The rise of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) is one of the iconic evolutionary transitions preserved in the fossil record. These animals, which lived about 385 to 320 million years ago during the Devonian and Carboniferous ...
Unlike humans, turtles, lizards and other reptiles—such as crocodiles—do not have sex chromosomes. Their sex is determined based on the environment, which makes them especially vulnerable to climate change. An increase ...
Birds are profoundly important animals. As predators, pollinators, seed dispersers, scavengers and ecosystem bioengineers, the world's 11,000 species of birds play critical roles in the food chain and therefore the existence ...
New research published in the Journal of Anatomy has used dental evidence to challenge the origin time of mammals.
These days, dragons are keeping "Game of Thrones" fans on their toes. But they are also providing important insights into vertebrate brain evolution, as revealed by the work of Max Planck scientists on the brain of the Australian ...
A new study from researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in Science Advances show that inactivation of a protein complex that controls gene repression leads to loss of neuronal identity of dopamine-producing cells ...
Fluorescence imaging can be conducted with long Stokes shift dyes that minimize crosstalk between the excitation source and fluorescent emission to improve the signal-to-background ratio. Regardless, researchers still form ...
Scientists have long debated the origins of teeth. Did they evolve from body scales that migrated into the mouths of ancient vertebrates and became adapted for eating—an idea known as the "outside-in" hypothesis? Or did ...
Big bones from the extinct "thunder bird" or dromornithid, excavated in the northern reaches of the Flinders Ranges and near Alice Springs, have yielded new insights into their slow breeding patterns.
Lungs are essential to many vertebrates including humans. However, four living amphibian clades have independently eliminated pulmonary respiration and lack lungs, breathing primarily through their wet skin. Little is known ...
