Walter's Duiker ( Colyn, 2010): A Literature Review on a Recently Identified and Potentially Vulnerable Species.

Based on recent taxonomic and molecular tools, the Walter's duiker ( Colyn, 2010), endemic to the Dahomey Gap in West Africa, has been recognized as a new species in 2010. This species is largely hunted and may already be threatened by extinction. This review paper aims to synthesize the current knowledge on this species, covering its taxonomy, morphology, biology, ecology, diet, seed dispersal role, reproduction patterns, activity rate, parasitology, spatial distribution, habitats, population densities, and ongoing human pressures.

Population genomics of the widespread African savannah trees Afzelia africana and Afzelia quanzensis reveals no significant past fragmentation of their distribution ranges.

Premise: Few studies have addressed the evolutionary history of tree species from African savannahs. Afzelia contains economically important timber species, including two species widely distributed in African savannahs: A. africana in the Sudanian region and A.

Highlighting convergent evolution in morphological traits in response to climatic gradient in African tropical tree species: The case of genus Benn.

Adaptive evolution is a major driver of organism diversification, but the links between phenotypic traits and environmental niche remain little documented in tropical trees. Moreover, trait-niche relationships are complex because a correlation between the traits and environmental niches displayed by a sample of species may result from (a) convergent evolution if different environmental conditions have selected different sets of traits, and/or (b) phylogenetic inertia if niche and morphological differences between species are simply function of their phylogenetic divergence, in which case the trait-niche correlation does not imply any direct causal link. Here, we aim to assess the respective roles of phylogenetic inertia and convergent evolution in shaping the differences of botanical traits and environmental niches among congeneric African tree species that evolved in different biomes.

A few north Appalachian populations are the source of European black locust.

The role of evolution in biological invasion studies is often overlooked. In order to evaluate the evolutionary mechanisms behind invasiveness, it is crucial to identify the source populations of the introduction. Studies in population genetics were carried out on L.

Evolution in the Amphi-Atlantic tropical genus Guibourtia (Fabaceae, Detarioideae), combining NGS phylogeny and morphology.

Tropical rain forests support a remarkable diversity of tree species, questioning how and when this diversity arose. The genus Guibourtia (Fabaceae, Detarioideae), characterized by two South American and 13 African tree species growing in various tropical biomes, is an interesting model to address the role of biogeographic processes and adaptation to contrasted environments on species diversification. Combining whole plastid genome sequencing and morphological characters analysis, we studied the timing of speciation and diversification processes in Guibourtia through molecular dating and ancestral habitats reconstruction.