Some Like It Cold: Long-Term Assessment of a Near-Global Invader.

Long-term studies depicting the multicontinental invasion trajectories of species are often constrained by the scarcity of documented records, especially for invertebrates. The red swamp crayfish, (Decapoda: Cambaridae), stands out as an uncommon example of hypersuccessful invasive species with a well-known invasion history at both regional and global levels. This allows for the use of its records to track distribution dynamics and bioclimatic preferences over time.

Taxonomic inflation as a conservation trap for inbred populations.

Conservation is prioritized based on accepted taxa. As a consequence, a conservation incentive exists to emphasize inter-population differences to define taxa, potentially leading to taxonomic inflation. But stressing the uniqueness of threatened populations has the side effect of hindering conservation actions that promote inter-population gene flow, such as genetic rescue.

Insights from the past: Invasion trajectory and niche trends of a global freshwater invader.

Freshwater ecosystems are invaded by a non-random selection of taxa, among which crayfish stand out with successful examples worldwide. Species distribution models (SDMs) have been used to detect suitable areas for invasive species and predict their potential distributions. However, these prediction exercises assume the stability of realized environmental niches, which is uncertain during invasion.

Introduced and extinct: neglected archival specimens shed new light on the historical biogeography of an iconic avian species in the Mediterranean.

Collection specimens provide valuable and often overlooked biological material that enables addressing relevant, long-unanswered questions in conservation biology, historical biogeography, and other research fields. Here, we use preserved specimens to analyze the historical distribution of the black francolin (Francolinus francolinus, Phasianidae), a case that has recently aroused the interest of archeozoologists and evolutionary biologists. The black francolin currently ranges from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, but, at least since the Middle Ages, it also had a circum-Mediterranean distribution.