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Evolutionary developmental biology and morphology

Section edited by David Ferrier

This section considers studies in the evolution of development and developmental processes, and into morphological evolution.

Page 1 of 5

  1. The shape of the semicircular canals of the inner ear of living squamate reptiles has been used to infer phylogenetic relationships, body size, and life habits. Often these inferences are made without controll...

    Authors: Ashley E. Latimer, Emma Sherratt, Timothée Bonnet and Torsten M. Scheyer
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2023 23:10
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. Sharks and rays are some of the most threatened marine taxa due to the high levels of bycatch and significant demand for meat and fin-related products in many Asian communities. At least 25% of shark and ray s...

    Authors: Yin Cheong Aden Ip, Jia Jin Marc Chang, Kelvin K. P. Lim, Zeehan Jaafar, Benjamin J. Wainwright and Danwei Huang
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:166
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Domestication alters several phenotypic, neurological, and physiological traits in domestic animals compared to those in their wild ancestors. Domestic ducks originated from mallards, and some studies have sho...

    Authors: Tao Zhu, Xin Qi, Yu Chen, Liang Wang, Xueze Lv, Weifang Yang, Jianwei Zhang, Kaiyang Li, Zhonghua Ning, Zhihua Jiang and Lujiang Qu
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:165
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. The ancestral presence of epithelia in Metazoa is no longer debated. Porifera seem to be one of the best candidates to be the sister group to all other Metazoa. This makes them a key taxon to explore cell-adhe...

    Authors: Amélie Vernale, Maria Mandela Prünster, Fabio Marchianò, Henry Debost, Nicolas Brouilly, Caroline Rocher, Dominique Massey-Harroche, Emmanuelle Renard, André Le Bivic, Bianca H. Habermann and Carole Borchiellini
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:160
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Understanding drivers of animal biodiversity has been a longstanding aim in evolutionary biology. Insects and fishes represent the largest lineages of invertebrates and vertebrates respectively, and consequent...

    Authors: Kevin Arbuckle and Richard J. Harris
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:150
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. The taxonomic classification of the suborder Tintinnina Kofoid & Campbell, 1929, a species-rich group of planktonic ciliated protistans with a characteristic lorica, has long been ambiguous largely due to the ...

    Authors: Rui Wang, Yang Bai, Tao Hu, Dapeng Xu, Toshikazu Suzuki and Xiaozhong Hu
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:115
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:158

  7. Elongated rostra play an important role in the egg-laying of weevils, and its emergence plays a key role in the adaptive radiation of weevils. Eucryptorrhynchus scrobiculatus Motschulsky and E. brandti Harold co-...

    Authors: Ganyu Zhang, Wenjuan Guo, Xiaoyi Wang, Qian Wang, Jin Cui and Junbao Wen
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:101
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. Despite a longstanding interest in understanding how animals adapt to environments with limited nutrients, we have incomplete knowledge of the genetic basis of metabolic evolution. The Mexican tetra, Astyanax mex...

    Authors: Misty R. Riddle, Ariel Aspiras, Fleur Damen, Suzanne McGaugh, Julius A. Tabin and Clifford J. Tabin
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:94
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Spermatogenesis appears to be a relatively well-conserved process even among distantly related animal taxa such as invertebrates and vertebrates. Although Hymenopterans share many characteristics with other or...

    Authors: Charlotte Lécureuil, Sophie Fouchécourt, Rémi Eliautout, Vanessa Guérin, Kevin Hidalgo, Dorian Neutre, Géraldine Roux and Philippe Monget
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:90
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. Lemurs once rivalled the diversity of rest of the primate order despite thier confinement to the island of Madagascar. We test the adaptive radiation model of Malagasy lemur diversity using a novel combinatio...

    Authors: Ethan L. Fulwood, Shan Shan, Julia M. Winchester, Henry Kirveslahti, Robert Ravier, Shahar Kovalsky, Ingrid Daubechies and Doug M. Boyer
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:60
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. Pelvic brooding is a form of uni-parental care, and likely evolved in parallel in two lineages of Sulawesi ricefishes. Contrary to all other ricefishes, females of pelvic brooding species do not deposit eggs a...

