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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 1 of 3

  1. Content type: Research article

    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

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  3. Content type: Research article

    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

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  4. Content type: Research article

    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

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  5. Content type: Research article

    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

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  6. Content type: Research article

    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

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  7. Content type: Research article

    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

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  8. Content type: Research article

    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

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  10. Content type: Research article

    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

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  11. Content type: Research article

    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

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  12. Content type: Research article

    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

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  13. Content type: Research article

    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

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  14. Content type: Research article

    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

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  15. Content type: Research article

    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

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  16. Content type: Research article

    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

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  17. Content type: Research article

    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

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  18. Content type: Research article

    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

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

  19. Content type: Research article

    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

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

  21. Content type: Research Article

    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

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  22. Content type: Research article

    The volvocine lineage, containing unicellular Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and differentiated multicellular Volvox carteri, is a powerful model for comparative studies aiming at understanding emergence of multicellu...

    Authors: Yoko Arakaki, Takayuki Fujiwara, Hiroko Kawai-Toyooka, Kaoru Kawafune, Jonathan Featherston, Pierre M. Durand, Shin-ya Miyagishima and Hisayoshi Nozaki

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:243

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  23. Content type: Research article

    Longwing butterflies, Heliconius sp., also called heliconians, are striking examples of diversity and mimicry in butterflies. Heliconians feature strongly colored patterns on their wings, arising from wing scales...

    Authors: Bodo D. Wilts, Aidan J. M. Vey, Adriana D. Briscoe and Doekele G. Stavenga

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:226

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  24. Content type: Research article

    Phylactolaemata is commonly regarded the earliest branch within Bryozoa and thus the sister group to the other bryozoan taxa, Cyclostomata and Gymnolaemata. Therefore, the taxon is important for the reconstruc...

    Authors: Natalie Gawin, Andreas Wanninger and Thomas Schwaha

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:225

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  25. Content type: Research article

    The Spiralia are a large, morphologically diverse group of protostomes (e.g. molluscs, annelids, nemerteans) that share a homologous mode of early development called spiral cleavage. One of the most highly-con...

    Authors: Deirdre C. Lyons, Kimberly J. Perry and Jonathan Q. Henry

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:217

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  26. Content type: Research article

    Segmental composition and homologies of the head of stem-group Euarthropoda have been the foci of recent studies on arthropod origins. An emerging hypothesis suggests that upper-stem group euarthropods possess...

    Authors: Peiyun Cong, Allison C. Daley, Gregory D. Edgecombe and Xianguang Hou

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:208

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  27. Content type: Research article

    Non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate a variety of important biological processes across all life domains, including bacteria. However, little is known about the functional evolution of sRNAs in bacteria, whi...

    Authors: I-Chen Kimberly Chen, Gregory J. Velicer and Yuen-Tsu Nicco Yu

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:199

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  28. Content type: Research article

    Animals use information from their environment to make decisions, ultimately to maximize their fitness. The nematode C. elegans has a pheromone signalling system, which hitherto has principally been thought to be...

    Authors: Barney Wharam, Laura Weldon and Mark Viney

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:197

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  30. Content type: Research article

    The nervous system in brachiopods has seldom been studied with modern methods. An understanding of lophophore innervation in adult brachiopods is useful for comparing the innervation of the same lophophore typ...

    Authors: Elena N. Temereva and Tatyana V. Kuzmina

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:172

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  31. Content type: Research article

    Gene duplications provide genetic material for the evolution of new morphological and physiological features. One copy can preserve the original gene functions while the second copy may evolve new functions (n...

    Authors: Natascha Turetzek, Sara Khadjeh, Christoph Schomburg and Nikola-Michael Prpic

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:168

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  33. Content type: Research article

    Pax genes are transcription factors with significant roles in cell fate specification and tissue differentiation during animal ontogeny. Most information on their tempo-spatial mode of expression is available ...

    Authors: Maik Scherholz, Emanuel Redl, Tim Wollesen, André Luiz de Oliveira, Christiane Todt and Andreas Wanninger

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:81

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  35. Content type: Research article

    Rotifers are microscopic aquatic invertebrates that reproduce both sexually and asexually. Though rotifers are phylogenetically distant from humans, and have specialized reproductive physiology, this work iden...

