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...

Family life often involves interactions between individuals who have different fitness goals, leading to conflict. Resolution of this conflict is key for the stabilisation of family life. Here, we used a lizard, Liopholis whitii , that lives in facultative family groups to characterise the nature and extent of sibling conflict and test the role that individual and litter characteristics play in shaping conflict between family...

As the earth warms, populations will be faced with novel environments to which they may not be adapted. In the short term, populations can be buffered against the negative effects, or maximize the beneficial effects, of such environmental change via phenotypic plasticity and, in the longer term, via adaptive evolution. However, the extent and direction of these population‐level responses will be dependent on the degree to whic...

The current extinction and climate change crises pressure us to predict population dynamics with ever‐greater accuracy. Although predictions rest on the well‐advanced theory of age‐structured populations, two key issues remain poorly explored. Specifically, how the age‐dependency in demographic rates and the year‐to‐year interactions between survival and fecundity affect stochastic population growth rates. We use inference, si...

Strongly selected characters can be transferred from one lineage to another with limited genetic exchange, resulting in asymmetric introgression and a mosaic genome in the receiving population. However, systems are rarely sufficiently well studied to link the pattern of introgression to its underlying process. Male common wall lizards in western Italy exhibit exaggeration of a suite of sexually selected characters that make th...

Many populations are small and isolated with limited genetic variation and high risk of mating with close relatives. Inbreeding depression is suspected to contribute to extinction of wild populations, but the historical and demographic factors that contribute to reduced population viability are often difficult to tease apart. Replicated introduction events in non‐native species can offer insights into this problem because they...

Hybridisation is increasingly recognised as an important cause of diversification and adaptation. Here, we show how divergence in male secondary sexual characters between two lineages of the common wall lizard ( Podarcis muralis ) gives rise to strong asymmetries in male competitive ability and mating success, resulting in asymmetric hybridisation upon secondary contact. Combined with no negative effects of hybridisation on su...

Establishing the introduction pathways of alien species is a fundamental task in invasion biology. The common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, has been widely introduced outside of its native range in both Europe and North America, primarily through escaped pets or deliberate release of animals from captive or wild populations. Here, we use Bayesian clustering, approximate Bayesian computation ( ABC ) methods and network analyse...

Population viscosity can have major consequences for adaptive evolution, in particular for phenotypes involved in social interactions. For example, population viscosity increases the probability of mating with close kin, resulting in selection for mechanisms that circumvent the potential negative consequences of inbreeding. Female promiscuity is often suggested to be one such mechanism. However, whether avoidance of geneticall...