Section edited by David Ferrier
This section considers studies in the evolution of development and developmental processes, and into morphological evolution.
Section edited by David Ferrier
This section considers studies in the evolution of development and developmental processes, and into morphological evolution.
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Duplication and subsequent neofunctionalization of the teleostean hatching enzyme gene occurred in the common ancestor of Euteleostei and Otocephala, producing two genes belonging to different phylogenetic cla...
Thylacocephala is a group of enigmatic extinct arthropods. Here we provide a full description of the oldest unequivocal thylacocephalan, a new genus and species Thylacares brandonensis, which is present in the Si...
The colorful wing patterns of butterflies, a prime example of biodiversity, can change dramatically within closely related species. Wing pattern diversity is specifically present among papilionid butterflies. ...
Nygmata are prominent glandular structures on the wings of insects. They have been documented in some extant insects, including several families of Neuroptera and Mecoptera, the majority of Trichoptera, and a ...
The shape of the appendicular bones in mammals usually reflects adaptations towards different locomotor abilities. However, other aspects such as body size and phylogeny also play an important role in shaping ...
The degree of postcopulatory sexual selection, comprising variable degrees of sperm competition and cryptic female choice, is an important evolutionary force to influence sperm form and function. Here we inves...
Plasticity, i.e. non-heritable morphological variation, enables organisms to modify the shape of their skeletal tissues in response to varying environmental stimuli. Plastic variation may also allow individual...
Efficient venom delivery systems are known to occur only in varanoid lizards and advanced colubroidean snakes among squamate reptiles. Although components of these venomous systems might have been present in a...
Phenotypic integration among different anatomical parts of the head is a common phenomenon across vertebrates. Interestingly, despite centuries of research into the factors that contribute to the existing vari...
Drumming muscles of some sound-producing fish are ‘champions’ of contraction speed, their rate setting the fundamental frequency. In the piranha, contraction of these muscles at 150 Hz drives a sound at the sa...
One of the hallmarks of multicellular organisms is the ability of their cells to trigger responses to the environment in a coordinated manner. In recent years primary cilia have been shown to be present as ‘an...
A long, slender body plan characterized by an elongate antorbital region and posterior displacement of the unpaired fins has evolved multiple times within ray-finned fishes, and is associated with ambush preda...
Among the winged insects (Pterygota) the Odonata (dragon- and damselflies) are special for several reasons. They are strictly aerial predators showing remarkable flight abilities and their thorax morphology di...
Although molecular analyses have contributed to a better resolution of the animal tree of life, the phylogenetic position of tardigrades (water bears) is still controversial, as they have been united alternati...
It has been hypothesized that sperm whale predation is the driver of eye size evolution in giant squid. Given that the eyes of giant squid have the size expected for a squid this big, it is likely that any enh...
Most turtles from the Middle and Late Jurassic of Asia are referred to the newly defined clade Xinjiangchelyidae, a group of mostly shell-based, generalized, small to mid-sized aquatic froms that are widely co...
The granivorous house sparrow Passer domesticus is thought to have developed its commensal relationship with humans with the rise of agriculture in the Middle East some 10,000 years ago, and to have expanded with...
The programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) protein is induced in animals during apoptosis and functions to inhibit translation and tumor promoter-induced neoplastic transformation. PDCD4 is composed of two MA3 domain...
Modularity is an important feature in the evolvability of organisms, since it allows the occurrence of complex adaptations at every single level of biological systems. While at the cellular level the modular o...
Fossil evidence of ginkgophyte ontogeny is exceedingly rare. Early development in the extant Ginkgo biloba is characterized by a series of distinct ontogenetic stages. Fossils providing insights into the early on...
A dual olfactory system, represented by two anatomically distinct but spatially proximate chemosensory epithelia that project to separate areas of the forebrain, is known in several classes of tetrapods. Lungf...
Two theories for the origin of animal life cycles with planktotrophic larvae are now discussed seriously: The terminal addition theory proposes a holopelagic, planktotrophic gastraea as the ancestor of the eum...
On August 9th 2012, we published an original research article in Scientific Reports, concluding that artificial radionuclides released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant exerted genetically and physi...
One of the most intriguing questions in evolutionary developmental biology is how an insect acquires a mimicry pattern within its body parts. A striking example of pattern mimicry is found in the pattern diver...
