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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 2 of 5

  1. Cetaceans exhibit an exceptionally wide range of body size, yet in this regard, their genetic basis remains poorly explored. In this study, 20 body-size-related genes for which duplication, mutation, or defici...

    Authors: Yingying Sun, Yanzhi Liu, Xiaohui Sun, Yurui Lin, Daiqing Yin, Shixia Xu and Guang Yang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:157
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. Most fatty acids (FAs) making up the adipose tissue in mammals have a dietary origin and suffer little modification when they are stored. However, we propose that some of those FAs, specifically those that can...

    Authors: Alicia I. Guerrero and Tracey L. Rogers
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:155
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Understanding how variation in gene expression contributes to morphological diversity is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Cichlid fishes from the East African Great lakes exhibit striking diversity in tro...

    Authors: Ehsan Pashay Ahi, Pooja Singh, Anna Duenser, Wolfgang Gessl and Christian Sturmbauer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:150
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Volvocine algae provide a suitable model for investigation of the evolution of multicellular organisms. Within this group, evolution of the body plan from flattened to spheroidal colonies is thought to have oc...

    Authors: Shota Yamashita and Hisayoshi Nozaki
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:120
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. The branchiostegal series consists of an alignment of bony elements in the posterior portion of the skull of osteichthyan vertebrates. We trace the evolution of the number of elements in a comprehensive survey...

    Authors: Eduardo Ascarrunz, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Ricardo Betancur-R and Michel Laurin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:117
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Male genitals have repeatedly evolved left-right asymmetries, and the causes of such evolution remain unclear. The Drosophila nannoptera group contains four species, among which three exhibit left-right asymmetri...

    Authors: Andrea E. Acurio, Flor T. Rhebergen, Sarah Paulus, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo and Michael Lang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:109
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. Sparid fishes of the genus Diplodus show a complex life history. Juveniles have adaptations well suited to life in the water column. When fishes recruit into the adult population, individuals develop a radically ...

    Authors: Paolo Colangelo, Daniele Ventura, Paolo Piras, Jacopo Pagani Guazzugli Bonaiuti and Giandomenico Ardizzone
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:106
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. The Psittaciformes (parrots and cockatoos) are characterised by their large beaks, and are renowned for their ability to produce high bite forces. These birds also possess a suite of modifications to their cra...

    Authors: Jen A. Bright, Jesús Marugán-Lobón, Emily J. Rayfield and Samuel N. Cobb
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:104
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Color and pattern phenotypes have clear implications for survival and reproduction in many species. However, the mechanisms that produce this coloration are still poorly characterized, especially at the genomi...

    Authors: Adam M. M. Stuckert, Emily Moore, Kaitlin P. Coyle, Ian Davison, Matthew D. MacManes, Reade Roberts and Kyle Summers
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:85
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. Many species of snakes exhibit epidermal surface nanostructures that form complex motifs conferring self-cleaning properties, and sometimes structural iridescence, to their skin.

    Authors: Marcelle I. Arrigo, Luis M. De Oliveira Vilaca, Anamarija Fofonjka, Achyuthan N. Srikanthan, Adrien Debry and Michel C. Milinkovitch
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:91
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. Self-powered flight is one of the most energy-intensive types of locomotion found in vertebrates. It is also associated with a range of extreme morpho-physiological adaptations that evolved independently in th...

    Authors: Camilo López-Aguirre, Suzanne J. Hand, Daisuke Koyabu, Nguyen Truong Son and Laura A. B. Wilson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:75
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. In species that reproduce with sexual reproduction, males and females often have opposite strategies to maximize their own fitness. For instance, males are typically expected to maximize their number of mating...

    Authors: Margot Fortin, Joël Meunier, Tiffany Laverré, Catherine Souty-Grosset and Freddie-Jeanne Richard
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:65
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. Caecilians (Gymnophiona) are the least speciose extant lissamphibian order, yet living forms capture approximately 250 million years of evolution since their earliest divergences. This long history is reflecte...

    Authors: Carla Bardua, Mark Wilkinson, David J. Gower, Emma Sherratt and Anjali Goswami
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:30
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. The evolution of elongated body forms in tetrapods has a strong influence on the musculoskeletal system, including the reduction of pelvic and pectoral girdles, as well as the limbs. However, despite extensive...

    Authors: Natascha Westphal, Kristin Mahlow, Jason James Head and Johannes Müller
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:16
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Chasmataspidids are a rare group of chelicerate arthropods known from 12 species assigned to ten genera, with a geologic range extending from the Ordovician to the Devonian. The Late Ordovician (Richmondian) f...

    Authors: James C. Lamsdell, Gerald O. Gunderson and Ronald C. Meyer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:8
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2021 21:112

  17. Morphological diversity among closely related animals can be the result of differing growth patterns. The Australian radiation of agamid lizards (Amphibolurinae) exhibits great ecological and morphological div...

