An international study led by a researcher from Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) revisits the island rule in vertebrates and confirms the tendency of small-sized and large-sized species towards gigantism and dwarfism, respectively, in insular ecosystems
? The research team found that insular size shifts were more evident in remote, isolated islands

Grouping is a widespread form of predator defence, with individuals in groups often performing evasive collective movements in response to attack by predators. Individuals in these groups use behavioural rules to coordinate their movements, with visual cues about neighbours’ positions and orientations often informing movement decisions. Although the exact visual cues individuals use to coordinate their movements with neighbours have not yet been decoded, some studies have suggested that...

Parrots and allies (Order Psittaciformes) have evolved an exclusive capacity to synthesize polyene pigments called psittacofulvins at feather follicles, which allows them to produce a striking diversity of pigmentation phenotypes. Melanins are polymers constituting the most abundant pigments in animals, and the sulphurated form (pheomelanin) produces colors that are similar to those produced by psittacofulvins. However, the differential contribution of these pigments to psittaciform...

The study of the relationship between the ecological niche breadth and spatial distribution of species has been a core topic in ecology. Ecological niche breadth measures the degree of specialisation or generalisation of the resources species use (Eltonian definition of ecological niche) or the conditions which they inhabit (Grinnellian definition). Different domains of the ecological niche, such as climatic tolerance, habitat breadth and dietary breadth, have been shown to be positively...

Infection by the human malaria parasite leads to important changes in mosquito phenotypic traits related to vector competence. However, we still lack a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms and, in particular, of the epigenetic basis for these changes. Genome-wide distribution maps of H3K27ac, H3K9ac, H3K9me3 and H3K4me3 by ChIP-seq and the transcriptome by RNA-seq, of midguts from Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes blood-fed uninfected and infected with natural isolates of the human...