Adaptation is driven by natural selection; however, many adaptations are caused by weak
selection acting over large timescales, complicating its study. Therefore, it is rarely possible to …

Spider dragline silk possesses impressive mechanical and biochemical properties. It is
synthesized by a couple of major ampullate glands in spiders and comprises of two major …

Cheliped construction, in particular the teeth pattern on chelae fingers is considered as most
important character suit (along with burrowing/swimming apparatus) for the diagnosis of …

The biodiversity and the biogeography are still poorly understood for freshwater invertebrates.
The crustacean Chydorus sphaericus-brevilabris complex (Cladocera: Chydoridae) is …

Species with a large geographic distributions present a challenge for phylogeographic studies
due to logistic difficulties of obtaining adequate sampling. For instance, in most species …

We have obtained the first data demonstrating the capability of multicellular organisms for
longterm cryobiosis in permafrost deposits of the Arctic. The viable soil nematodes …

Sexual reproduction is almost ubiquitous among extant eukaryotes. As most asexual lineages
are short-lived, abandoning sex is commonly regarded as an evolutionary dead end. Still, …

Species of the genus Daphnia OF Müller, 1785 (Cladocera: Daphniidae) have become very
important models in evolutionary biology research. Previous morphological and genetic …

Spiophanes bombyx (Claparède, 1870) from the Gulf of Naples, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy, was
the first described Spiophanes with fronto-lateral horns on the prostomium. It was also …

Rhynchospio glutaea (Ehlers, 1897 ), Rhynchospio arenincola Hartman, 1936 and Rhynchospio
arenincola asiatica Chlebovitsch, 1959 , originally described from Strait of Magellan, …