    Authors: Jaimi A. Gray, Emma Sherratt, Mark N. Hutchinson and Marc E. H. Jones
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2019 19:7
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. Several lineages of herbivorous mammals have evolved hypsodont cheek teeth to increase the functional lifespan of their dentition. While the selective drivers of this trend and the developmental processes invo...

    Authors: Carsten Witzel, Uwe Kierdorf, Kai Frölich and Horst Kierdorf
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:207
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  19. The Sox family of transcription factors is an important part of the genetic ‘toolbox’ of all metazoans examined to date and is known to play important developmental roles in vertebrates and insects. However, o...

    Authors: Christian L. Bonatto Paese, Daniel J. Leite, Anna Schönauer, Alistair P. McGregor and Steven Russell
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:205
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  21. Dictyostelid cellular slime molds (dictyostelids) are common inhabitants of the soil and leaf litter layer of fields and forests, along with animal dung, where they feed mostly on bacteria. However, reports on...

    Authors: Eduardo Vadell, James C. Cavender, John C. Landolt, Allison L. Perrigo, Pu Liu and Steven L. Stephenson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:198
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  22. Ependymins were originally defined as fish-specific secreted glycoproteins involved in central nervous system plasticity and memory formation. Subsequent research revealed that these proteins represent a fish-...

    Authors: Carmel McDougall, Michael J. Hammond, Simon C. Dailey, Ildiko M. L. Somorjai, Scott F. Cummins and Bernard M. Degnan
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:182
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. One of the best studied developmental processes is the Drosophila segmentation cascade. However, this cascade is generally considered to be highly derived and unusual, with segments being patterned simultaneously...

    Authors: Tzach Auman and Ariel D. Chipman
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:178
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  24. The axial skeleton consists of repeating units (vertebrae) that are integrated through their development and evolution. Unlike most tetrapods, vertebrae in the mammalian trunk are subdivided into distinct thor...

    Authors: Katrina E. Jones, Lorena Benitez, Kenneth D. Angielczyk and Stephanie E. Pierce
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:172
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  25. Opsins are G protein-coupled receptors used for both visual and non-visual photoreception, and these proteins evolutionarily date back to the base of the bilaterians. In the current sequencing age, phylogenomi...

    Authors: Elijah K. Lowe, Anders L. Garm, Esther Ullrich-Lüter, Claudia Cuomo and Maria I. Arnone
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:168
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  26. Nucleoplasmin 2 (npm2) is an essential maternal-effect gene that mediates early embryonic events through its function as a histone chaperone that remodels chromatin. Recently, two npm2 (npm2a and npm2b) genes hav...

    Authors: Caroline T. Cheung, Jérémy Pasquier, Aurélien Bouleau, Thaovi Nguyen, Franck Chesnel, Yann Guiguen and Julien Bobe
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:167
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  27. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) and piwi interacting RNAs (piRNAs), along with the more ancient eukaryotic endogenous small interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs) constitute the principal components of the RNA interference (RNAi)...

    Authors: Andrew D. Calcino, Selene L. Fernandez-Valverde, Ryan J. Taft and Bernard M. Degnan
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:160
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  28. The males of some sepsid species (Sepsidae: Diptera) have abdominal appendages that are remarkable in several ways. They are sexually dimorphic, have a complex evolutionary history of gain and loss, and can be...

    Authors: Dacotah Melicher, Kathy F Y Su, Rudolf Meier and Julia H Bowsher
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:151
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  29. Sabellarids, also known as honeycomb or sandcastle worms, when building their tubes, produce chemical signals (free fatty acids) that are responsible for larval settlement and the formation of three-dimensiona...

    Authors: Conrad Helm, Michael J Bok, Pat Hutchings, Elena Kupriyanova and María Capa
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:149
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  30. The molecular bases explaining the diversity of dental tissue mineralization across gnathostomes are still poorly understood. Odontodes, such as teeth and body denticles, are serial structures that develop thr...

    Authors: Sébastien Enault, David Muñoz, Paul Simion, Stéphanie Ventéo, Jean-Yves Sire, Sylvain Marcellini and Mélanie Debiais-Thibaud
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:127
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  32. Understanding how phenotypic variation scales from individuals, through populations, up to species, and how it relates to genetic and environmental factors, is essential for deciphering the evolutionary mechan...

    Authors: Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, Catarina Pinho and Fernando Martínez-Freiría
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:124
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  33. Mesoderm is generally considered to be a germ layer that is unique to Bilateria, and it develops into diverse tissues, including muscle, and in the case of vertebrates, the skeleton and notochord. Studies on v...

    Authors: Tzu-Pei Fan, Hsiu-Chi Ting, Jr-Kai Yu and Yi-Hsien Su
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:120
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  34. Hirsutella Pat genus, the asexual morphs of the Ophiocordyceps Sung, is globally distributed entomopathogenic fungi, which infect a variety of arthropods, mites and nematodes. The fungal species also have shown p...

