Marc Cheylan

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes | EPHE · UMR Biogéographie et écologie des vertébrés (CEFE)

the high "recapture" (via photo identification) rates (between 0.465 ± 0.053 and 0.986 ± 0.014 in spring, lower in autumn) and the isolation of the study site. Résumé L'étude utilise la photo-identification pour suivre une population de lézards ocellés (Timon lepidus Daudin, 1802) dans le sud-est de la France. Les données de capture-marquage-recapt...

With five currently recognized species that form several secondary contact zones, slow worms (Anguidae: Anguis) offer a valuable model to study the fate of evolutionary lineages in the face of hybridization and genetic introgression. The relationships between the Western Slow Worm Anguis fragilis and the Italian Slow Worm Anguis veronensis are part...

In snakes, mean and maximal body sizes are influenced by habitats. Indeed, body size reflects the effects of food availability, climatic condition and longevity. Therefore, reporting unusual large body sizes across the distribution area of snake species provides useful information. We report a record size for the Southern Smooth Snake (Coronella gi...

As part of the study of the fauna and flora of the islets of the Provençal coast, the PIM Initiative organized a day of fauna exploration on 9 July 2022 on three coastal islets of the Côte d’Azur East of Saint-Raphael. Participants : Romane Blaya, Julie Braschi, Marc Cheylan, Claudia Corti, Michel Delaugerre and Eva Tankovic. The islets of this sec...

Comparative studies of mortality in the wild are necessary to understand the evolution of aging; yet, ectothermic tetrapods are underrepresented in this comparative landscape, despite their suitability for testing evolutionary hypotheses. We present a study of aging rates and longevity across wild tetrapod ectotherms, using data from 107 population...

It is difficult to obtain evidence of population trends for some animals due to their elusive behaviour and/or low density, hindering the acquisition of quantitative data to measure population size that would allow an evaluation of their vulnerability. This is the case for top predators such as snakes. This study explores the usefulness of citizen-...

Un programme d’études archéologiques de sept tours côtières de Corse a mis au jour des vestiges fauniques en quantités et en occurrences suffisamment nombreuses pour livrer des résultats bien étayés sur l’alimentation carnée et sur les modalités d’approvisionnement des occupants des tours en viande de vertébrés, de mollusques et de crustacés à part...

The slow-worm lizards (Anguis) comprise five species occurring throughout most of the Western Palearctic. Although these species are relatively uniform morphologically – with the exception of A. cephallonica, which exhibits a quite unique morphology – they are genetically deeply divergent. Here, we provide detailed distribution maps for each species...

Aim To test the hypothesis that spatial variations in climate and land use explain the distribution and diversity of reptiles’ ecological traits in a biodiversity hotspot of the Mediterranean basin. Location French Mediterranean region. Taxon Reptiles (25 species). Methods We defined 288 species assemblages from 27,858 opportunistic occurrence r...

The processes underlying macroecological gradients in body size are widely debated, in part because their intraspecific variability remains poorly described even in well-studied taxa such as vertebrates. In this study, we investigated how climate, habitat, genetic lineage and sex explain body size variations in French populations of the European po...

First observed case of nectarivorous behaviour in Podarcis muralis (Laurenti, 1768) in a micro-insular population on a French island (Île du Grand Rouveau, Var). On 2 May 2019, on the Grand Rouveau island (Embiez Archipelago in the French department of Var), we observed three common wall lizards-Podarcis muralis-feeding on the nectar of Lotus cytis...

Amphibians are well known as being one of the main groups of animals today most threatened by environmental changes but they are also some of the least well understood of all terrestrial vertebrates. This gap in knowledge is much greater as we look further back into the relatively recent past, despite representing an invaluable resources in archaeo...

Aujourd’hui animaux de compagnie, les tortues ont été consommées en Europe et en France jusqu’à la fin du 19ème siècle. Elles faisaient l’objet d’un commerce florissant pour l’alimentation, mais aussi pour bien d’autres usages.

The Ocellated Lizard, Timon lepidus (Daudin 1802) occupies the Mediterranean regions of southwestern Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, and the extreme northwest of Italy). Over the last decades, a marked decline in its population has been observed, particularly on the northern edge of its distribution. As a result, it is currently considered a threa...

In the south of France, the so-called climate hiatus from 1998 to 2013 was associated with a late winter cooling which has affected the phenology of several reptiles and amphibian species, delaying their dates of first appearances in spring. This episode has been related to a period of frequently negative values of the North Atlantic Oscillation in...