A novel sarcomeric myosin heavy chain gene, MYH14, was identified following the completion of the human genome project. MYH14 contains an intronic microRNA, miR-499, which is expressed in a slow/cardiac muscle sp...
ParaHox and Hox genes are thought to have evolved from a common ancestral ProtoHox cluster or from tandem duplication prior to the divergence of cnidarians and bilaterians. Similar to Hox clusters, chordate Pa...
Eosauropterygians consist of two major clades, the Nothosauroidea of the Tethysian Middle Triassic (e.g., Nothosaurus) and the Pistosauroidea. The Pistosauroidea include rare Triassic forms (Pistosauridae) and th...
Remipedia were initially seen as a primitive taxon within Pancrustacea based on characters considered ancestral, such as the homonomously segmented trunk. Meanwhile, several morphological and molecular studies...
Wing size and shape have important aerodynamic implications on flight performance. We explored how wing size was related to wing shape in territorial males of 37 taxa of the damselfly family Calopterygidae. Wi...
Hair cells are vertebrate secondary sensory cells located in the ear and in the lateral line organ. Until recently, these cells were considered to be mechanoreceptors exclusively found in vertebrates that evol...
A novel transient structure was observed in the spermatids of three ratite species using transmission electron microscopy.
Few studies on eurypterids have taken into account morphological changes that occur throughout postembryonic development. Here two species of eurypterid are described from the Pragian Beartooth Butte Formation...
Much of the current research in the growing field of evolutionary development concerns relating developmental pathways to large-scale patterns of morphological evolution, with developmental constraints on vari...
Anguillicola crassus, a swim bladder nematode naturally parasitizing the Japanese eel, was introduced about 30 years ago from East Asia into Europe where it colonized almost all populations of the European eel. W...
The Hippo pathway controls growth by mediating cell proliferation and apoptosis. Dysregulation of Hippo signaling causes abnormal proliferation in both healthy and cancerous cells. The Hippo pathway receives i...
Talpids include forms with different degree of fossoriality, with major specializations in the humerus in the case of the fully fossorial moles. We studied the humeral microanatomy of eleven extant and eight e...
The eyes of giant and colossal squid are among the largest eyes in the history of life. It was recently proposed that sperm whale predation is the main driver of eye size evolution in giant squid, on the basis...
Post-mating interactions between the reproductive traits and gametes of mating individuals and among their genes within zygotes are invariably complex, providing multiple opportunities for reproduction to go a...
The number of members of the Dlx gene family increased during the two rounds of whole-genome duplication that occurred in the common ancestor of the vertebrates. Because the Dlx genes are involved in the developm...
Zona pellucida domain-containing proteins (ZP proteins) have been identified as the principle constituents of the egg coat (EC) of diverse metazoan taxa, including jawed vertebrates, urochordates and molluscs ...
Animals often display phenotypic plasticity in morphologies and behaviors that result in distinct adaptations to fluctuating seasonal environments. The butterfly Bicyclus anynana has two seasonal forms, wet and d...
Recent evidence supports the proposal that the observed diversity of animal body plans has been produced through alterations to the complexity of the regulatory genome rather than increases in the protein-codi...
Remipedia, a group of homonomously segmented, cave-dwelling, eyeless arthropods have been regarded as basal crustaceans in most early morphological and taxonomic studies. However, molecular sequence informatio...
Opsins are key proteins in animal photoreception. Together with a light-sensitive group, the chromophore, they form visual pigments which initiate the visual transduction cascade when photoactivated. The spect...
Leanchoilia superlata is one of the best known arthropods from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Here we re-describe the morphology of L. superlata and discuss its possible autecology. The re...
The range of potential morphologies resulting from evolution is limited by complex interacting processes, ranging from development to function. Quantifying these interactions is important for understanding ada...
Myosin II (or Myosin Heavy Chain II, MHCII) is a family of molecular motors involved in the contractile activity of animal muscle cells but also in various other cellular processes in non-muscle cells. Previou...
The origin and modification of novel traits are important aspects of biological diversification. Studies combining concepts and approaches of developmental genetics and evolutionary biology have uncovered many...
Following colonization of new habitats and subsequent selection, adaptation to environmental conditions might be expected to be rapid. In a mountain lake in Norway, Lesjaskogsvatnet, more than 20 distinct spaw...
Complex life histories require adaptation of a single organism for multiple ecological niches. Transitions between life stages, however, may expose individuals to an increased risk of mortality, as the process...
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