Publications by authors named "Bogoljub Sterijovski"
Juvenile growth strongly impacts life-history traits during adulthood. Yet, in juveniles with delayed maturity, elusiveness has hindered age-specific studies of growth, precluding any detailed research on its consequences later in life. Different complex growth patterns have been extracted from captive animals, suggesting species-specific trajectories occur in free-ranging animals.
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- The Hermann's tortoise is an endangered species found in fragmented populations across Mediterranean Europe, and researchers studied its genetic diversity in about 300 individuals from 22 locations to assess natural and human impacts on its genetics.
- Findings revealed significant genetic differences between Eastern and Western subspecies, with the contact zone being located further west than previously thought, coinciding with a major Italian river delta.
- The research highlighted the need for careful consideration of genetic backgrounds in conservation efforts, especially since some populations, particularly in France, exhibit low genetic diversity and potential risks from historical hybridization due to human activities.
Comparisons between aquatic and terrestrial species provide an opportunity to examine how sex-specific adaptations interact with the environment to influence body shape. In terrestrial female tortoises, selection for fecundity favors the development of a large internal abdominal cavity to accommodate the clutch; in conspecific males, sexual selection favors mobility with large openings in the shell. To examine to what extent such trends apply in aquatic chelonians we compared the body shape of males and females of two aquatic turtles (Chelodina colliei and Mauremys leprosa).
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