Anamarija Žagar

National Institute of Biology - Nacionalni inštitut za biologijo | NIB · Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research

High altitude imposes several extreme constraints on life, such as low oxygen pressure and high levels of ultraviolet radiation, which require specialized adaptations. Many studies have focused on how endothermic vertebrates respond to these challenging environments, but there is still uncertainty on how ectotherms adapt to these conditions. Here,...

Squamate reptiles are central for studying phenotypic correlates of evolutionary transitions from oviparity to viviparity because these transitions are numerous, with many of them being recent. Several models of life‐history theory predict that viviparity is associated with increased female size, and thus more female‐biased sexual size dimorphism (...

Aerobic respiration is the main energy source for most eukaryotes, and efficient mitochondrial energy transfer greatly influences organismal fitness. To survive environmental changes, cells have evolved to adjust their biochemistry. Thus, measuring energy metabolism at the subcellular level can enhance our understanding of individual performance, p...

Structurally, reptilian skin is a relatively complex, multi-layered organ. The upper layers of the skin, the epidermis, are highly keratinized, with keratin being produced by keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis (the stratum basale (germinativum)). Keratin can be found in the form of scales in lizards. All reptiles, including lizards,...

Agroenvironments are pivotal for supplying critical ecosystem services (i.e., food production and materials), but still relying on constant human interventions, such as the application of agrochemicals against pest outbreaks. The use of these products can pose direct and indirect ecotoxicological risks to non-target organisms eventually escalating...

Many authors have suggested that the microstructure of the superficial surface of scales has undergone important adaptations and holds functional value in lizards. In this study, we investigated the existing variation of scale microstructures in lizards by conducting a systematic literature review and using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to exa...

This report is a product of the COST Action CA18221 PERIAMAR, PEsticide RIsk AssessMent for Amphibians and Reptiles As part of the pesticide risk assessment, a characterization of the exposure of amphibians and reptiles to pesticides is necessary. In the first-tier assessment, it is common practice to estimate pesticide exposure using worst-case sc...

Variability of abiotic conditions is an essential component of understanding species coexistence. Our study investigates the underlying abiotic factors impacting the ecological dynamics of two lacertid lizard species, Podarcis muralis (lowland generalist) and Iberolacerta horvathi (highland specialist), which overlap geographically but exhibit dist...

Better understanding how organisms respond to their abiotic environment, especially at the biochemical level, is critical in predicting population trajectories under climate change. In this study, we measured constitutive stress biomarkers and protein post-translational modifications associated with oxidative stress in Gallotia galloti, an insular...

A male Gallotia galloti basking on an ancient lava flow in the south of Tenerife

Host abundance might favour the maintenance of a high phylogenetic diversity of some parasites via rapid transmission rates. Blood parasites of insular lizards represent a good model to test this hypothesis because these parasites can be particularly prevalent in islands and host lizards highly abundant. We applied deep amplicon sequencing and anal...

Bottom left: The Tenerife lizard (Gallotia galloti) lives from sea-level until the top of a volcanic cone (in the background) 3,700 metres high in the island of Tenerife, Spain; photograph by Rodrigo Megía-Palma; pp. 2042–2056.

The coexistence of multiple discrete color phenotypes (i.e. color polymorphism) has been studied in many diurnal species where environmental light allows most visual systems to chromatically discriminate color morphs. However, there is a large gap in our understanding of the discrimination thresholds and the function color polymorphisms play at nig...

Aim Physiological and metabolic performance are key mediators of the functional response of species to environmental change. Few environments offer such a multifaceted array of stressors as high‐altitude habitats, which differ markedly in temperature, water availability, UV radiation and oxygen pressure compared to low‐altitude habitats. Species th...

Dynamic energy budget model for Iberolacerta horvathi. The model data and code are availble from the add_my_pet database on the below link: https://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/deb/deblab/add_my_pet/entries_web/Iberolacerta_horvathi/Iberolacerta_horvathi_res.html

Many small lizards live in structurally and thermally heterogeneous environments where they can select preferred microhabitats and surface temperatures to optimize their activity. We examined microhabitat selection and analyzed surface temperatures selected by two ecologically similar lacertid species, Iberolacerta horvathi and Podarcis muralis, at...

