Reptiles use pterin and carotenoid pigments to produce yellow, orange, and red colors.These conspicuous colors serve a diversity of signaling functions, but their molecular basis remains unresolved. Here, we show that the genomes of sympatric color morphs of the European common wall lizard, which differ in orange and yellow pigmentation and in their ecology and behavior, are virtually undifferentiated. Genetic differences are restricted to two small regulatory regions, near genes associated with pterin (SPR) and carotenoid metabolism (BCO2), demonstrating that a core gene in the housekeeping pathway of pterin biosynthesis has been co-opted for bright coloration in reptiles and indicating that these loci exert pleiotropic effects on other aspects of physiology. Pigmentation differences are explained by extremely divergent alleles and haplotype analysis revealed abundant trans-specific allele sharing with other lacertids exhibiting color polymorphisms. The evolution of these conspicuous color ornaments is the result of ancient genetic variation and cross-species hybridization.To investigate the genetic and evolutionary bases of the vivid colors displayed by reptiles, and to test hypothesis about how and why color polymorphisms and correlated trait variation persist within populations, we studied the European common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) (Fig. 1A)a polymorphic lizard in which the ventral scales of males and females exhibits one of three distinct colors (orange, yellow, and white) or a mosaic pattern combining two colors (orange-yellow and orange-white) (12,13). Each of these five color morphs can be found throughout most of the broad geographic distribution of the species (Fig. 1B), and are shared by intraspecific sub-lineages thought to have diverged up to 2.5 million years ago (14). While the white morph is typically the most common (>50%), the relative frequency of morphs is highly variable even at small regional scales and the yellow or orange morphs may occasionally prevail (15,16) (SI Appendix, Fig. S1). The widespread distribution and persistence of color variation is thought to be due to balancing selection and the product of an interplay between natural and sexual selection (17). Previous work has shown that morphs mate assortatively with respect to ventral color (~75% of pairs) and differ in additional traits, including morphology, behavior, physiology, immunology, and reproduction (12,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). The mode of inheritance of the color morphs is unknown. RESULTS Carotenoid and pterin pigments underlie pigmentation differencesWe began by determining the biochemical and cellular basis of pigmentation differences among morphs. Using electron microscopy (TEM), we found that the ventral skin of all morphs contained the same set of dermal pigment cells arranged as three superimposed 6 layers (xantophores, iridophores, and melanophores; Fig. 1C). The iridophore layer was thinner in orange individuals compared to yellow and white, but the most noticeable difference among morphs was observed in the...

When populations experience suboptimal conditions, the mechanisms involved in the regulation of phenotypic variation can be challenged, resulting in increased phenotypic variance. This kind of disturbance can be diagnosed by using morphometric tools to study morphological patterns at different hierarchical levels and evaluate canalization, developmental stability, integration, modularity, and allometry. We assess the effect of urbanization on phenotypic variation in the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) by using geometric morphometrics to assess disturbance to head shape development. The head shapes of urban lizards were more variable and less symmetric, suggesting that urban living is more likely to disturb development. Head shape variation was congruent within and across individuals, which indicated that canalization and developmental stability are two related phenomena in these organisms. Furthermore, urban lizards exhibited smaller mean head sizes, divergent size-shape allometries, and increased deviation from within-group allometric lines. This suggests that mechanisms regulating head shape allometry may also be disrupted. The integrated evaluation of several measures of developmental instability at different hierarchical levels, which provided in this case congruent results, can be a powerful methodological guide for future studies, as it enhances the detection of environmental disturbances on phenotypic variation and aids biological interpretation of the results.

Abstract. The helminths infesting the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara (Jacquin, 1787), were studied with special attention to the relations between the number of nematodes, Oswaldocruzia filiformis (Goeze,1782), and the size, sex and age class of the host. The possible seasonality of the parasite intensity and the relationship with the feeding habits of the host were also tested. Helminth infracommunities of Z. vivipara were depauperate with lizards harbouring only two species, the trematode Plagiorchis molini (Lent et Freitas, 1940) and the nematode O. filiformis. A positive correlation between host size and the number of O. filiformis was found for female Z. vivipara. However, no correlation was detected between intensity and sex or age class. The feeding habits of Z. vivipara, the isolation of the population studied and the low level of interaction with other reptilian or amphibian species are suggested as the causes of the depauperate helminth infracommunities found in this lacertid lizard.

Primary pulmonary angiosarcoma is a rare type of malignant vascular tumour characterised by proliferation of tumour cells with endothelial features. Up to date, only sixteen cases have been reported in English Literature. Treatment modalities vary from none to surgery, chemotherapeutic regimens, radiotherapy or immunotherapy, but none of them have been shown to be effective. Unfortunately, these tumours are usually very aggressive and overall mortality is very high. We present two cases of patients with a diagnosis of primary pulmonary angiosarcoma, the largest case series ever described, and a review of the scientific literature.

Infrared thermometers (IRT) are gaining popularity in herpetological thermal ecology due to their several advantages compared to contact thermometers (CT). To evaluate their accuracy in small lacertids, lab parallel measurements using IRT and CT are compared for a set of 52 adult lizards belonging to four different Podarcis forms, including males, pregnant and non-pregnant females, exposed to a photothermal gradient. Skin temperature was measured with an IRT and cloacal temperature with a CT at 10 time intervals, completing 520 paired measurements. Models of the relations were constructed using standardised major axis (SMA) regression. As expected, IRT and CT measurements were significantly correlated but determination coefficients were only moderate, IRT values being systematically higher. Moreover, the SMA regression lines deviated from slope 1 and intercept 0 in all cases, revealing a nonisometric bias; IRT tended to give progressively higher readings than CT for higher temperatures. Results provide methodological insights for further studies on thermal ecology of lacertids.