Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes
Caldwell, M. W. The Origin of Snakes: Morphology and the Fossil Record (CRC Press, 2019). Gower, D. J.…
Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space
Jablonski, D., Roy, K. & Valentine, J. W. Out of the tropics: evolutionary dynamics of the latitudinal diversity…
The evolution and diversification of Cetacea
Thewissen, J. & Bajpai, S. Whale origins as a poster child for macroevolution. BioScience 51, 1037–1049 (2001). Article …
Evolutionary drivers of encephalization and facial reduction in the genus Homo
Specimen inclusion The analyses are based on a dataset of 63 fossil specimens assigned to the genus Homo,…
A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone
Woodward, S. P. A Manual of the Mollusca; or, Rudimentary Treatise of Recent and Fossil Shells (Weale, 1854).…
Ancient ground squirrels feasted on carcasses like ‘zombies of the Pleistocene’
Ground squirrels go into a hibernation state called torpor for up to eight months. Credit: Image Professionals GmbH/Alamy…
Darkness and body size shaped end-Cretaceous marine extinction patterns
Bambach, R. K. Phanerozoic biodiversity mass extinctions. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 34, 127–155 (2006). Article ADS CAS …
Enamel proteins from six Homo erectus specimens across China
Protein extractionAnimal fossils Powder was drilled from the dentin (Supplementary Data 1), then mixed with 1.5 ml of 0.6 M HCl…
CAM photosynthesis may have conferred an advantage during the Permian–Triassic mass extinction event
Lycopods sporophyll character identification and measurement The characters used to differentiate lycopods include root structure, overall plant morphology,…
Surprise fossil discoveries push back the evolution of complex animals
Artist’s reconstruction of the ancient ocean ecosystem preserved in the Jiangchuan biota Xiaodong Wang A huge and beautifully…
Oxygen supply through the tracheolar–muscle system does not constrain insect gigantism
Klowden, M. J. & Palli, S. R. Physiological Systems in Insects 4th edn (Academic Press, 2022). Nation, J.…
Top predators still prowled the seas after the biggest mass extinction
Artwork of a Hybodus shark, a predator that evolved in the late Permian and survived the mass extinction…