    Authors: Tobias Spanke, Leon Hilgers, Benjamin Wipfler, Jana M. Flury, Arne W. Nolte, Ilham V. Utama, Bernhard Misof, Fabian Herder and Julia Schwarzer
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:57
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. Placentation has evolved multiple times among both chordates and invertebrates. Although they are structurally less complex, invertebrate placentae are much more diverse in their origin, development and positi...

    Authors: U. A. Nekliudova, T. F. Schwaha, O. N. Kotenko, D. Gruber, N. Cyran and A. N. Ostrovsky
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:54
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. Ciliated protists, a huge assemblage of unicellular eukaryotes, are extremely diverse and play important ecological roles in most habitats where there is sufficient moisture for their survivals. Even though th...

    Authors: Jiyang Ma, Yan Zhao, Tengyue Zhang, Chen Shao, Khaled A. S. Al-Rasheid and Weibo Song
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:21
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Strongyllodes variegatus (Fairmaire) is a major insect pest of oilseed rape in China. Despite its economic importance, the contribution of its population genetics in the development of any suitable protection con...

    Authors: Hai-Xia Zhan, Zhong-Ping Hao, Rui Tang, Li-Ni Zhu, Jing-Jiang Zhou and Shu-Min Hou
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:18
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  17. How vascular systems and their respiratory pigments evolved is still debated. While many animals present a vascular system, hemoglobin exists as a blood pigment only in a few groups (vertebrates, annelids, a f...

    Authors: Solène Song, Viktor Starunov, Xavier Bailly, Christine Ruta, Pierre Kerner, Annemiek J. M. Cornelissen and Guillaume Balavoine
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:165
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. Although Trapa is a well-defined genus of distinctive freshwater plants with accumulations of extensive morphological and embryological autapomorphies, its phylogenetic relationships have long been unclear. Forme...

    Authors: Ya Li, Yi-Ming Cui, Carole T. Gee, Xiao-Qing Liang and Cheng-Sen Li
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:150
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  19. Leaves have highly diverse morphologies. However, with an evolutionary history of approximately 200 million years, leaves of the pine family are relatively monotonous and often collectively called “needles”, a...

    Authors: Hong Du, Jin-Hua Ran, Yuan-Yuan Feng and Xiao-Quan Wang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:131
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. The primordial eye field of the vertebrate embryo is a single entity of retinal progenitor cells spanning the anterior neural plate before bifurcating to form bilateral optic vesicles. Here we review fate mapp...

    Authors: R. G. Loosemore, S. D. Matthaei and T. C. Stanger
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:129
    Content type: Review Published on:

  21. Nervous system development is an interplay of many processes: the formation of individual neurons, which depends on whole-body and local patterning processes, and the coordinated growth of neurites and synapse...

    Authors: Suman Kumar, Sharat Chandra Tumu, Conrad Helm and Harald Hausen
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:117
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. In this study, we investigate species limits in the cyanobacterial lichen genus Rostania (Collemataceae, Peltigerales, Lecanoromycetes). Four molecular markers (mtSSU rDNA, β-tubulin, MCM7, RPB2) were sequenced a...

    Authors: Alica Košuthová, Johannes Bergsten, Martin Westberg and Mats Wedin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:115
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. Amber has been reported from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation, as isolated clasts or within plant tissues. Undescribed cones of uncertain gymnosperm affinity have also been recovered with amber preserved i...

    Authors: Leyla J. Seyfullah, Emily A. Roberts, Alexander R. Schmidt, Eugenio Ragazzi, Ken B. Anderson, Daniel Rodrigues do Nascimento Jr., Wellington Ferreira da Silva Filho and Lutz Kunzmann
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:107
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  24. Pseudogamy is a reproductive system in which females rely on the sperm of males to activate their oocytes, generally parasitizing males of other species, but do not use the sperm DNA. The nematode Mesorhabditis b...

    Authors: Caroline Launay, Marie-Anne Félix, Joris Dieng and Marie Delattre
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:105
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  25. Adaptive radiations are characterized by extreme and/or iterative phenotypic divergence; however, such variation does not accumulate evenly across an organism. Instead, it is often partitioned into sub-units, ...

