Biodiversity analyses can greatly benefit from coherent species delimitation schemes and up-
to-date distribution data. In this article, we have made the daring attempt to delimit and map …

The last species list of the European herpetofauna was published by Speybroeck, Beukema
and Crochet (2010). In the meantime, ongoing research led to numerous taxonomic …

Vocalizations of anuran amphibians have received much attention in studies of behavioral
ecology and physiology, but also provide informative characters for identifying and …

Sex-antagonistic (SA) genes are widely considered to be crucial players in the evolution of
sex chromosomes, being instrumental in the arrest of recombination and degeneration of Y …

Subdivided Pleistocene glacial refugia, best known as “refugia within refugia”, provided
opportunities for diverging populations to evolve into incipient species and/or to hybridize …

This paper represents an update of the list of Italian amphibians and reptiles published 15
years ago by Razzettiet al.(2006) and of the checklist published in 1993 by the late …

Populations of ectothermic vertebrates are vulnerable to environmental pollution and climate
change because certain chemicals and extreme temperatures can cause sex reversal …

The vulnerability of species to climate change is jointly influenced by geographic phenotypic
variation, acclimation and behavioural thermoregulation. The importance of interactions …

The rich genetic and phenotypic diversity of species complexes is best recognized through
formal taxonomic naming, but one must first assess the evolutionary history of …

Many herpetofauna species have been introduced outside of their native range. MtDNA
barcoding is regularly used to determine the provenance of such populations. The alpine …