Gopal Murali

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | bgu · Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research

The Living Planet Report1, which has been published biannually since 1998, is key for understanding trends in wildlife populations and promoting sound conservation. Leung et al. 2020 recently disagreed with the conclusions of the Living Planet Report and found that the overall pattern of population declines stems from very few populations (extreme...

Amniote vertebrates share a suite of extra-embryonic membranes that distinguish them from anamniotes. Other than that, however, their reproductive characteristics could not be more different. They differ in basic ectothermic vs endothermic physiology, in that two clades evolved powered flight, and one clade evolved a protective shell. In terms of r...

Deciphering global trends in phylogenetic endemism is crucial for understanding broad-scale evolutionary patterns and the conservation of key elements of biodiversity. However, knowledge to date on global phylogenetic endemism and its determinants has been lacking. Here, we conduct the first global analysis of phylogenetic endemism patterns of land...

Camouflage through background matching is a widespread antipredator strategy in which animals blend in with their background to avoid detection. To maximise survival in a variable natural environment, animals can have colourations that either match one of the backgrounds maximally (i.e. specialist strategy) or match multiple backgrounds partially (...

Many animals have colour patterns that appear to change dynamically when the animal moves. Experiments have suggested that such colour patterns, termed ‘dynamic flash’ coloration, can reduce predatory attacks by misrepresenting the prey's location. However, the conditions that make this coloration effective are not known. We here tested the influen...

Motion dazzle markings comprise patterns such as stripes and zigzags that are postulated to protect moving prey by making predators misjudge the prey's speed or trajectory. Recent experiments have provided conflicting results on their effect on speed perception and attack success. We focus on motion dazzle stripes and investigate the influence of f...

The confusion effect - the decreased attack-to-kill ratio of a predator with increase in prey group size - is thought to be one of the main reasons for the evolution of group living in animals. Despite much interest, the influence of prey coloration on the confusion effect is not well understood. We hypothesized that dynamic colour change in motion...

The reproductive biology and dietary habits of Lycodon nympha, a small, rare colubrid that occurs in India and Sri Lanka, are mostly unknown, except for a few notes on its reproduction. Herein we provide the basic data on their reproduction (clutch size, dimensions of the eggs, incubation period, morphometry and physical description of the hatchlin...

The development of methods to estimate rates of speciation and extinction from time-calibrated phylogenies has revolutionized evolutionary biology by allowing researchers to correlate diversification rate shifts with causal factors. A growing number of researchers are interested in testing whether the evolution of a trait or a trait variant has inf...

Understanding the functions of animal coloration has been a long‐standing question in evolutionary biology. For example, the widespread occurrence of striking longitudinal stripes and colourful tails in lizards begs for an explanation. Experiments have suggested that colourful tails can deflect attacks towards the tail (the ‘deflection’ hypothesis)...

Animals employ a diverse array of colorations to avoid being consumed by predators. While much research has focused on patterns that work when the animal remains stationary, studies examining the role of colour patterns that function when it moves to avoid predation remain scarce. Here, I propose and test the hypothesis that striking colorations th...

The development of methods to estimate rates of speciation and extinction from time- calibrated phylogenies has revolutionized evolutionary biology by allowing researchers to correlate diversification rate shifts with causal ecological factors. A growing number of researchers are interested in testing whether the evolution of a trait or a trait var...

“Motion dazzle” patterns are a form of defensive coloration suggested to prevent successful capture during motion by causing predators to misjudge the direction or speed of prey movement. Several studies have found results supporting this idea but little is known about the factors that favor the evolution of these antipredator colorations. A recent...

Does convergent evolution always result from different lineages experiencing similar evolutionary dynamics? Hagey et al (2017) report the dynamics of adhesive performance evolution to be distinct in two lizard clades (anoles and geckos) despite independent convergence in adhesive toe pad structures, suggesting convergence can occur with dissimilar...

Conspicuous coloration, which presumably makes prey more visible to predators, has intrigued researchers for long. Contrastingly coloured, conspicuous striped patterns are common among lizards and other animals, but their function is not well known. We propose and test a novel hypothesis, the ‘redirection hypothesis’, wherein longitudinal striped p...

Amyloid beta peptide accumulation in the brain poses a serious threat during Alzheimer’s disease. Various strategies to remove or disrupt these plaques with nanoparticles is an emerging area for the treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. The present work attempts to develop a novel strategy to remove the plaques using magnetic field by employing...