    Authors: Andrew J. Conith, Michael R. Kidd, Thomas D. Kocher and R. Craig Albertson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:95
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  26. Hypotrichia are a group with the most complex morphology and morphogenesis within the ciliated protists. The classification of Gastrostyla-like species, a taxonomically difficult group of hypotrichs with a common...

    Authors: Xiaoteng Lu, Yuanyuan Wang, Saleh A. Al-Farraj, Hamed El-Serehy, Jie Huang and Chen Shao
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:92
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  27. Diverse architectures of nervous systems (NSs) such as a plexus in cnidarians or a more centralized nervous system (CNS) in insects and vertebrates are present across Metazoa, but it is unclear what selection ...

    Authors: A. Sur, A. Renfro, P. J. Bergmann and N. P. Meyer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:84
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  28. Fangs are a putative key innovation that revolutionized prey capture and feeding in snakes, and – along with their associated venom phenotypes – have made snakes perhaps the most medically-significant vertebra...

    Authors: Erin P. Westeen, Andrew M. Durso, Michael C. Grundler, Daniel L. Rabosky and Alison R. Davis Rabosky
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:80
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  29. Metamorphosis remains one of the most complicated and poorly understood processes in insects. This is particularly so for the very dynamic transformations that take place within the pupal sheath of holometabol...

    Authors: Chenjing Zhao, Yuchen Ang, Mengqing Wang, Caixia Gao, Kuiyan Zhang, Chufei Tang, Xingyue Liu, Min Li, Ding Yang and Rudolf Meier
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:79
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  30. Poecilogony, the presence of two developmental modes in the same animal species, is a rare phenomenon. Few cases of poecilogony have been suggested for marine invertebrates including molluscs and even less sto...

    Authors: Benedikt Wiggering, Marco T. Neiber, Katharina Gebauer and Matthias Glaubrecht
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:76
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  31. The remarkable abilities of the human brain are distinctive features that set us apart from other animals. However, our understanding of how the brain has changed in the human lineage remains incomplete, but i...

    Authors: Ming-Li Li, Hui Tang, Yong Shao, Ming-Shan Wang, Hai-Bo Xu, Sheng Wang, David M. Irwin, Adeniyi C. Adeola, Tao Zeng, Luonan Chen, Yan Li and Dong-Dong Wu
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:72
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  33. The Chengjiang biota is one of the most species-rich Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätten, and preserves a community dominated by non-biomineralized euarthropods. However, several Chengjiang euarthropods have an un...

    Authors: Yu Liu, Javier Ortega-Hernández, Hong Chen, Huijuan Mai, Dayou Zhai and Xianguang Hou
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:62
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  34. Tooth morphology within theropod dinosaurs has been extensively investigated and shows high disparity throughout the Cretaceous. Changes or diversification in feeding ecology, i.e., adoption of an herbivorous ...

    Authors: Zhiheng Li, Chun-Chieh Wang, Min Wang, Cheng-Cheng Chiang, Yan Wang, Xiaoting Zheng, E-Wen Huang, Kiko Hsiao and Zhonghe Zhou
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:46
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  35. Evolutionary transitions in temporal niche necessitates specialized morphology, physiology, and behaviors. Diurnal, heliothermic squamates (lizards and snakes) that bask require protection from ultraviolet rad...

    Authors: Aaron H. Griffing, Tony Gamble and Aaron M. Bauer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:40
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  36. Bird plumage exhibits a diversity of colors that serve functional roles ranging from signaling to camouflage and thermoregulation. However, birds must maintain a balance between evolving colorful signals to at...

    Authors: Jon T. Merwin, Glenn F. Seeholzer and Brian Tilston Smith
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:32
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  37. Temperature exerts a strong influence on protein evolution: species living in thermally distinct environments often exhibit adaptive differences in protein structure and function. However, previous research on...

    Authors: Ying-Chen Chao, Melanie Merritt, Devin Schaefferkoetter and Tyler G. Evans
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:28
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  38. The evolution of the Jehol Biota of western Liaoning in China includes three phases, initiation in the Dabeigou phase, radiation in the Yixian phase, and decline in the Jiufotang phase. Numerous ephedroid macr...