    Authors: Jiaojiao Qu, Yeming Zhou, Jianping Yu, Jian Zhang, Yanfeng Han and Xiao Zou
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:111
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  35. Cyclostome bryozoans are an ancient group of marine colonial suspension-feeders comprising approximately 700 extant species. Previous morphological studies are mainly restricted to skeletal characters whereas ...

    Authors: Thomas F. Schwaha, Stephan Handschuh, Andrew N. Ostrovsky and Andreas Wanninger
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:92
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  36. Sox (Sry-related high-mobility-group box) genes represent important factors in animal development. Relatively little, however, is known about the embryonic expression patterns and thus possible function(s) of Sox...

    Authors: Ralf Janssen, Emil Andersson, Ellinor Betnér, Sifra Bijl, Will Fowler, Lars Höök, Jake Leyhr, Alexander Mannelqvist, Virginia Panara, Kate Smith and Sydney Tiemann
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:88
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  37. Sloths are one of only two exceptions to the mammalian ‘rule of seven’ vertebrae in the neck. As a striking case of breaking the evolutionary constraint, the explanation for the exceptional number of cervical ...

    Authors: Christine Böhmer, Eli Amson, Patrick Arnold, Anneke H. van Heteren and John A. Nyakatura
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:84
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  39. The morphological and functional evolution of appendages has played a key role in the diversification of arthropods. While the ancestral arthropod appendage is held to be polyramous, terrestriality is associat...

    Authors: Zhiyong Di, Gregory D. Edgecombe and Prashant P. Sharma
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:73
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  40. Comparative studies of neuroanatomy and neurodevelopment provide valuable information for phylogenetic inference. Beyond that, they reveal transformations of neuroanatomical structures during animal evolution ...

    Authors: Georg Brenneis, Gerhard Scholtz and Barbara S. Beltz
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:47
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  41. Our understanding of the ontogeny of Palaeozoic brachiopods has changed significantly during the last two decades. However, the micromorphic acrotretoids have received relatively little attention, resulting in...

    Authors: Zhiliang Zhang, Leonid E. Popov, Lars E. Holmer and Zhifei Zhang
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:42
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  42. Morphological convergence triggered by trophic adaptations is a common pattern in adaptive radiations. The study of shape variation in an evolutionary context is usually restricted to well-studied fish models....

    Authors: Madlen Stange, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernández, Walter Salzburger and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:38
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  43. It has been proposed that non-genetic inheritance could promote species fitness. Non-genetic inheritance could allow offspring to benefit from the experience of their parents, and could advocate pre-adaptation...

    Authors: Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser, Jean-Claude Walser, Michaela Schwaiger and Patricia Burkhardt-Holm
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:34
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  44. Gyrinidae are a charismatic group of highly specialized beetles, adapted for a unique lifestyle of swimming on the water surface. They prey on drowning insects and other small arthropods caught in the surface ...

    Authors: Evgeny V. Yan, Rolf G. Beutel and John F. Lawrence
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:33
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  45. The Wnt signaling pathway is uniquely metazoan and used in many processes during development, including the formation of polarity and body axes. In sponges, one of the earliest diverging animal groups, Wnt pat...

    Authors: Pamela J. Windsor Reid, Eugueni Matveev, Alexandra McClymont, Dora Posfai, April L. Hill and Sally P. Leys
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:12
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  46. Antennae are multi-segmented appendages and main odor-sensing organs in insects. In Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), antennal morphologies have diversified according to their ecological requirements. While...

    Authors: Toshiya Ando, Haruhiko Fujiwara and Tetsuya Kojima
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:8
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  47. Chelicerata represents a vast clade of mostly predatory arthropods united by a distinctive body plan throughout the Phanerozoic. Their origins, however, with respect to both their ancestral morphological featu...

    Authors: Cédric Aria and Jean-Bernard Caron
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:261
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:78

  48. Xenoturbella is a group of marine benthic animals lacking an anus and a centralized nervous system. Molecular phylogenetic analyses group the animal together with the Acoelomorpha, forming th...

    Authors: Hiroaki Nakano, Hideyuki Miyazawa, Akiteru Maeno, Toshihiko Shiroishi, Keiichi Kakui, Ryo Koyanagi, Miyuki Kanda, Noriyuki Satoh, Akihito Omori and Hisanori Kohtsuka
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:245
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Evolutionary Biology 2018 18:83

  50. Rates of morphological evolution vary across different taxonomic groups, and this has been proposed as one of the main drivers for the great diversity of organisms on Earth. Of the extrinsic factors pertaining...

    Authors: Emma Sherratt, Jeanne M. Serb and Dean C. Adams
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:248
    Content type: Research Article Published on:
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