Ectothermic organisms such as lizards are metabolically tied to many abiotic factors shaping their thermal environment. The dynamic nature of such environments can influence their development, growth and reproductive patterns. Simultaneously, intraguild biotic interactions can also influence their energy allocation. An example of such a pair of spe...

Many authors have suggested that the microstructure of the superficial surface of scales have undergone important adaptations and have functional value in lizards. In this study, we investigated the variation of the microstructure of the dorsal scales of four species of Lacertidae family that originated from different climate and habitat: Zootoca v...

The alpine newt Ichthyosaura alpestris is widely distributed in Europe. Populations in the Mediterranean peninsulas (Iberian Peninsula, Apennines, Balkans) harbour several subspecies and varieties that have been described mainly on the basis of external morphology. mtDNA and nuDNA analyses revealed considerable intraspecific differentiation with cl...

Many abiotic and biotic aspects of the environment determine the survival of ectotherms such as lacertids. Specifically, many aspects of their lifestyle like, daily activity windows, time spent basking, searching for food and thermoregulation are heavily dependent on the thermal quality of the habitat and its temporal and spatial variation. Another...

We tested the Bogert`s effect hypothesis which predicts that behavioural thermoregulation would uncouple physiology from thermal environment. We investigated three key physiological parameters related to metabolism in adult males of five lizard species with different temperature preferences (Tp) that were collected during fall 2020 in Portugal: hae...

Studies which quantify the influence of abiotic factors on physiological variation are paramount to comprehend organismal responses to diverse environments. We studied three physiological aspects of metabolism in two sympatric and ecologically similar European lizard species, Podarcis muralis and Iberolacerta horvathi, across an 830-m elevational g...

Increasing trends in environmental temperatures and changes in the hydrological cycle caused by climate change are affecting organisms around the world. Water balance is an important feature of organisms as warmer and drier environments increase water vapour pressure deficit and cutaneous water loss. The aim of our study was to understand the hourl...

Colour polymorphism may be accompanied by alternative expressions of phenotypic traits that are directly or indirectly related to fitness, and selection forces may act on the traits separately or concurrently. In polymorphic species, natural selection may act through frequency- or density-dependent mechanisms and maintain polymorphism through inter...

Amphibians are considered as one of the most endangered groups of animals globally and one of the reasons for population decline is overuse of pesticides. Alpha cypermethrin and difenoconazole are commonly used pesticides and their run-off due to floods or precipitation leads to accumulation in aquatic ecosystems, which has been proven to have a ne...

In parasite-host interactions host species may differ in their ability to fight parasitic infections, while other ecological interactions, including competition, may differentially alter their physiological state, making them even more susceptible to parasites. In this study, we analyze the haemogregarine blood parasites infecting two competing liz...

Organisms face numerous environmental stressors, which can affect developmental precision, including symmetry of various physical characteristics. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has therefore been suggested as a simple and efficient tool for assessing sub-lethal stress levels. We analyzed FA in two sympatric lizard species (Iberolacerta horvathi and Po...

Higher air temperatures and drier conditions may create stronger water vapour pressure and increase rates of cutaneous water loss, while elevated body temperatures may in turn directly speed up metabolic rates that lead to higher respiratory water loss. Therefore, water budgets are an important organismal trait for understanding their responses to...

The Horvath’s rock lizard Iberolacerta horvathi (Méhely, 1904) is an understudied lacertid species, which is geographically isolated from its congeners and currently classified as Near Threatened under IUCN red listing criteria. Due to its limited distribution and narrow environmental preferences, we expect that the species had been affected by pas...

