A revision of vulture feeding classification.

Pioneering fieldwork identified the existence of three feeding groups in vultures: gulpers, rippers and scrappers. Gulpers engulf soft tissue from carcasses and rippers tear off pieces of tough tissue (skin, tendons, muscle), whereas scrappers peck on small pieces of meat they find on and around carcasses. It has been shown that these feeding preferences are reflected in the anatomy of the skull and neck.

Morphological divergence in giant fossil dormice.

Insular gigantism-evolutionary increases in body size from small-bodied mainland ancestors-is a conceptually significant, but poorly studied, evolutionary phenomenon. Gigantism is widespread on Mediterranean islands, particularly among fossil and extant dormice. These include an extant giant population of on Formentera, the giant Balearic genus † and the exceptionally large † of Pleistocene Sicily.

Molecular phylogenetics supports the origin of an endemic Balearic shrew lineage (Nesiotites) coincident with the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

The red-toothed shrews (Soricinae) are the most widespread subfamily of shrews, distributed from northern South America to North America and Eurasia. Within this subfamily, the tribe Nectogalini includes the fossil species Nesiotites hidalgo recorded from the Late Pleistocene to Holocene of the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean). Although there is a consensus about the close relationship between the extinct red-toothed shrew genera Nesiotites and Asoriculus based on morphology, molecular data are necessary to further evaluate the phylogenetic relationships of the Balearic fossils.