Painted frogs ( Discoglossus ) contain five to six species of Western Palearctic anurans that are mainly distributed in allopatry. We here provide the first comprehensive assessment of the phylogeography of the Moroccan species D. scovazzi and geographically characterize its contact zone with D. pictus in Eastern Morocco. Discoglossus scovazzi shows, in general, a weak phylogeographic structure across Morocco on the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequences of the cytochrome b gene, with only populations centered in the Atlas Mountains characterized by the presence of slightly divergent haplotypes. In eastern Morocco, all populations east of the Moulouya River were clearly assignable to D. pictus . This species was also found along the Mediterranean coast west of the Moulouya, in the cities of Nador and Melilla, suggesting that not the river itself but the wide arid valley extending along much of the river (except close to the estuary) acts as a possible distributional barrier to these frogs. No sympatry of D. scovazzi with D. pictus was observed, and all specimens were concordantly assigned to either species by DNA sequences of cytochrome b and of the nuclear marker RAG1. Species distribution models of the two taxa show largely overlapping areas of suitable habitat, and the two species’ niches are significantly more similar than would be expected given the underlying environmental differences between the regions in which they occur. Comparative data are also presented from the southern Iberian contact zone of D. galganoi galganoi and D. g. jeanneae . These taxa showed less clear-cut distributional borders, extensively shared RAG1 haplotypes, and had instances of sympatric occurrence on the basis of cytochrome b haplotypes, in agreement with the hypothesis of a yet incomplete speciation. In this wide contact zone area we found mitochondrial sequences containing double peaks in electropherograms, suggesting nuclear pseudogenes or (less likely) heteroplasmy, possibly related to the ongoing admixture among the lineages.

Temperature plays a crucial role for ectotherm performance and thus for fitness. Terrestrial ectotherms, including reptiles, regulate their body temperature mainly by behavioural means. At high altitude, however, thermal constraints make precise thermoregulation costly. The cost–benefit model of lizard thermoregulation predicts that thermally challenging environments should favour the evolution of thermoconformity. Yet, several species maintain high and stable body temperatures even in cool environments. We studied the Atlas Day Gecko, Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus, a cold‐adapted lizard endemic to the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We quantified thermoregulation in gravid females, non‐gravid adult females, and adult males during the active season. Geckos thermoregulated during their active season, and thermoregulated with more effectiveness early in the season than late in the season. In the laboratory, the preferred body temperature ranges of gravid females, non‐gravid females, and males were not significantly different. In the field, however, gravid females had smaller deviations from the preferred body temperature and maintained higher body temperatures than males and non‐gravid females. Our study suggests that cold‐adapted reptiles adjust their thermoregulatory behaviour in response to thermal constraints and reproductive status.

The persistence of marked phenotypic variation within species is evolutionarily puzzling. We uncovered remarkable variation in throat colouration in a high-altitude gecko (Atlas Day Gecko, Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus ) endemic to the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Orange, yellow, and white variants were found in approximately equal proportions in both sexes, and in juveniles and adults. The colour variants did not differ in body size or in body condition, but there was some indication that orange males have relatively longer jaws than white or yellow males. The number of mites harboured by an individual was not a function of its sex or of its throat colouration, but larger lizards did harbour more mites. Our data do not support the hypotheses that throat colour variation is due to selection pressures differing between the sexes or through ontogeny, or signals immunocompetence, but offer some support for the hypothesis that throat colour variation signals dominance. Future investigations on the evolution of throat colour variation in this species should use spectrophotometry to obtain finer colour classification and incorporate measures of fitness.

The objective of this study was to establish environmental factors related to scorpion species occurrence and their current potential geographic distributions in Morocco

We assessed the genetic variation of 47 Moroccan populations of the North African water frog ( Pelophylax saharicus ) using partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene (COI). All 239 samples belonged to the main haplotype clade previously identified from Morocco, with no haplotypes of the Algerian/Tunisian clades among our samples. Altogether 40 haplotypes were found, with a maximum of 13 mutational steps between them. Two weakly divergent haplogroups separated by a minimum of six mutational steps were distributed (i) in the Anti-Atlas and the Sahara (south of the High Atlas Mountains) versus (ii) in the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas, and in the Rif area north of the Atlas Massif. Haplotypes of the northern haplogroup were found at the southernmost locality, which might be due to human translocation, and co-occurrence of the two haplogroups was recorded at three sites within the range of the northern haplogroup.

Accuratesnake species identification is essential for effective snakebite management, particularly in regions like Morocco, where approximately 400 snakebite incidents are reported annually, with a case fatality rate of 7.2%. Identifying venomous snakes promptly can significantly improve treatment outcomes by enabling the timely administration of specific antivenoms. However, the absence of comprehensive databases and rapid identification tools for Moroccan snake species poses challenges to effective clinical responses. This study presents a deep learning-based approach for the automated identification of Moroccan snake species. Several architectures, including VGG-19, VGG-16, and EfficientNet B0, were evaluated for their classification performance. EfficientNet B0 emerged as the most effective model, achieving an accuracy of 92.23% and an F1-score of 93.67%. After training on the SnakeCLEF 2021 dataset and fine-tuning with a specialized local dataset, the model attained a validation accuracy of 94% and an F1-score of 95.86%. To ensure practical applicability, the final model was deployed on a web platform, enabling the rapid and accurate identification of snake species via image uploads. This platform serves as a valuable tool for healthcare professionals and the general public, facilitating improved clinical response and educational awareness. This study highlights the potential of AI-driven solutions to address challenges in snakebite identification and management, offering a scalable approach for regions with limited resources and high snakebite prevalence.