Une nouvelle liste taxinomique de référence est établie pour les Amphibiens et les Sauropsides non aviens (= « Reptiles ») de la France métropolitaine. Elle tient compte des publications les plus récentes. À côté du nom scientifique zoologique, un nom scientifique français est joint à chaque taxon. Summary- New taxonomic checklist of the herpetof...

Several recent papers have reviewed the life and work of French herpetologist Louis Amédée Lantz. They have detailed the composition of his collections deposited in several museums. However, since then, several other important specimens from his collections deposited at the Natural History Museum (NHM, UK) have come to light and we here present all...

The responses of animal communities to fire are not well understood. We used modelling techniques to analyse how fire altered the habitat suitability of amphibian and reptile species across a 37-year chronosequence (1975-2011). The study was conducted at a biogeographical crossroads between the Mediterranean and medio-European bioregions. Using 944...

We used 454-sequencing to identify and characterize 32 microsatellite loci for the Western Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni hermanni) for which primer sequences, characteristics, and multiplexes are provided. These markers have been tested for one continental (Var) and one insular (Corsica) French population as well as for the Eastern Hermann’s...

The responses of animal communities to fire are not well understood. We used modelling techniques to analyse how fire altered the habitat suitability of amphibian and reptile species across a 37-year chronosequence (1975–2011). The study was conducted at a biogeographical crossroads between the Mediterranean and medio-European bioregions. Using 944...

Although classified among the greatest threats to the world's biodiversity, the effects of land use and their scale dependency are left unexplored in many taxonomic groups. Reptiles are among the most data‐deficient vertebrates in this respect, although their ecological traits make them highly sensitive to habitat modifications. We tested whether l...

Huit années après la première réintroduction de cistudes d’Europe Emys orbicularis à la Réserve Naturelle Nationale de l’Estagnol (Villeneuve-Lès-Maguelone, Hérault), une évaluation de la dynamique démographique de la population est proposée grâce à la mise en place d’un protocole de Capture – Marquage – Recapture

Evaluation of a long-term method to monitor the gecko Euleptes europaea on Grand Rouveau Island (Embiez Archipelago, Var, France).-Population surveys are a prerequisite for evaluating the demographic trends of species. Moreover, they are indispensable for assessing conservation measures implemented to protect threatened species. Accurate surveys re...

Evaluation of a long-term method to monitor the gecko Euleptes europaea on Grand Rouveau Island (Embiez Archipelago, Var, France) Population surveys are a prerequisite for evaluating the demographic trends of species. Moreover, they are indispensable for assessing conservation measures implemented to protect threatened species. Accurate surveys req...

Amphibians are a highly endangered taxonomic group, and invasion of alien species in wetland systems has been involved in this decline. The Pinail Nature Reserve, Vienne, France, contains more than 5,000 ponds, many of which are occupied by introduced Pumpkinseed Sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). We sampled ponds with and without sunfish for amphibian sp...

The pervasive and unabated nature of global amphibian declines suggests common demographic responses to a given driver, and quantification of major drivers and responses could inform broad-scale conservation actions. We explored the influence of climate on demographic parameters (i.e., changes in the probabilities of survival and recruitment) using...

La diminution des habitats de dune grise entraîne actuellement une fragmentation de la population. La structuration actuelle de la forêt ainsi que l’urbanisation en arrière du littoral ne permettent pas d’envisager la colonisation d’autres milieux. Le recul du trait de côte devrait s’amplifier avec le réchauffement climatique : l’érosion future est...

Herps, especially amphibians, are particularly susceptible to climate change, since temperature tightly controls many parameters of their biological cycle - above all, their phenology. The timing of herps' activity or migration period - in particular the dates of their first appearance in spring and first breeding - and the shift to earlier dates i...

Biodiversity conservation requires strategies that encompass a variety of land uses and habitat diversity. In this study, we used sites of high ecological interest identified on the basis of the distribution of priority plant and vertebrate species to assess the implications of habitat diversity for conservation management in the Mediterranean mosa...

The Montpellier Snake, emblematic snake of the Mediterranean Midi, is currently named Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann, 1804). It was described as Coluber monspessulanus by Jean Hermann, in a posthumous work published in 1804. More than two centuries later, the single type or holotype was not located in the collections of the Musée zoologique de la...

Genetic introgression has recently become an important concern for conservation genetics as it can occur between rare and related common species, between various genetic groups and between individuals from different origins. Our aims were: (i) to determine whether hybridisation or introgression occurs between Emys orbicularis subspecies in a natura...

