| phylogeography of aegean green toads (bufo viridis subgroup): continental hybrid swarm vs. insular diversification with discovery of a new island endemic. | debated aspects in speciation research concern the amount of gene flow between incipient species under secondary contact and the modes by which post-zygotic isolation accumulates. secondary contact zones of allopatric lineages, involving varying levels of divergence, provide natural settings for comparative studies, for which the aegean (eastern mediterranean) geography offers unique scenarios. in palearctic green toads (bufo viridis subgroup or bufotes), plio-pleistocene (~ 2.6 mya) diverged sp ... | 2018 | 29720079 |
| profound genetic divergence and asymmetric parental genome contributions as hallmarks of hybrid speciation in polyploid toads. | the evolutionary causes and consequences of allopolyploidization, an exceptional pathway to instant hybrid speciation, are poorly investigated in animals. in particular, when and why hybrid polyploids versus diploids are produced, and constraints on sources of paternal and maternal ancestors, remain underexplored. using the palearctic green toad radiation (including bisexually reproducing species of three ploidy levels) as model, we generate a range-wide multi-locus phylogeny of 15 taxa and pres ... | 2018 | 29436499 |
| an unknown collection of lizards from afghanistan. | afghanistan is a herpetologically understudied country with few published papers since the end of "afghanistan's golden age" from the 1930s to the 1970s. although a detailed checklist of the herpetofauna of the country, based on exploration of herpetodiversity using biodiversity archives, has been published recently, there still exist additional historical data that have not been considered. this is the case for a so far unknown collection of lizards from afghanistan deposited in the herpetologi ... | 2019 | 31558882 |
| comparative assessment of the antioxidative defense system in subadult and adult anurans: a lesson from the bufotes viridis toad. | during their complex life cycle, anurans are faced with various physiological and biochemical demands that can result in increased free radical production. the antioxidative system (aos), assumes a central role in protection from oxidative stress, and increased knowledge of its response would allow us to identify and quantify underlying costs of free radical production. in this study, we compared the patterns and levels of integration of the aos during two life stages of bufotes viridis toads fr ... | 2018 | 30502836 |