    Authors: Brande L. Jones, Chris Walker, Bahareh Azizi, Laren Tolbert, Loren Dean Williams and Terry W. Snell

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:65

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  36. Content type: Research article

    Extreme environments prompt the evolution of characteristic adaptations. Yet questions remain about whether radiations in extreme environments originate from a single lineage that masters a key adaptive pathwa...

    Authors: Chong Chen, Katsuyuki Uematsu, Katrin Linse and Julia D. Sigwart

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:62

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  37. Content type: Research article

    During embryogenesis, tight regulation of retinoic acid (RA) availability is fundamental for normal development. In parallel to RA synthesis, a negative feedback loop controlled by RA catabolizing enzymes of t...

    Authors: João E. Carvalho, Maria Theodosiou, Jie Chen, Pascale Chevret, Susana Alvarez, Angel R. De Lera, Vincent Laudet, Jenifer C. Croce and Michael Schubert

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:24

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  38. Content type: Research Article

    Bone-eating worms of the genus Osedax (Annelida, Siboglinidae) have adapted to whale fall environments by acquiring a novel characteristic called the root, which branches and penetrates into sunken bones. The wor...

    Authors: Norio Miyamoto, Masa-aki Yoshida, Hiroyuki Koga and Yoshihiro Fujiwara

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2017 17:17

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  41. Content type: Research article

    Volvocine algae, which range from the unicellular Chlamydomonas to the multicellular Volvox with a germ–soma division of labor, are a model for the evolution of multicellularity. Within this group, the spheroidal...

    Authors: Shota Yamashita, Yoko Arakaki, Hiroko Kawai-Toyooka, Akira Noga, Masafumi Hirono and Hisayoshi Nozaki

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:243

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  42. Content type: Research article

    The primordial germ cells (PGCs) giving rise to gametes are determined by two different mechanisms in vertebrates. While the germ cell fate in mammals and salamanders is induced by zygotic signals, maternally ...

    Authors: Adrijana Škugor, Helge Tveiten, Hanne Johnsen and Øivind Andersen

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:232

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  43. Content type: Research article

    Avian plumage is ideal for investigating phenotypic convergence because of repeated evolution of the same within-feather patterns. In birds, there are three major types of regular patterns within feathers: sca...

    Authors: Thanh-Lan Gluckman and Nicholas I. Mundy

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:172

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  44. Content type: Research article

    Despite the great importance of lepidopteran wing patterns in various biological disciplines, homologies between wing pattern elements in different moth and butterfly lineages are still not understood. Among o...

    Authors: Sandra R. Schachat and Richard L. Brown

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:116

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  45. Content type: Research article

    The evolution of novel genes is thought to be a critical component of morphological innovation but few studies have explicitly examined the contribution of novel genes to the evolution of novel tissues. Nemato...

    Authors: Leslie S. Babonis, Mark Q. Martindale and Joseph F. Ryan

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:114

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  46. Content type: Research Article

    Developmental processes that underpin morphological variation have become a focus of interest when attempting to interpret macroevolutionary patterns. Recently, the Dental Inhibitory Cascade (dic) model has been ...

    Authors: Katherine E. Carter and Steven Worthington

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:110

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  47. Content type: Research article

    Bone-devouring Osedax worms were described over a decade ago from deep-sea whale falls. The gutless females (and in one species also the males) have a unique root system that penetrates the bone and nourishes the...

    Authors: Katrine Worsaae, Nadezhda N. Rimskaya-Korsakova and Greg W. Rouse

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:83

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  48. Content type: Research article

    The ParaHox genes play an integral role in the anterior-posterior (A-P) patterning of the nervous system and gut of most animals. The ParaHox cluster is an ideal system in which to study the evolution and regu...

    Authors: Myles G. Garstang, Peter W. Osborne and David E. K. Ferrier

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:57

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  49. Content type: Research article

    Research into various aspects of coral biology has greatly increased in recent years due to anthropogenic threats to coral health including pollution, ocean warming and acidification. However, knowledge of cor...

    Authors: Nami Okubo, David C. Hayward, Sylvain Forêt and Eldon E. Ball

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:48

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  50. Content type: Research article

    Secondary winglessness is a common phenomenon found among neopteran insects. With an estimated age of at least 140 million years, the cave crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) form the oldest exclusively wingless linea...

    Authors: Fanny Leubner, Thomas Hörnschemeyer and Sven Bradler

    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2016 16:39

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