Turtles are among the smallest of vertebrate groups in terms of modern diversity, but they
are also among the most endangered. More than half, 51% to 56% of taxa are considered …

The last species list of the European herpetofauna was published by Speybroeck, Beukema
and Crochet (2010). In the meantime, ongoing research led to numerous taxonomic …

Simple Summary Turtles are threatened all over the world. Malaysia has 24 species of
turtles. This review focuses on current conservation status and some requirements for …

Recent studies found major conflicts between traditional taxonomy and genetic
differentiation of grass snakes and identified previously unknown secondary contact zones …

Based on the critical review of the literature published in the last 22 years, an attempt was
made to evaluate the current knowledge gap on the distribution and status of the native …

Warm-adapted species survived the cold stages of the past glacial-interglacial cycles in
southern European peninsulas and recolonized major parts of Central and Northern Europe …

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) is Europe's most widely distributed and, in many regions,
most common snake species, with many morphologically defined subspecies. Yet, the …

Grass snakes are widely distributed across the Western Palearctic. Recent phylogeographic
studies provided evidence that three distinct parapatric species exist. Two of these occur in …

Hybrid zones occur as range boundaries for many animal taxa. One model for how hybrid
zones form and stabilize is the tension zone model, a version of which predicts that hybrid …

Understanding speciation is one of the cornerstones of biological diversity research.
Currently, speciation is often understood as a continuous process of divergence that …