Anthropization of insular ecosystems may have negative impacts on native populations of lizards, which provide core ecosystem services on islands. We aimed to identify environmental factors to explain the interlocal variation in faecal glucocorticoids, parasite intensity, and body condition in populations of insular lizards. A cross-sectional desig...

Understanding how organisms adapt to complex environments is of special interest in the current era of rapidly changing climatic conditions (Parmesan et al., 1999; Parmesan, 2006). Widespread species have to cope with a variety of environmental conditions within their distribution ranges. Accordingly, selective pressures show spatial variation, whi...

Climatic conditions changing over time and space shape the evolution of organisms at multiple levels, including temperate lizards in the family Lacertidae. Here we reconstruct a dated phylogenetic tree of 262 lacertid species based on a supermatrix relying on novel phylogenomic datasets and fossil calibrations. Diversification of lacertids was acco...

The common wall lizard has been widely introduced across Europe and overseas. We investigated the origin of putatively introduced Podarcis muralis populations from two southern Europe localities: (i) Ljubljana (Slovenia), where uncommon phenotypes were observed near the railway tracks and (ii) the port of Vigo (Spain), where the species was recentl...

Basal metabolic activity and freezing of body fluids create reactive oxygen species (ROS) in freeze-tolerant organisms. These sources of ROS can have an additive negative effect via oxidative stress. In cells, antioxidant systems are responsible for removing ROS in order to avoid damage due to oxidative stress. Relatively little is known about the...

Locomotor performance provides one of the key pieces of information regarding whole-organism function. Experiments encompassing behavioral data commonly endeavor to measure parameters such as burst speed, latency time, distance traveled, and other aspects of locomotion. Behavioral experiments can uncover an immense range of information, from the in...

The metabolic performance of ectotherms is expected to be driven by the environment in which they live. Ecologically similar species with contrasting elevation distributions occurring in sympatry at mid-elevations, provide good models for studying how physiological responses to temperature vary as a function of adaptation to different elevations.....

Parasites are important drivers for shaping populations; they can significantly affect clutch size, hatching success, and individual’s survival, among others. In ecologically similar host species shared parasites may shape the interspecific interaction. Our goal is to investigate the role of parasites in shaping populations of two lizard species: I...

1.We examined intra- and interspecific variation in functional morphology and whole-organism performance in a sympatric lizard species pair, Iberolacerta horvathi and Podarcis muralis, in the area with a high potential for competition. 2.The biggest variation between species was found in two functional traits, bite force and climbing speed, linked...

Transition zones between bioregions can sustain the coexistence of species with different biogeographic affinities through ecological niche segregation at a finer scale. Reptiles can serve as a good model group to evaluate the mechanisms behind such coexistence patterns especially due to their thermal sensibility to microhabitat structure. We exami...

We assessed whether ecophysiological requirements are consistent with the environmental traits within the current ranges in a relictual lizard group, Algyroides, composed of four species with restricted and disjunctive distributions. We considered temperature, precipitation and their seasonal profiles, and focused on the preferred body temperature...

The study reports on the distribution and habitat use of two lizard species in the Kočevsko region: Horvath’s rock lizard and common wall lizard. Extensive sampling across an altitudinal span of 200 to 1,100 m a.s.l. in the study area revealed 62 localities with populations of both or either species. At 11 of these localities (18%) species occurred...

Based on broad, nearly rangewide sampling, we reanalysed the phylogeography of the Lacerta viridis complex using the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the intron 7 of the nuclear β-fibrinogen gene. Using the mitochondrial marker, we identified in phylogenetic analyses 10 terminal clades clustering in four deeply divergent main lineages whose rela...

Prey response to different predators is complex and can include diverse antipredatory strategies. In syntopic populations of competing species common predators can play a mediator role thus influence the interaction out-come of prey-species in an indirect way. We studied differences in antipredator response in two competing lizards in syntopy in a...

Solar radiation is in theory an unlimited resource on Earth, but can be locally limited. Heliothermic organisms use solar radiation to elevate their body temperatures, leading them to compete for sun-exposed areas, where interference for limited resource can occur. In coexisting lizard species, interference for basking sites could promote and direc...

