Fine-tuned by millions of years of evolution, snake venoms have frightened but also
fascinated humanity and nowadays they constitute potential resources for drug …

Despite decades of molecular research, phylogenetic relationships in Palearctic vipers
(genus Vipera) still essentially rely on a few loci, such as mitochondrial barcoding genes …

The designation of taxonomic units has important implications for the understanding and
conservation of biodiversity. Eurasian vipers are a monophyletic group of viperid snakes …

The main features of today's Eurasian snake fauna were assembled during the Miocene (~
23–5 Ma), and so this epoch is critical for understanding the origins and early evolution of …

Deep learning has emerged as a robust tool for automating feature extraction from three-
dimensional images, offering an efficient alternative to labour-intensive and potentially …

Abstract Within the Balkan Peninsula, topographic and climatic agents have promoted
biodiversity and shaped the speciation history of many ectotherms. Here, we targeted an …

The desert vipers of the genus Cerastes are a small clade of medically important venomous
snakes within the family Viperidae. According to published morphological and molecular …

The fossilized birth–death (FBD) process provides an ideal model for inferring phylogenies
from both extant and fossil taxa. Using this approach, fossils are directly integrated into the …

Snakes are known as highly fear-evoking animals, eliciting preferential attention and fast
detection in humans. We examined the human fear response to snakes in the context of both …

Aim The expansion of open habitats during the mid‐Miocene has been hypothesized as a
driver of allopatric speciation for many African taxa. This habitat‐dependent mode of …