Mitopus morio is a widespread harvestman species occurring in most of Europe and in moderate and cold-moderate zones of Asia and North America. The species is characterized by extreme variability in body size and leg length. As leg length is correlated with habitat temperature, M. morio has been considered as an example of Allen's rule. Recently, observations for a single location in Tyrol, Austria, indicated the absence of mating between short- and long-legged individuals. This...

For a long time, the genus Knebelia Van Straelen, 1922 has comprised two species of eryonid lobster, K. bilobata (Münster, 1839) and K. schuberti (Meyer, 1836), both recorded exclusively from Late Jurassic Lagerstätten in southern Germany. Recently, the latter has been suggested to represent a juvenile individual of Cycleryon propinquus (Schlotheim, 1822). A re-examination of the type and new material has led to our rejection of that interpretation and confirmation of assignment of this species...

Some microbial eukaryotes, such as the extremophilic red alga Galdieria sulphuraria, can live in hot, toxic metal-rich, acidic environments. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of adaptation, we sequenced the 13.7 Mb genome of G. sulphuraria. This alga shows an enormous metabolic flexibility, growing either photoautotrophically or heterotrophically on more than 50 carbon sources. Environmental adaptation seems to have been facilitated by horizontal gene transfer from various bacteria and archaea, often followed by gene family...