| comparing pseudo-absences generation techniques in boosted regression trees models for conservation purposes: a case study on amphibians in a protected area. | boosted regression trees (brt) is one of the modelling techniques most recently applied to biodiversity conservation and it can be implemented with presence-only data through the generation of artificial absences (pseudo-absences). in this paper, three pseudo-absences generation techniques are compared, namely the generation of pseudo-absences within target-group background (tgb), testing both the weighted (wtgb) and unweighted (utgb) scheme, and the generation at random (rdm), evaluating their ... | 2017 | 29107997 |
| osteology of the italian endemic spectacled salamanders, salamandrina spp. (amphibia, urodela, salamandridae): selected skeletal elements for palaeontological investigations. | salamandrina perspicillata, from northern and central italy, and salamandrina terdigitata, from southern italy, represent a unique case of endemism among the amphibians of europe. some efforts were made to study the biology and ecology of these species, but only few studies focused on their comparative osteology. in particular, detailed descriptions of isolated skeletal elements and comparisons with other european urodeles are not available in literature hindering the identification of their fos ... | 2020 | 32881082 |
| seasonality and microhabitat selection in a forest-dwelling salamander. | many small terrestrial vertebrates exhibit limited spatial movement and are considerably exposed to changes in local environmental variables. among such vertebrates, amphibians at present experience a dramatic decline due to their limited resilience to environmental change. since the local survival and abundance of amphibians is intrinsically related to the availability of shelters, conservation plans need to take microhabitat requirements into account. in order to gain insight into the terrestr ... | 2017 | 28900670 |
| generalisation within specialization: inter-individual diet variation in the only specialized salamander in the world. | specialization is typically inferred at population and species level but in the last decade many authors highlighted this trait at the individual level, finding that generalist populations can be composed by both generalist and specialist individual. despite hundreds of reported cases of individual specialization there is a complete lack of information on inter-individual diet variation in specialist species. we studied the diet of the italian endemic spectacled salamander (salamandrina perspici ... | 2015 | 26292804 |
| flesh and bone: an integrative approach towards sexual size dimorphism of a terrestrial salamander (genus salamandrina). | males and females face different selection pressures due to a sexually biased investment into reproduction. this often results in different morphologies. sexual size dimorphisms (ssd) can give us important hints on the evolution and biology of a species. salamanders are a perfectly suited system for investigating ssd, including a diversity of reproductive modes and behaviors, and patterns of ssd combined with life history traits in a phylogenetic context help us to understand the evolution of th ... | 2018 | 30184248 |
| extensive unidirectional introgression between two salamander lineages of ancient divergence and its evolutionary implications. | hybridization and introgression, contrary to previous beliefs, are now considered to be widespread processes even among animal species. nonetheless, the range of their possible outcomes and roles in moulding biodiversity patterns are still far from being fully appraised. here we investigated the pattern of hybridization and introgression between salamandrina perspicillata and s. terdigitata, two salamanders endemic to the italian peninsula. using a set of diagnostic or differentiated genetic mar ... | 2014 | 25269625 |