    Authors: Yong Yang, Yingwei Wang and David Kay Ferguson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2020 20:19
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  39. Chondrichthyans represent a monophyletic group of crown group gnathostomes and are central to our understanding of vertebrate evolution. Like all vertebrates, cartilaginous fishes evolved concretions of materi...

    Authors: Lisa Schnetz, Cathrin Pfaff, Eugen Libowitzky, Zerina Johanson, Rica Stepanek and Jürgen Kriwet
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:238
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  40. Palaeognathae is a basal clade within Aves and include the large and flightless ratites and the smaller, volant tinamous. Although much research has been conducted on various aspects of palaeognath morphology,...

    Authors: Phoebe L. McInerney, Michael S. Y. Lee, Alice M. Clement and Trevor H. Worthy
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:233
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  41. Recently we proposed an evolutionary explanation for a spinal pathology that afflicts many people, intervertebral disc herniation (Plomp et al. [2015] BMC Evolutionary Biology 15, 68). Using 2D data, we found tha...

    Authors: Kimberly A. Plomp, Keith Dobney, Darlene A. Weston, Una Strand Viðarsdóttir and Mark Collard
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:226
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  42. Many pathologies that modify the shell geometry and ornamentation of ammonoids are known from the fossil record. Since they may reflect the developmental response of the organism to a perturbation (usually a s...

    Authors: Romain Jattiot, Emmanuel Fara, Arnaud Brayard, Séverine Urdy and Nicolas Goudemand
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:210
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  43. Two previous studies on interspecific body size variation of anurans found that the key drivers of variation are the species’ lifestyles and the environments that they live in. To examine whether those finding...

    Authors: Cheng Guo, Shuai Gao, Ali Krzton and Long Zhang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:208
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  44. Parasite attachment structures are critical traits that influence effective host exploitation and survival. Morphology of attachment structures can reinforce host specificity and niche specialisation, or even ...

    Authors: Charles Baillie, Rachel L. Welicky, Kerry A. Hadfield, Nico J. Smit, Stefano Mariani and Robin M. D. Beck
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:207
    Content type: Research Article Published on:

  45. Tardigrada is a group of microscopic invertebrates distributed worldwide in permanent and temporal aquatic habitats. Famous for their extreme stress tolerance, tardigrades are also of interest due to their clo...

    Authors: Dennis Krog Persson, Kenneth Agerlin Halberg, Ricardo Cardoso Neves, Aslak Jørgensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen and Nadja Møbjerg
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:206
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  46. Odontocetes (toothed whales) are the most species-rich marine mammal lineage. The catalyst for their evolutionary success is echolocation - a form of biological sonar that uses high-frequency sound, produced i...

    Authors: Travis Park, Bastien Mennecart, Loïc Costeur, Camille Grohé and Natalie Cooper
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:195
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  47. Hybridization has been widely practiced in plant and animal breeding as a means to enhance the quality and fitness of the organisms. In domestic equids, this hybrid vigor takes the form of improved physical an...

    Authors: Pauline Hanot, Anthony Herrel, Claude Guintard and Raphaël Cornette
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:188
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  48. Understanding the mechanisms promoting or constraining morphological diversification within clades is a central topic in evolutionary biology. Ecological transitions are of particular interest because of their...

    Authors: Gabriele Sansalone, Paolo Colangelo, Anna Loy, Pasquale Raia, Stephen Wroe and Paolo Piras
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:179
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  49. The annelid anterior central nervous system is often described to consist of a dorsal prostomial brain, consisting of several commissures and connected to the ventral ganglionic nerve cord via circumesophageal...

    Authors: Patrick Beckers, Conrad Helm and Thomas Bartolomaeus
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:173
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  50. Little is known about the long-term patterns of body size evolution in Crocodylomorpha, the > 200-million-year-old group that includes living crocodylians and their extinct relatives. Extant crocodylians are m...

    Authors: Pedro L. Godoy, Roger B. J. Benson, Mario Bronzati and Richard J. Butler
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:167
    Content type: Research article Published on:
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