Distribution and status of the Ocellated lizard Timon lepidus (Daudin, 1802) (Squamata, Sauria, Lacertidae) in western “Occitanie” (ancient “Midi-Pyrénées” region in the Southwest of France). The current knowledge of the Ocellated lizard Timon lepidus’s distribution and status in the former “Midi-Pyrénées” region is exposed. This lizard is at prese...

Faced with to the need to develop longterm monitoring in the evaluation framework of ecological restoration operations on the Grand Rouveau island (Embiez Islands, Var), several types of artificial deposits were tested on the European leaftoed gecko, Euleptes europaea, as a species with high conservation issue, which distribution is almost exclusiv...

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) is Europe's most widely distributed and, in many regions, most common snake species, with many morphologically defined subspecies. Yet, the taxonomy of grass snakes is relatively little studied and recent work has shown major conflicts between morphologically defined subspecies and phylogeographical differentiation....

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) occurs in many morphologically defined subspecies throughout its range from North Africa over whole Europe to Asia. This widely accepted subspecies concept was recently challenged by the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Kindler et al. (2013), who identified a high number of clades that do not match previous subdivi...

This short communication charts the history of the extinction of the ocellated lizard Timon lepidus on the island of Porquerolles (Provence, France). Surveys carried out in 2001 and 2002 to locate the species proved unsuccessful, suggesting that the species became extinct in this habitat in the 2000s. The causes of its disappearance seem to be unfa...

1. Most studies on the effect of drought on the biodiversity of freshwater systems have focussed on natural droughts. We sought to assess the effects of artificial drainage on the population dynamics of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis). We investigated whether the probability of survival and emigration/immigration was affected by short-t...

Using virtually range-wide sampling for three pond turtle taxa (Emys orbicularis galloitalica, E. o. hellenica, E. trinacris), we analyse gene flow across their southern Italian contact zone. Based on population genetic analyses of 15 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci and a mitochondrial marker, we show that the general genetic pattern matches...

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We used a multidisciplinary approach to infer the taxonomy and historical biogeography of Hierophis viridiflavus and H. gemonensis, performing molecular analyses of mitochondrial (16S, Cyt-b, ND4) and nuclear markers (PRLR), a landmark-based morphometric study and a cytogenetic analysis. Our data distinguished three main groups in the studied speci...

This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological analyses at the Early Bronze Age Archontiko, Giannitsa, and attempts a first synthesis of data. The systematic excavation revealed large samples of zooarchaeological material, such as domestic and wild fauna, turtles and birds, fishes and molluscs that allowed insights into the economical pra...

This guide seeks to provide practical tips to anyone involved in activities in rural areas, allowing them to preserve the habitat of the tortoise, so as to ensure its continued presence. This booklet, the fruit of several years co-operation between scientists and managers of natural habitats, and written to conclude the European “Life+ Hermann’s to...

Enquêtes récentes sur le lézard ocellé, Timon lepidus lepidus, populations le long de la française et italienne frontière autorisée à mettre à jour la répartition de l'espèce et état de conservation. Deux populations reliant les deux pays ont été découvertes et plusieursdes voies entre la France et l'Italie sont suspectées. Nous discutons également...

Recent surveys on the ocellated lizard, Timon lepidus lepidus, populations along the French and Italian border allowed to update the species’ distribution and conservation status. Two populations connecting the two countries were discovered and several pathways between France and Italy are suspected. We also discuss the status of these populations...

The Provencal and Corsican maquis shelter the last wild terrestrial tortoise of France: the Hermann's tortoise. The last strongholds of the species, emblematic of South-eastern France, are to be found in the center of the Var and in Corsica (the Southern half of the island and the Eastern plain). With its numbers declining right across its European...

Historical factors, current popul ation size, population connectivity and selective processes at linked loci contribute to shaping contemporary patterns of neutral genetic diversity. It is now widely acknowledged that nuclear and mitochondrial markers react differently to current demography as well as to past history, so the use of both types of ma...

The aim of any reintroduction program is to create a viable population that is self-sustaining in the long term. Thus, in the short term, it is important to evaluate the acclimation of reintroduced individuals in order to assess the potential success of the project. In this study, we radio-tracked 30 European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) reintro...

ABSTRACT. – The aim of any reintroduction program is to create a viable population that is selfsustaining in the long term. Thus, in the short term, it is important to evaluate the acclimation of reintroduced individuals in order to assess the potential success of the project. In this study, we radio-tracked 30 European pond turtles (Emys orbicular...