The concept of climate variability facilitating adaptive radiation supported by the “Court Jester” hypothesis is disputed by the “Red Queen” one, but the prevalence of one or the other might be scale-dependent. We report on a detailed, comprehensive phylo-geographic study on the ∼4 kb mtDNA sequence in underground blind mole rats of the family Spalacidae (or subfamily Spalacinae) from the East Mediterranean steppes. Our study aimed at testing the presence of periodicities in branching patterns on a constructed phylogenetic tree and at searching for congruence between branching events, tectonic history and paleoclimates. In contrast to the strong support for the majority of the branching events on the tree, the absence of support in a few instances indicates that network-like evolution could exist in spalacids. In our tree, robust support was given, in concordance with paleontological data, for the separation of spalacids from muroid rodents during the first half of the Miocene when open, grass-dominated habitats were established. Marine barriers formed between Anatolia and the Balkans could have facilitated the separation of the lineage “Spalax” from the lineage “Nannospalax” and of the clade “leucodon” from the clade “xanthodon”. The separation of the clade “ehrenbergi” occurred during the late stages of the tectonically induced uplift of the Anatolian high plateaus and mountains, whereas the separation of the clade “vasvarii” took place when the rapidly uplifting Taurus mountain range prevented the Mediterranean rainfalls from reaching the Central Anatolian Plateau. The separation of Spalax antiquus and S. graecus occurred when the southeastern Carpathians were uplifted. Despite the role played by tectonic events, branching events that show periodicity corresponding to 400-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity bands illuminate the important role of orbital fluctuations on adaptive radiation in spalacids. At the given scale, our results supports the “Court Jester” hypothesis over the “Red Queen” one.

As a result of their rather uniform external appearance and gross cranial morphology, the systematics of blind mole\ud rats has been hotly debated over the last century; however, the separation of the large-bodied and small-bodied\ud blind mole rats at the genus level (Spalax and Nannospalax, respectively), suggested earlier on morphological\ud grounds, is strongly supported by recent molecular biological evidence. The species of Spalax have so far been\ud distinguished from each other by cranial traits only, especially the outline of sutures of the cranium, and the shape\ud and relative size of the nasal and parietal bones. Based on mitochondrial DNA sequences (with the widest\ud taxonomic and geographic coverage so far) and detailed anatomical comparisons of museum specimens, we\ud herewith provide a revision of the taxonomic and phylogenetic status of the westernmost representative of the\ud genus, Spalax graecus s.l. We clarify that antiquus and istricus – presently regarded as synonyms of graecus – are\ud well-defined species, and they together form a separate clade within Spalax. The robustness of our conclusions is\ud supported by the combined evidence of morphology, multilocus phylogeny, species distribution, and taxon history\ud (species congruence with past tectonic and climate events)

The infectivity and death rates for COVID-19 have been observed in many countries around the world as well as in the collective data of the whole world. These oscillations show distinct circaseptan periodicity, which could be associated with numerous biological reasons as well as with improper reporting of the data collected. Since very different results are observed in different countries and even continents, such as Sweden (very significant oscillations) or India (almost no oscillations), these data provide a very important message about different conditions under which the disease is spread or is reported, which, in turn, could serve as guidance tools in future epidemics. It is necessary that follow-up studies track the observed differences and fully reliably address their origins.

Using DAPI flow cytometry, we examined genome size divergence of the Persian violet, Cyclamen persicum (Primulaceae) (2n=48) on close opposite slopes of Evolution Canyon (EC), Mt. Carmel, Israel. The range of genome size variation detected among measured cyclamens was 6.41% in relation to the smallest measured DNA content. Our data on C. persicum at EC showed that local variability in the 2C-value exists. Significantly less DNA was recorded in plants growing in one station of the African savannah-like south-facing slope (AS) but not in the remaining two stations of the same slope. We were not able to reject the null hypothesis that there are no significant interslope differences in the genome size between the temperate European garrigue-like north-facing slope (ES) and the drier AS. In spite of the nonsignificant interslope trend for the higher genome size in C. persicum, the data-fusion (meta-analysis) test using correlations between C-values in C. persicum, and earlier studied carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), trifoil (Lotus peregrinus) and a beetle (Oryzaephilus surinamensis) and their distribution along the aridity gradient indicates a positive relationship between drought and genome size at the microsite.

Twenty-six species of gastropods (terrestrial, shell-bearing snails and slugs) were recorded at the ‘Evolution Canyon’ microsite, lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel. Twenty-five species were recorded at the temperate, mesic north-facing slope (NFS) and 20 species at the xeric south-facing slope (SFS). Out of these species, six were NFS specific (Pilorcula raymondi hebraica, Euchondrus septemdentatus, Monacha crispulata, Pyramidula rupestris hierosolymitana, Truncatellina haasi, and Vitrea contracta) and one was SFS specific (Prolimax eustrictus). The interslope difference was probably partly due to missing forest species at the SFS in comparison with the NFS. Twenty-two species were Levantine endemics (84.6%) and four species were more widely distributed in the Palaearctic region (15.4%). The Levantine species are inhabitants of the mesic and mainly mountainous regions, but four species (Granopupa granum, Calaxis hierosolymarum, Cecilioides acicula, and Helix engaddensis) also penetrate the deserts. Seven species (Buliminus labrosus, H. engaddensis, Levantina spiriplana caesareana, Metafruticicola fourousi, Monacha syriaca, Sphincterochila cariosa, and Xeropicta vestalis joppensis) were significantly more abundant on the SFS than on the NFS. The local physical microclimatic sharp divergence leads to gastropod adaptive interslope biotic divergence caused by natural selection. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 93, 147–155.