Epigenomic changes are a hallmark of aging, and DNA methylation (DNAm) has emerged as the most reliable molecular marker of an individual's age. Genome‐wide patterns of age‐associated hypo‐ and hypermethylation have been applied to generate predictive models (i.e., “epigenetic clocks”) capable of estimating chronological age in an increasingly diverse set of species including many mammals, a few birds, a reptile, and several b...

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are the largest and most complete network of significant sites for the global persistence of biodiversity. Although important sites for birds worldwide have been relatively well assessed, a key question is how effectively the global KBA network represents avian diversity. We identified bird species, orders, habitats, and geographic regions that are underrepresented by KBAs. Area of Habitat (AOH) m...

Freshwater ecosystems and their biota are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic stressors. In response to declining fish stocks, hatchery and stocking programmes are widely implemented as core components of restoration and management strategies, with positive outcomes for some wild populations. Despite this, stocking remains contentious due to potential genetic and ecological risks to wild populations. Monitoring and ev...

Background Truffles are subterranean fungal fruiting bodies that are highly prized for their culinary value. Cultivation of truffles was pioneered in Europe and has been successfully adapted in temperate regions throughout the globe. Truffle orchards have been established in North America since the 1980s, and while some are productive, there are still many challenges that must be overcome to develop a viable North American tru...

Flow regimes of river ecosystems worldwide have undergone substantial changes because of water resource development, altering the way in which organic matter is generated and cycled throughout entire river catchments. Flow–ecology studies have focused on structural variables measured at small spatial scales. This creates a challenging mismatch when applying adaptive flow management for ecosystem functioning at a catchment or r...

The magnificent catshark Proscyllium magnificum was described in 2004 based off five specimens collected in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar. It was originally allocated to the genus Proscyllium, but recent molecular analyses suggested it was more closely related to the harlequin catshark Ctenacis fehlmanni from the western Indian Ocean. This study incorporated meristics and external and internal morphology, together with molecular...

The increased availability of reference genome assemblies of sharks and rays has contributed greatly to our understanding of their biology, including their sex-determination mechanisms. However, several publicly available genome assemblies of sharks and rays appear to be missing information about the sex of the source individuals. This can confound the investigation into genetic sex-determining elements and hinder the discover...

The diversity in organismal responses to environmental changes (i.e., response diversity) plays a crucial role in shaping community and ecosystem stability. However, existing measures of response diversity only consider a single environmental variable, whereas natural communities are commonly exposed to changes in multiple environmental variables simultaneously. Thus far, no approach exists to integrate multifarious environmen...

Management of thorny skate ( Amblyraja radiata ) in the Northwest Atlantic has posed a conservation dilemma for several decades due to the species' lack of response to strong conservation efforts in the US Gulf of Maine and the Canadian Scotian Shelf, confusion over the relationship between two reproductive size morphs of differing life histories that are sympatric in the Northwest Atlantic, and conflicting data on regional po...

Aim Biogeographic boundaries and genetic structuring have important effects on the inferences and interpretation of effective population size ( N e ) temporal variations, a key genetics parameter. We reconstructed the historical demography and divergence history of a vulnerable coastal high‐trophic shark using population genomics and assessed our ability to detect recent bottleneck events. Location Western and Central Indo‐Pac...

The genus Dichichthys was resurrected for five species previously allocated to the genus Parmaturus in the family Pentanchidae. Supraorbital crests on the chondrocranium distinguish Dichichthys from Parmaturus and other members of the family Pentanchidae. A new family, Dichichthyidae, has been proposed to contain Dichichthys. The sequence of the NADH2 mitochondrial gene confirms the placement of Dichichthys outside of the Pent...