Aim More species‐rich communities are often assumed to contain more specialist species with narrower niches and smaller ranges. Stronger interspecific competition in species‐rich communities is thought to be a key mechanism explaining these patterns. Yet, the relationship between richness and specialisation has so far only been studied for a few taxa, and characterising the effects of interspecific competition on species distr...

Dietary fatty acids (FAs) are essential macronutrients affecting animal fitness, growth, and development. While the degree of saturation of FAs usually determines the level of absorption and allocation within the body, the utilization of dietary FAs across the life stages of individuals remains unknown. We used three different 13 C labeled FAs, with a different saturation level (linoleic acid (18:2), oleic acid (18:1), and pal...

Aim Squamate fitness is affected by body temperature, which in turn is influenced by environmental temperatures and, in many species, by exposure to solar radiation. The biophysical drivers of body temperature have been widely studied, but we lack an integrative synthesis of actual body temperatures experienced in the field, and their relationships to environmental temperatures, across phylogeny, behaviour and climate. Locatio...

Aim Patterns of separation among males and females, known as sexual segregation, are traditionally correlated with elevation or latitude in animals. Alternatively, in humans, spatial and behavioural segregation is driven by inherent sex‐based differences in thermal preference, although the cause and adaptive value of these differences remain unclear. Here, we explore whether, similar to humans, ambient temperature can explain...

Aim There is an increasing evidence showing that species within various taxonomic groups have reticulate evolutionary histories with several cases of introgression events. Investigating the phylogeography of species complexes can provide insight into these introgressions, and when and where these hybridizations occurred. In this study, we investigate the biogeography of a widely distributed Western Palaearctic bat species comp...

Globally, extensive marine areas important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning are undergoing exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas resources. Such operations are expanding to previously inaccessible deep waters and other frontier regions, while conservation‐related legislation and planning is often lacking. Conservation challenges arising from offshore hydrocarbon development are wide‐ranging....