Here you can find my CV (last update: September 2022)

My publications

If you have trouble accessing a paper please send me an e-mail (yuvitescu@gmail.com) and I will happily send you a pdf copy.

You can also check out my Google Scholar and ResearchGate profiles

Itescu, Y., Bernard-Verdier, M., Moesch, S. S., Mrugała, A., Mrugała, K., Musseau, C. L., and Jeschke, J. M. 2022. The Ecologist’s Career Compass: a game to explore career paths. Ecology and Evolution 12: e9259. Access here

Wolf, J. M., Jeschke, J. M, Voigt, C. C, and Itescu, Y. 2022. Urban affinity and its associated traits: a global analysis of bats. Global Change Biology 28: 5667-5682. Access here

Itescu, Y., Foufopoulos, J., Schwarz, R., Lymberakis, P., Slavenko, A., Gavriilidi, I-A., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2021. The island of extremes: giants and dwarfs on a small remote island. Russian Journal of Herpetology 28: 225-230. Access here

Slavenko, E., Maza, E., and Itescu, Y. 2021. Results of the first herpetological survey of Israel’s Mediterranean coastal islets. Russian Journal of Herpetology 28: 231-236. Access here

Schwarz, R., Stark, G., Antonopolous, A., Itescu, Y., Pafilis, P., Chapple, D.G., and Meiri, S. 2021. Specialist versus generalist at the intraspecific level: functional morphology and substrate preference of Mediodactylus kotschyi geckos. Integrative and Comparative Biology 61: 62-75. Access here

Meiri, S., Murali, G., Zimin, A., Shak, L., Itescu, Y., Caetano, G., and Roll, U. 2021. Different solutions lead to similar life history traits across the great divides of the amniote tree of life. Journal of Biological Research-Thessaloniki 28: 1-17. Access here

Schwarz, R., Itescu, Y., Antonopoulos, A., Gavriilidi, I-A., Tamar, K., Pafilis, P., and Meiri, S. 2020.  Isolation and predation drive gecko life-history evolution on islands. Biological journal of the Linnean Society 129: 618-629. Access here

Itescu, Y., Foufopoulos, J., Pafilis, P., and Meiri, S. 2020. The diverse nature of island isolation and its effect on land-bridge insular fauna. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29: 262-280. Access here

Itescu, Y. 2019. Are island-like systems biologically similar to islands? A review of the evidence. Ecography 42: 1298-1314. Access here

Stark, G., Tamar, K., Itescu, Y., Feldman, A., and Meiri, S. 2018. Cold and isolated ectotherms: drivers of reptilian longevity. Biological journal of the Linnean Society 125: 730-740. Access here

Itescu, Y., Schwarz, R., Donihue, C., Slavenko, A., Roussos, S.A., Sagonas, K., Valakos, E. D., Foufopoulos, J., Pafilis, P., and Meiri, S. 2018. Inconsistent patterns of body size evolution in co-occurring island reptiles. Global Ecology and Biogeography 27: 538-550. Access here

Itescu, Y., Schwarz, R., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2018. Lizard tail-loss rates on islands are not governed by longer life spans. Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution 63: 53-56. Access here

Kotsakiozi, P., Ilgaz, Ç., Jablonski, D., Kumlutaş, Y., Avcı, A., Meiri, S., Itescu, Y., Kukushkin, O., Gvoždík, V., Scillitani, G., Roussos, S., Jandzik, D., Kasapidis, P., Lymberakis, P., and Poulakakis, N. 2018. Multilocus phylogeny and coalescent species delimitation in Kotschy’s gecko, Mediodactylus kotschyi: hidden diversity and cryptic species. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 125: 177-187. Access here

Roll, U., Feldman, A., Novosolov, M., Allison, A., Bauer, A., Bernard, R., Bohm, M., Castro-Herrera, F., Chirio, L., Collen, B., Colli, G.R., Dabul, L., Das, I., Doan, T., Grismer, L., Hoogmoed, M., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton, M., Lewin, A., Martins, M., Maza, E., Meirte, D., Nagy,  Z., Nogueira, C.C., Pauwels, O.S.G., Pincheira-Donoso, D., Powney, G., Sindaco, R., Tallowin, O., Torres-Carvajal, O., Trape, J.F., Uetz, P., Vidan, E. Wagner, P., Wang, Y.Z., Orme, D., Grenyer, R., and Meiri, S. 2017. The global distribution of tetrapods reveals a need for targeted reptile conservation. Nature Ecology and Evolution 1: 1677-1682. Access here

Itescu, Y., Schwarz, R., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2017. Intra-specific competition, not predation, drives lizard tail loss on islands. Journal of Animal Ecology 86: 66-74. Access here

Itescu, Y., Jamison, S., Slavenko, A., Tamar, K., Roussos, S.A., Foufopoulos, J., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2017. The herpetofauna of Folegandros Island (Cyclades, Greece). Herpetozoa 29: 183-190. Access here

