Understanding the evolutionary emergence and subsequent diversification of the vertebrate skeleton requires a comprehensive view of the diverse skeletal cell types found in distinct developmental contexts, tissues, and species. To date, our knowledge of the molecular nature of the shark calcified extracellular matrix, and its relationships with osteichthyan skeletal tissues, remain scarce. Here, based on specific combinations of expression patterns of the Col1a1, Col1a2, and Col2a1 fibrillar collagen genes, we compare the molecular footprint of endoskeletal elements from the chondrichthyan Scyliorhinus canicula and the tetrapod Xenopus tropicalis. We find that, depending on the anatomical location, Scyliorhinus skeletal calcification is associated to cell types expressing different subsets of fibrillar collagen genes, such as high levels of Col1a1 and Col1a2 in the neural arches, high levels of Col2a1 in the tesserae, or associated to a drastic Col2a1 downregulation in the centrum. We detect low Col2a1 levels in Xenopus osteoblasts, thereby revealing that the osteoblastic expression of this gene was significantly reduced in the tetrapod lineage. Finally, we uncover a striking parallel, from a molecular and histological perspective, between the vertebral cartilage calcification of both species and discuss the evolutionary origin of endochondral ossification.

Conservation efforts have mainly been focused on depleted species or populations, but many formerly reduced marine mammal populations have recovered to historical abundances. This calls for new management strategies and new models for ecological risk assessment that incorporate local density dependence and multiple environmental stressors. The harbor seal metapopulation in Swedish and Danish waters has increased from about 2500 to 25,000 over the past 40 yr. Trend analysis based on aerial survey data and somatic growth curves indicates that the population is close to carrying capacity. We performed a population viability analysis based on realistic life history parameters and investigated a range of potential scenarios caused by future stressors. If the population is able to resume its high intrinsic rate of increase at about 11% annually, when pushed down below carrying capacity, it can also sustain additional mortality such as modest hunting and infrequent epizootics. However, if xenobiotics will cause even a slight reduction in average fecundity, the population becomes significantly more vulnerable. In the absence of epizootics, and given full reproductive capacity, hunting of a few hundred animals annually is not harmful to the long-term persistence of the population. Nevertheless, a slight decrease in growth potential, for example, caused by exposure to endocrine disruptors, makes even limited hunting risky. Our study shows how an apparently stable and abundant marine mammal population can be close to a point of rapid population decline. Thus, careful monitoring of population size, growth rate, health, and exposure to xenobiotics as well as recording of the age and sex structure of the hunt is required to avoid repeating the history of overexploitation and another population collapse.

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Sperm function and quality are primary determinants of male reproductive performance and hence fitness. The presence of rival males has been shown to affect ejaculate and sperm traits in a wide range of taxa. However, male physiological conditions may not only affect sperm phenotypic traits but also their genetic and epigenetic signatures, affecting the fitness of the resulting offspring. We investigated the effects of male‐male competition on sperm quality using TUNEL assays and geometric morphometrics in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. We found that the sperm produced by males exposed to high male–male competition had smaller heads but larger midpiece and flagellum than sperm produced by males under low competition. Head and flagella also appeared less sensitive to the osmotic stress induced by activation with water. In addition, more sperm showed signals of DNA damage in ejaculates of males under high competition. These findings suggest that the presence of a rival male may have positive effects on sperm phenotypic traits but negative effects on sperm DNA integrity. Overall, males facing the presence of rival males may produce faster swimming and more competitive sperm but this may come at a cost for the next generation.

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Detecting changes in population trends depends on the accuracy of estimated mean population growth rates and thus the quality of input data. However, monitoring wildlife populations poses economic and logistic challenges especially in complex and remote habitats. Declines in wildlife populations can remain undetected for years unless effective monitoring techniques are developed, guiding appropriate management actions. We developed an automated survey workflow using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to quantify the number and size of individual animals, using the well-studied Scandinavian harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) as a model species. We compared ground-based counts using telescopes with manual flights, using a zoom photo/video, and pre-programmed flights producing orthomosaic photo maps. We used machine learning to identify and count both pups and older seals and we present a new method for measuring body size automatically. We evaluate the population’s reproductive success using drone data, historical counts and predictions from a Leslie matrix population model. The most accurate and time-efficient results were achieved by performing pre-programmed flights where individual seals are identified by machine learning and their body sizes are measured automatically. The accuracy of the machine learning detector was 95–97% and the classification error was 4.6 ± 2.9 for pups and 3.1 ± 2.1 for older seals during good light conditions. There was a clear distinction between the body sizes of pups and older seals during breeding time. We estimated 320 pups in the breeding season 2021 with the drone, which is well beyond the expected number, based on historical data on pup production. The new high quality data from the drone survey confirms earlier indications of a deteriorating reproductive rate in this important harbour seal colony. We show that aerial drones and machine learning are powerful tools for monitoring wildlife in inaccessible areas which can be used to assess annual recruitment and seasonal variations in body condition.

The hallmark of sex chromosome evolution is the progressive suppression of recombination which leads to subsequent degeneration of the non-recombining chromosome. In birds, species belonging to the two major clades, Palaeognathae (including tinamous and flightless ratites) and Neognathae (all remaining birds), show distinctive patterns of sex chromosome degeneration. Birds are female heterogametic, in which females have a Z and a W chromosome. In Neognathae, the highly-degenerated W chromosome seems to have followed the expected trajectory of sex chromosome evolution. In contrast, among Palaeognathae, sex chromosomes of ratite birds are largely recombining. The underlying reason for maintenance of recombination between sex chromosomes in ratites is not clear. Degeneration of the W chromosome might have halted or slowed down due to a multitude of reasons ranging from selective processes, such as a less pronounced effect of sexually antagonistic selection, to neutral processes, such as a slower rate of molecular evolution in ratites. The production of genome assemblies and gene expression data for species of Palaeognathae has made it possible, during recent years, to have a closer look at their sex chromosome evolution. Here, we critically evaluate the understanding of the maintenance of recombination in ratites in light of the current data. We conclude by highlighting certain aspects of sex chromosome evolution in ratites that require further research and can potentially increase power for the inference of the unique history of sex chromosome evolution in this lineage of birds.

Ghost crabs are distributed worldwide on sandy beaches, and several studies have associated the number of ghost crab burrows with the levels of anthropogenic impacts on the beaches under study. However, our results show that the use of ghost crab Ocypode quadrata burrows to assess levels of anthropogenic impacts on sand beaches may not be accurate, as previously thought, because the number of burrows does not represent an estimate of the population size. In addition, we propose three hypotheses to explain the extremely low number of individuals/number of burrows ratio: the "secret chamber", the "multiple openings", and the "one crab, several burrows" hypotheses. We also observed an unusual sex ratio.