Sympatric species from the same ecological guild, that exhibit partial altitudinal segregation, can potentially interact in areas of syntopic occurrence. Besides general species' ecology, physiology can provide important answers about species interactions reflected in altitudinal patterns. Lizards Podarcis muralis and Iberolacerta horvathi exhibit...

The article presents results from a reptile survey conducted between 14 and 16 June 2013 in a mon-tane and subalpine belt of the western part of Dinara Mountain in Croatia. The most interesting result is the southernmost finding of Horvath's Rock lizard (Iberolacerta horvathi). In the survey area we also recorded eight other reptile species: Anguis...

Abstract Human harvest is the most important mortality factor for wild ungulates in Europe and can affect several aspects of ungulate biology. There is a growing concern about possible negative side effects of human harvest. To better understand the differences between human and natural mortality, we compared the extent, age and sex structure, nutr...

The lizards Podarcis muralis and Iberolacerta horvathi display an overall similarity in morphology and ecology. Although they are widely sympatric in part of their distribution range of Slovenia, areas of altitudinal segregation have been observed. Ecophysiological traits such as preferred body temperatures (Tp) and rates of evaporative water loss...

Infestation by ticks affects several vertebrate groups, including reptiles. Castor bean tick Ixodes ricinus is the most widespread tick species. Here we report an impressive tick infestation of a male green lizard Lacerta viridis/bilineata found in 2012 in the vicinity of Bilpa cave in the Kolpa valley, Slovenia. Lizards as tick hosts can play an i...

We have surveyed sympatric reptiles in a diverse and preserved montane environment in the Northern Dinaric region (Southern Slovenia) to determine the assemblage structure and assess the patterns of habitat segregation. Altitude and habitat type contributed the most to segregations between the most abundant species. The most similar were species pa...

In this paper we present distributional data for reptiles from different localities in the Western Balkans. During an 11 year period (2002-2012) we collected new data in the frame of spring student research camps organized by the Biology Students' Society (DŠB). Surveys were conducted by members of the herpetological groups that were mostly biology...

Continuous monitoring of population size and distribution is crucial for conservation and effective management of any species, but is often difficult to maintain, especially for elusive species like the grey wolf. Many forget on the importance of collecting data on the field. Large wolf populated areas are difficult and expensive to monitor. Collab...

Podarcis muralis and Iberolacerta horvathi are sympatric, frequently syntop-ic, lacertids through the entire range of I. horvathi and very similar in their general body size and shape, as well as in most ecological traits. We morphologically com-pared adults from the area of sympatry using biometric measurements and performed analyses to investigat...

The dice snake (Natrix tessellata) is a protected species in Slovenia, whose distribution is incompletely known and only little information about its habitat use is available. We analyzed historical and recent distributional data and performed a study of habitat use to acquire relevant information for the conservation of dice snakes in Slo-venia. U...

Field observation on 4th May 2008, in a mixed forest near Podblica on the Jelovica plateau, north-western Slovenia (46.2572°N, 14.1973°E) of adult male of Horvath's Rock Lizard, Iberolacerta horvathi (Mehely, 1904), preying on female Slovenian Scorpion of Euscorpius gamma Di Caporiacco, 1950.

V prispevku podajamo pregled podatkov o razširjenosti plazilcev v Sloveniji, zbranih do aprila leta 2009. Podatki so predstavljeni na mreži UTM-kvadratov 10×10 km in razdeljeni glede na čas najdbe na obdobje pred letom 1996 in obdobje od 1996 do 2009. S tem prispevkom želimo postaviti osnovo za nadaljnje zbiranje podatkov na terenu in opozoriti na...

Due to the similarities in coloration and habitat preferences of I. horvathi and P. muralis , it is usually necessary to catch an individual to determine the species. As it was thought in the past that Horvath's Rock Lizard is limited to the high regions of the Alps and Dinaric Mts., this species has often not been considered an option when determi...