Goldberg, S. R., Bursey, C. R., Tallowin, O., Itescu, Y., and Maza, E. 2017. Hemorrhois nummifer (Asian Racer). Endoparasites. Herpetological Review 48: 213. Access here

Itescu, Y., Lewin, A., Slavenko, A., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2017. Podarcis erhardii (Erhard’s wall lizard). Extreme morphology. Herpetological Review 48: 199-200. Access here

Slavenko, A., Tallowin, O., Itescu, Y., Raia, P., and Meiri, S. 2016. Late Quaternary reptile extinctions: size matters, insularity dominates. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25: 1308-1320. Access here

Lewin, A., Feldman, A., Bauer, A.B., Belmaker, J., Broadley, D.G., Chirio, L., Itescu, Y., LeBerton, M., Maza, E., Meirte, D., Nagy, Z.T., Novosolov, M., Roll, U., Tallowin, O., Trape, J.F., Vidan, E., and Meiri, S.  2016. Patterns of species richness, endemism and environmental gradients of African reptiles. Journal of Biogeography 43: 2380-2390. Access here

Sabath, N., Itescu, Y., Feldman, A., Meiri, S., Mayrose, I., and Valenzuela, N. 2016. Sex determination, longevity, and the birth and death of reptilian species. Ecology and Evolution 6: 5207-5220. Access here

Roll, U., Mittermeier, J.C., Diaz, G.I., Novosolov, M., Feldman, A., Itescu, Y., Meiri, S., and Grenyer, R. 2016. Using Wikipedia page views to explore the cultural importance of global reptiles. Biological Conservation 204: 42-50. Access here

Schwarz, R., Gavriilidi, I.-A., Itescu, Y., Jamison, S., Sagonas, K., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2016. Mediodactylus kotschyi in the Peloponnese peninsula, Greece: distribution and habitat. Acta Herpetologica 11: 179-187. Access here

Slavenko, A., Itescu, Y., Ihlow, F., and Meiri, S. 2016. Home is where the shell is: predicting turtle home range sizes. Journal of Animal Ecology 85: 106-114. Access here

Itescu, Y., Slavenko, A., Schwarz, R., Meiri, S., and Pafilis, P. 2016. A new record of Chalcides ocellatus (Forskål, 1775) from Kythnos Island, Greece. Herpetozoa 29: 98-100. Access here

Itescu, Y., Schwarz, R., Moses, M., Pafilis, P., and Meiri, S. 2016. Record sizes for the Turkish house gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, from Aegean islands, Greece. The Herpetological Bulletin 138: 24-26. Access here

Newbold, T., Hudson, L. N., Hill, S. L. L., Contu, S., Lysenko, I., Senior, R. A., Börger, L., Bennett, D., Choimes, A., Collen, B., Day, J., De Palma, A., Díaz, S., Echeverria-Londoño, S., Edgar, M., Feldman, A., Garon, M., Harrison, M. L. K., Ingram, D. J., Itescu, Y., Kattge, J., Kemp, V., Kirkpatrick, L., Kleyer, M., Laginha Pinto Correia, D., Martin, C., Meiri, S., Novosolov, M., Pan, Y., Phillips, H. R. P., Purves, D. W., Robinson, A., Simpson, J., Tuck, S., Weiher, E., White, H. J., Ewers, R. M., Mace, G. M., Scharlemann, J. P. W., and Purvis, A. 2015. Global land-use impacts on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature 520: 45-50. Access here

Raia, P., Passaro, F., Carotenuto, F., Maiorino, L., Piras, P., Teresi, L., Meiri, S., Itescu, Y., Novosolov, M., Baiano, M. A., Martinez, R., and Fortelius, M. 2015. Cope’s rule and the universal scaling law of ornament complexity. The American Naturalist 186: 165-175. Access here

Slavenko, A., Itescu, Y., Foufopoulos, J., Pafilis, P., and Meiri, S. 2015. Clutch size variability in an ostensibly fix-clutched lizard: effects of insularity on a Mediterranean gecko. Evolutionary Biology 42: 129-136. Access here

Itescu, Y., Savyon, G., and Slavenko, A. 2015. Eryx jaculus (Sand Boa). Albinism. Herpetological Review 46: 103-104. Access here

Meiri, S., Kadison, A., Novosolov, M., Pafilis, P., Foufopoulos, J., Itescu, Y., Raia, P., and Pincheira-Donoso, D. 2014. The number of competitor species is unlinked to sexual dimorphism. Journal of Animal Ecology 83: 1302-1312. Access here

Itescu, Y., Karraker, N. E., Raia, P., Pritchard, P. C. H., and Meiri, S. 2014. Is the Island rule general? Turtles disagree. Global Ecology and Biogeography 23: 689-700. Access here