Zoology – Open Access Biology Summaries

Monkey business: how pinworms shape genetic diversity in howler monkeys

ft. Inconsistent Capitalisation From: “Co-structure analysis and genetic associations reveal insights into pinworms (Trypanoxyuris) and primates (Alouatta palliata) microevolutionary dynamics”, B. Solórzano-García, E. Vázquez-Domínguez, G. Pérez-Ponce de León & D. Piñero, BMC Ecology and Evolution 21:190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-021-01924-4 One of the most important drivers of evolutionary change is parasitism. Parasitic organisms are by definition detrimental …

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Bright Lights, Bold Lizards? How invasive species thrive in urban areas

From: “Urban invaders are not bold risk-takers: a study of three invasive lizards in Southern California”, B.J. Putman, G.B. Pauly, and D.T. Blumstein (2020), Current Zoology zoaa015 https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa015 Invasive species have become a major headache for conservationists worldwide, causing problems ranging from rats damaging isolated seabird populations by eating their eggs to Japanese knotweed choking …

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The evolutionary reasons why lorikeet parrots have green backs and colourful faces

From: “Macroevolutionary bursts and constraints generate a rainbow in a clade of tropical birds”, J.T. Merwin, G.F. Seeholzer and B.T. Smith (2020), BMC Evolutionary Biology 20:32 Animal colouration is one of the most interesting phenomena in evolutionary biology, since it varies so much between different animals and is influenced by such a wide variety of …

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Elba Room: Surprising Finds in the Partridge Genome

From: “Non-native and hybrid in a changing environment: conservation perspectives for the last Italian red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) population with long natural history”, G. Forcina, M. Geurrine, F. Barbanera (2020), Zoology 138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zool.2019.125740 Over the past few centuries, it has become ever quicker and easier for people to travel across the world. Advances in sailing, …

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How the weather determines a bat’s size

From: “Ambient temperature correlates with geographic variation in body size of least horseshoe bats”, M. Wang, K. Chen, D. Guo, B. Luo, W. Wang, H. Gao, Y. Liu, J. Feng (2020), Current Zoology zoaa004 https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa004 One of the most interesting and frequently recurring problems in biology is how diversity within species. Under natural selection you’d …

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Hatching a plan: how modern genetics shed light on an 80-year old theory

From: “Transcriptome of pleuropodia from locust embryos supports that these organs produce enzymes enabling the larva to hatch” B. Koponová, E. Nichberger and A. Crisp (2020), Frontiers in Zoology 17:4 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-019-0349-2 When developing inside the egg, many insects develop small organs just below their final pair of legs called pleuropodia. These have been found in …

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Where the Wild Dogs Are: how Kenyan Carnivores decide where to live

From: “What wild dogs want: habitat selection differs across life stages and orders of selection in a wide-ranging carnivore”, H.M.K. O’Neill, S.M. Durant and R. Woodroffe (2020) BMC Zoology 5:1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-019-0050-0 African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), also known as painted dogs for their bright brown, black and white patterning, are a highly social species of …

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Predicting what a moth sounds like – just by looking

From: “Characteristics of tiger moth (Erebidae: Arctiinae) anti-bat sounds can be predicted from tymbal morphology”, N.J. Dowdy and W.E. Conner (2019) Frontiers in Zoology 16(45) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-019-0345-6 In the 19th and early 20th Centuries insect-collecting was a fairly popular hobby amongst well-off ladies and gentlemen with spare time on their hands. When a particularly prolific or …

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How shelducks decide on their travel plans

From: “Consistent habitat preference underpins the geographically divergent autumn migration of individual Mongolian common shelducks”, F. Meng, X. Wang, N. Batbayer, T. Natsagdorj, B. Davaasuren, I. Damba, L. Cao, and A.D. Fox (2019), Current Zoology 56 https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoz056 Common Shelducks (Tadorna tadorna) are a largish species of black, white and brown ducks found across Europe, Asia …

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Seeing red: why do all these beetles look like each other?

From: “Persistence of multiple patterns and intraspecific polymorphism in multi-species Müllerian communities of net-winged beetles”, M. Bocek, D. Kusy, M. Motyka and L. Bocak (2019). Frontiers in Zoology 16:38 https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12983-019-0335-8 We’ve all seen warning colouration – the stripes on bees and wasps, the bright hues of snakes and the colourful spots of tropical frogs all …

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