Amaia Caro

• PhD
• University of the Basque Country

One of the most fascinating mammalian range expansions in Europe involves an opportunistic mesocarnivore―the golden jackal ( Canis aureus ). However, key questions about the origins and dispersal strategies of pioneering individuals, likely the first to establish new populations, remain unanswered. We analyzed genetic data from three golden jackals...

Large predators are essential in maintaining ecosystem functioning, and comprehending how their feeding habits change across natural and human-dominated landscapes is crucial to preserve biodiversity. In this study, the diet of Iberian wolves (Canis lupus signatus) during pup rearing season (July to September) has been studied in relation to prey a...

Large predators are essential in maintaining ecosystem functioning, and comprehending how their feeding habits change across natural and human-dominated landscapes is crucial to preserve biodiversity. In this study, the diet of Iberian wolves ( Canis lupus signatus ) during pup rearing season (July to September) has been studied in relation to prey...

The land snail Elona quimperiana is listed in annexes II and IV of the Europe Habitats Directive. In this study, phylogenetic relationships between populations of this protected species from its whole distribution range were reconstructed based on the sequencing of two mtDNA gene fragments (COI and 16S rRNA) and one nDNA gene fragment (ITS2). Haplo...

Las metodologías de ADN ambiental o eDNA permiten la detección del ADN presente en el ambiente y posibilitan la identificación y clasificación de las especies presentes en el medio sin necesidad de avistarlas ni capturarlas. De esta forma, permiten trabajar con especies poco abundantes, esquivas y/o en peligro de extinción de una manera eficaz, seg...

Chemical signals deposited in feces play an important role in intraspecific and interspecific communication of many mammals. We collected fresh feces of adult wolves from wild breeding groups. All samples visually identified as belonging to wolves were subsequently identified to species level by sequencing a small fragment of mtDNA and sexed typing...

The land snail Elona quimperiana is listed in annexes II and IV of the Europe Habitats Directive. In this study, phylogenetic relationships between populations of this protected species from its whole distribution range were reconstructed based on the sequencing of two mtDNA gene fragments ( COI and 16S rRNA) and one nDNA gene fragment ( ITS2 ). Ha...

Chondrina Reichenbach, 1828 is a highly diverse genus of terrestrial molluscs currently including 44 species with about 28 subspecific taxa. It is distributed through North Africa, central and southern Europe, from Portugal in the West to the Caucasus and Asia Minor in the East. Approximately 70% of the species are endemic to the Iberian Peninsula...

Chemical signals play an important role in intraspecific and interspecific communication of many mammals, We described the chemicals found in fresh feces of adult wolves by means of analyses using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of samples collected from wild breeding groups. We identified 56 compounds in the feces, mainly heterocyclic...

Targeted molecular methods such as conventional PCR (cPCR) and quantitative PCR (qPCR), combined with species-specific primers and probes, are widely applied for pest species detection. Besides, the potential of qPCR to quantify DNA in samples makes it an invaluable molecular tool to infer the predation levels on specific prey by analysing predator...

Insectivorous bats are considered key predators of multiple deleterious arthropods in a wide range of habitats. Current molecular methods for identifying bats' prey in diet studies mainly rely on the metabarcoding of prey DNA extracted from faeces. Nonetheless, metabarcoding not only restricts to a qualitative assessment of the prey list, but it re...

The systematics and biogeographical history of the Eastern Mediterranean and Macaronesian land snail tribe Allognathini (Helicidae: Helicinae) is investigated based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that the genus-group systematics of the tribe needs to be revised. We show for the first tim...

This study revises the taxonomy and species limits of Chondrina taxa living in the Cantabrian mountain region of N Spain, based mainly on molecular data but supplemented with morphological data. One new species C. cantabroccidentalis Somoza-Valdeolmillos & Vázquez-Sanz sp. nov. is here described as the species of the genus living in the western Can...

The subfamily Leptaxinae is included within the highly diverse land snail family Hygromiidae. In the absence of clear diagnostic morphological differences, the subfamily status is currently based solely on molecular information and includes three disjunctly distributed tribes, Leptaxini, Cryptosaccini and Metafruticicolini. However, the phylogeneti...

Although the land snail Cepaea nemoralis is one of the most thoroughly investigated colour polymorphic species, there have been few recent studies on the inheritance of the shell traits. Previously, it has been shown that the shell polymorphism is controlled by a series of nine or more loci, of which five make a single ‘supergene’ containing tightl...

A new species of the land snail genus Pyrenaearia from the Pyrenees, previously recognized combining multilocus genetic data with techniques of 3D geometric morphometrics on the shell, is described here and named as Pyrenaearia guillenae n. sp. We provide information about the species diagnosis, distribution and habitat and assess its threat status...

To accurately delimit species the use of multiple character types is essential as all speciation processes are not equally reflected in different data (e.g. morphological, molecular or ecological characters). With the introduction of geometric morphometrics methods and advances in 3D technology, a comprehensive combination of molecular and morpholo...

Although the land snail Cepaea nemoralis is one of the most thoroughly investigated colour polymorphic species, there have been few recent studies on the inheritance of the shell traits. Previously, it has been shown that the shell polymorphism is controlled by a series of nine or more loci, of which five make a single 'supergene' containing tightl...

The Leptaxinae Boettger, 1909 is enclosed within the highly diverse land snail family Hygromiidae Tryon, 1866. Without a neat diagnostic morphological differences, the subfamily status is currently based solely on molecular information and it includes three disjunctly distributed tribes, Leptaxini, Cryptosaccini and Metafruticicolini. However, the...