Subterranean fossil bone hosts a living microbiome different from the surrounding sediment without evidence of original protein preservation.

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.

A new specimen of Heterodontosaurus elucidates how ornithischian dinosaurs evolved a body plan substantially different from that of other dinosaurs and what these differences meant for their breathing.

Phylogenomics reveals the timeline over which marine bacteria and archaea colonized the oceans and shows the geological context of their diversification.

The primitive state of vertebrate lungs is unpaired, evolving to be truly paired in the lineage towards the tetrapods, increasing the pulmonary efficiency during the water-to-land transition.

New morphological data of a primitive placoderm fish demonstrate both high regionalization of squamation and the bipartite histological structure of scale are plesiomorphic for jawed vertebrates.

Exceptionally preserved small shelly fossils (SSFs) from the early Cambrian Kuanchuanpu Formation (535 million years ago) reveal the muscular system of ancient cnidarians.

Both gill musculature and the evolutionarily conserved cucullaris muscle are derived from unsegmented mesoderm adjacent to the first 3 somites, extending the posterior limit of cranial mesoderm.

Hundreds of fossil remains shed new light on the evolution of grasshoppers, gryllids, and katydids and their ecological role 300 million years ago.

The discovery of a fossil heart in Rhacolepis buccalis demonstrates that it is possible to scrutinize the fossil record for important clues on cardiac structure and evolution.