Is Evolution of Blind Mole Rats Determined by Climate Oscillations?

The concept of climate variability facilitating adaptive radiation supported by the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis is disputed by the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one, but the prevalence of one or the other might be scale-dependent. We report on a detailed, comprehensive phylo-geographic study on the ,4 kb mtDNA sequence in underground blind mole rats of the family Spalacidae (or subfamily Spalacinae) from the East Mediterranean steppes. Our study aimed at testing the presence of periodicities in branching patterns on a constructed phylogenetic tree and at searching for congruence between branching events, tectonic history and paleoclimates. In contrast to the strong support for the majority of the branching events on the tree, the absence of support in a few instances indicates that network-like evolution could exist in spalacids. In our tree, robust support was given, in concordance with paleontological data, for the separation of spalacids from muroid rodents during the first half of the Miocene when open, grass-dominated habitats were established. Marine barriers formed between Anatolia and the Balkans could have facilitated the separation of the lineage ‘‘Spalax’’ from the lineage ‘‘Nannospalax’’ and of the clade ‘‘leucodon’’ from the clade ‘‘xanthodon’’. The separation of the clade ‘‘ehrenbergi’’ occurred during the late stages of the tectonically induced uplift of the Anatolian high plateaus and mountains, whereas the separation of the clade ‘‘vasvarii’’ took place when the rapidly uplifting Taurus mountain range prevented the Mediterranean rainfalls from reaching the Central Anatolian Plateau. The separation of Spalax antiquus and S. graecus occurred when the southeastern Carpathians were uplifted. Despite the role played by tectonic events, branching events that show periodicity corresponding to 400-kyr and 100-kyr eccentricity bands illuminate the important role of orbital fluctuations on adaptive radiation in spalacids. At the given scale, our results supports the ‘‘Court Jester’’ hypothesis over the ‘‘Red Queen’’ one

Structure and Dynamics of Crucians’ Settlements (Cypriniformes, Carassius) in Water Systems of Eastern Ukraine

The analysis of present-day crucians’ settlements in water systems of Eastern Ukraine designated the predominance of the digeneous Goldfish, C. auratus, in the region, the number of which made 78.7 %, from the total number of the examined representatives of the genus. The second group consists of gynogenetic Prussian carps, C. gibelio (14.3 %); it is represented by the clone biotype and recombinant individuals. Crucian carp, C. carassius (3.6 %), turned out to be rare and its number did not exceed the number of the caught hybrids C. auratus × C. carassius (3.4 %). The retrospective analysis of literature data and museum collections gave an opportunity to describe the changes in species composition of the genus which took place during the last 150 years. Within this period the crucian carp, which used to be the single and most common representative of genus Carassius (Jarocki, 1822) in the region, became nearly an extinct species. In the meanwhile the representatives of the group of species of Prussian carps, C. auratus + C. gibelio, which appeared in the region in the late 1960s, rapidly increased their number and became the most numerous fish of the Eastern Ukraine. The discovered tendency is not unique for the researched region; in general it reflects the European tendency for the crucian species. The reasons for that are rivers’ regulation and destruction of bottomland ecosystems. The secondary factors for the elimination of C. carassius are the competitive relations of individuals representing both species and easy hybridization, during which the more numerous species C. auratus absorbs the rare C. carassius

KARYOTYPES AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY OF CRAYFISH PONTASTACUS LEPTODACTYLUS AND P. ANGULOSUS (MALACOSTRACA, DECAPODA)

Karyotypes and Morphological Variability of Crayfis

Recent State and Mechanisms of Invasions of Exotic Decapods in Ukrainian Rivers

Lower reaches of largest Ukrainian rivers are zones of migrations for exotic euryhaline decapods. During 2000s new records of invasions of three euryhaline exotic decapods, Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Gould, 1841), Eriocheir sinensis Milne-Edwards, 1853 and Macrobrachium nipponense (De Haan, 1849), were made in the channels of Ukrainian rivers. Chinese mitten crab, E. sinensis, spread in the Danube Delta and reservoirs of the Dnieper River; Rh. harrisii — in the channels of the Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug and small river Gruzskij Yelanchik in the Azov Sea Basin; M. nipponense that was introduced in the Kuchurgan Liman (cooler reservoir of the Moldavian Hydro-power Station) — in the Dniester Delta. The migration zone of the established population can cover significant part of river watershed; it is necessary to take this fact into account at an estimation of biological invasion risk. Main problem in the investigation of exotic decapods in Ukrainian waters is absence of specialized methods used in the standard ecological monitoring. Among euryhaline exotic decapods, only Rh. harrisii is sometimes sampled with the equipment used in the monitoring of macrozoobenthos. A few records of these species at the large extent of their supposed ways of migration are the result of gaps in the study of their distribution in Ukrainian inland waters. Realistic attitude toward this fact is very important for the estimation of invasions in the inland waters of this region.Низовья крупнейших украинских рек являются зонами миграции экзотических эвригалинных декапод. В течение 2000-х гг. несколько случаев инвазий трёх эвригалинных экзотических декапод: Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Gould, 1841), Eriocheir sinensis (Milne-Edwards, 1853) и Macrobrachium nipponense (De Haan, 1849) были указаны для русел украинских рек. Китайский мохнаторукий краб, E. sinensis, распространяется в дельте Дуная и водохранилищах Днепра; Rh. harrisii — в русле Дуная, Днепра, Южного Буга и малой реки Грузский Еланчик в бассейне Азовского моря; M. nipponense, акклиматизированный в Кучурганском лимане (пруд-охладитель Молдавской ГРЭС) — в дельте Днестра. Зона миграции установившейся популяции может охватывать значительную часть речного бассейна, что необходимо учитывать в оценке риска биологических инвазий. Главная проблема в исследованиях экзотических декапод в водах Украины — отсутствие специализированных методов в стандартном экологическом мониторинге. Среди эвригалинных экзотических декапод только Rh. harrisii иногда оказывается пойманным с помощью орудий лова, используемых в мониторинге макрозообентоса. Малочисленность известных находок этих видов при большом протяжении некоторых предполагаемых путей миграции — результат пробелов в изучении распространения таких видов во внутренних водах Украины. Реалистическое отношение к современному состоянию научных исследований очень важно для оценки инвазий во внутренние воды страны