The biodiversity crisis, particularly dramatic in freshwaters, has prompted further setting of global and regional conservation priorities. Species rarity and endemism are among the most fundamental criteria for establishing these priorities. We studied the patterns of rarity and the role of rare species in community uniqueness using data on freshwater bivalve molluscs (family Unionidae) in Tex...

Species ranges have been shifting since the Pleistocene, whereby fragmentation, isolation, and the subsequent reduction in gene flow have resulted in local adaptation of novel genotypes and the repeated evolution of endemic species. While there is a wide body of literature focused on understanding endemic species, very few studies empirically test whether or not the evolution of endemics result...

The benthic macrofauna of Arctic and subarctic seas is mainly represented by widespread species generally devoid endemics. exceptions are reduced habitats, such as cold seeps, hydrothermal areas, wood falls, which include endemics at least the level. A detailed study analysis allows us to understand mechanisms colonization assess age fauna high-latitude marine regions. Here, new Provanna annae ...

Habitat specialization plays an important role in the creation and loss of biodiversity over ecological and evolutionary time scales. In California, serpentine soils have a distinctive flora, with 246 serpentine habitat specialists (i.e., endemics). Using molecular phylogenies for 23 genera containing 784 taxa and 51 endemics, we infer few transitions out of the endemic state, which is shown by...

Local endemic species with their unique evolutionary history always stirred the interest of scientists. One such area especially rich in endemics is northern Italy. In case of pill millipedes of the genus Glomeris Latreille, 1803, only a single species is found in northern Europe, while 22 country-endemics alone are known from Italy. Many of these endemics, however, have not been studied in sev...

Within the unglaciated eastern United States, where the natural vegetation is mostly deciduous forest, edaphically-controlled herbaceous plant communities occur on unshaded rock outcrops in shallow soil developed from serpentine, shale, granite, limestone, dolomite, sandstone, chert, rhyolite and other rock types. The most distinctive features of the flora of these communities are their endemic...