In biological sciences, morphology is the branch that studies the form, external structure, and macroscopic organization of organisms and their parts, independent of function. It encompasses comparative morphology, which analyzes homologous structures across taxa; functional morphology, which relates structural features to mechanical or biomechanical constraints; and developmental morphology, which examines changes in form during ontogeny. Morphological data, including body plans, organ systems, and patterning of tissues, are central to systematics, phylogenetic inference, and taxonomy, and are integrated with molecular and genetic information to elucidate evolutionary relationships, phenotypic variation, and constraints on organismal design.
Plant architecture influences the microenvironment throughout the crop canopy. Plants with a more erect leaf architecture allow more light to reach lower canopy leaves.
Biotechnology
Jun 27, 2025
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A 500-million-year-old fossil from Morocco, discovered by Natural History Museum scientists, is offering extraordinary new insights into one of evolution's most puzzling transformations: how echinoderms, the group that includes ...
Evolution
Jun 26, 2025
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For over a century, scientists have puzzled over a fundamental mystery in our evolutionary history: how did mammals go from sprawling like lizards to striding like cats and dogs? This transition—from a sprawled stance (like ...
Evolution
Jun 24, 2025
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Researchers have discovered that the genes related to extracellular matrix (ECM) and the Wnt signaling pathway characterize the independently acquired lip hypertrophy in cichlids of the East African Great Lakes. Through advanced ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2025
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A new study has used cutting-edge 3D modeling to confirm that sharks follow the "two-thirds scaling law" almost perfectly, with the discovery set to help reshape how we understand biology across the animal kingdom.
Plants & Animals
Jun 18, 2025
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Despite being genetically identical, bacteria can vary considerably in shape and size. Whether these variations affect bacterial function has remained an open question. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 17, 2025
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A team of archaeologists, natural scientists, evolutionary specialists and paleontologists affiliated with a number of institutions across Europe, and also Russia and the U.K., has found evidence strongly suggesting that ...
For the first time, the remarkable features of Australia's unique wildlife—from platypus, bilby, kangaroo, koala and emu to mammals gone extinct—are available for all to see, via their bones and skeletons in a new free online ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 11, 2025
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In most vertebrates, skin appendages such as hair, feathers, or scales originate from placodes—small, specialized skin regions whose spatial organization is controlled by well-conserved genetic signals. Crocodiles are an ...
Evolution
Jun 10, 2025
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Four physicists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel, have unraveled the mechanical process behind the growth of roses as they blossom into their unique shape. In their study published in the journal Science, ...
