challenging because the demographic fluctuations associated with domestication can produce signals in polymorphism data that mimic those imposed by selective sweeps. Here it is performed the first analysis of selection on the dog lineage that explicitly incorporates a demographic model, that by controlling for the rate of false discovery, more robustly identifies targets of selection.