The eggshells of palaeognath birds (e.g. ostrich, moa, kiwi, emu) have diverse homology and convergent features, and are useful modern analogues for the evolution of non-avian dinosaur eggshells.
Achim H Schwermann, Tomy dos Santos Rolo ... Thomas van de Kamp
X-ray imaging reveals well-preserved internal characters in mineralized arthropods from the Paleogene, urging the reexamination of previously neglected fossil collections.
Salamanders originate as metamorphosed with a biphasic lifestyle as shown by the palate shape and several non-shape features associated with the vomerine teeth, with diverse ecological types displayed in living species achieved in the Early Cretaceous.
Evidence for a largely unexplored radiation of squamates (lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians) in the Middle to Late Jurassic is revealed by analyses of morphospace expansion, disparity, and evolutionary rates.
Daniel J Paluh, Karina Riddell ... David C Blackburn
Teeth are maintained in two amphibian groups (caecilians and salamanders) but were lost in frogs over 20 times independently, a higher incidence of edentulism than any other major vertebrate group.
Kenneth De Baets, Karina Vanadzina, James Schiffbauer
Analysis of specimens preserved in amber from the Cretaceous period suggests that nematodes changed their host preference towards insects with a complete metamorphosis more recently.
Andrea S Meseguer, Alice Michel ... Fabien L Condamine
Neotropical outstanding biodiversity emerged from sustained rates of species accumulation over time, although, for some periods, tetrapods were less successful than plants in keeping pace with a changing environment.
Jorge Domínguez-Andrés, Yunus Kuijpers ... Mihai G Netea
Neolithic was a turning point for immune responses in Europeans, favoring tolerance against intracellular pathogens, promoting inflammation against extracellular microbes, and being related to current auto-immune diseases.
The fossil record of abdominal modifications in male scorpionflies documents a relatively late evolution of oppressive behaviour toward a female during mating and suggest degree of sexual coercion greater in Eocene than in any other known scorpionfly, extinct or extant.
The earliest fossil evidence of a mimetic relationship between the Jurassic moth lacewing Lichenipolystoechotes and its co-occurring fossil lichen Daohugouthallus predates modern lichen-insect associations by 165 million years.
