Social insects such as ants have evolved collective rather than individual immune defence strategies against diseases and parasites at the level of their societies (colonies), known as social immunity. Ants frequently host ...

One of the most important goals of biodiversity studies is to identify which characteristics of local habitats act as filters that determine the diversity of functional traits along environmental gradients. In this study, ...

Here we examined the kinematic function of the morpho-logically unique first thoracic vertebra in giraffes. The first thoracic vertebra of the giraffe displayed similar shape to the seventh cervical vertebra in general ...

Many inferences on the biology, behaviour and ecology of extinct vertebrates are based on the reconstruction of the musculature and rely considerably on its accuracy. Although the advent of digital reconstruction techniques ...

Plant–animal mutualistic networks are characterized by highly heterogeneous degree distributions. The majority of species interact with few partner species, while a small number are highly connected to form network hubs ...

Pea aphids, A cyrthosiphon pisum, have the potential to increase reproduction as a defence against pathogens, though how frequently this occurs or how infection with live pathogens influences this response is not well ...

Reporting the diet of recently extinct or very rare taxa, only known by a few museum specimens, is challenging. This study uses X-ray microtomography, a non-destructive investigation method, to obtain the first data about ...

For the first time, a phylogenetic analysis including all putative euparkeriid taxa is conducted, using a large data matrix analysed with maximum parsimony and Bayesian analysis. Using parsimony, the putative euparkeriidDorosuchus ...

Ripe fruit offer readily available nutrients for many animals, including fruit fly larvae (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their associated rot-inducing bacteria. Yet, during most of their ontogeny, fruit remain chemically ...