Recent developments in telomere and cancer evolutionary ecology demonstrate a very complex relationship between the need of tissue repair and controlling the emergence of abnormally proliferating cells. The trade‐off is balanced by natural and sexual selection and mediated via both intrinsic and environmental factors. Here, we explore the effects of telomere‐cancer dynamics on life history traits and strategies as well as on t...

Parental age can affect offspring telomere length through heritable and epigenetic‐like effects, but at what stage during development these effects are established is not well known. To address this, we conducted a cross‐fostering experiment in common gulls ( Larus canus ) that enabled us distinguish between pre‐ and post‐natal parental age effects on offspring telomere length. Whole clutches were exchanged after clutch comple...

The concept of a pace‐of‐life syndrome describes inter‐ and intraspecific variation in several life‐history traits along a slow‐to‐fast pace‐of‐life continuum, with long lifespans, low reproductive and metabolic rates, and elevated somatic defences at the slow end of the continuum and the opposite traits at the fast end. Pace‐of‐life can vary in relation to local environmental conditions (e.g. latitude, altitude), and here we...

Colour polymorphisms have played a major role in enhancing current understanding of how selection and demography can impact phenotypes. Because different morphs often display alternative strategies and exploit alternative ecological niches, colour polymorphism can be expected to promote adaptability to environmental changes. However, whether and how it could influence populations' and species' response to global changes remain...