Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary Biology

eLife reviews research spanning behavior, morphology, evolution of developmental processes, palaeontology, experimental evolution and evolutionary theory. Learn more about what we review and sign up for the latest research.
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Latest articles

    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Old age variably impacts chimpanzee engagement and efficiency in stone tool use

    Elliot Howard-Spink, Tetsuro Matsuzawa ... Dora Biro
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v2
    Updated
    • Valuable
    • Solid
    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Genetics and Genomics

    Upstream open reading frames buffer translational variability during Drosophila evolution and development

    Yuanqiang Sun, Yuange Duan ... Jian Lu
    Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) function as regulatory elements that buffer translation variability, stabilizing protein expression across animal developmental stages and evolutionary timescales.
    1. Microbiology and Infectious Disease
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    High-throughput neutralization measurements correlate strongly with evolutionary success of human influenza strains

    Caroline Kikawa, Andrea N Loes ... Jesse D Bloom
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Important
    • Compelling
    1. Chromosomes and Gene Expression
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Post-fertilization transcription initiation in an ancestral LTR retrotransposon drives lineage-specific genomic imprinting of ZDBF2

    Hisato Kobayashi, Tatsushi Igaki ... Kazuki Kurimoto
    A novel mechanism for the establishment of species-specific imprinting emerged through LTR insertion and post-fertilization activation.
    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Microbiology and Infectious Disease

    A suite of selective pressures supports the maintenance of alleles of a Drosophila immune peptide

    Sarah R Mullinax, Andrea M Darby ... Robert L Unckless
    Genetic variation in an immune peptide is maintained by multiple selective forces including an interplay between systemic immunity, sex, and the microbiome.
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Brochosomes as an antireflective camouflage coating for leafhoppers

    Wei Wu, Qianzhuo Mao ... Jian-Ping Chen
    Leafhoppers evade predators using nanostructured brochosomes that reduce ultraviolet reflectance through morphology shaped by four novel structural proteins originating from evolutionary duplication–divergence processes.
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Decoupling both local and global abundance from global range size, challenging the abundance-occupancy relationship in birds

    Shinichi Nakagawa, William K Cornwell, Corey T Callaghan
    Analysis of 3 billion bird observations finds no intrinsic abundance-occupancy relationship, overturning a famous macroecological rule and redefining approaches to biodiversity assessment and conservation.
    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Immunology and Inflammation

    Evolutionary and functional analyses reveal a role for the RHIM in tuning RIPK3 activity across vertebrates

    Elizabeth J Fay, Kolya Isterabadi ... Matthew D Daugherty
    Combining phylogenetic analyses and functional assays to study the receptor interacting protein kinase family reveals conserved and non-conserved functions in immune signaling across vertebrates.
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Rapid riparian ecosystem recovery in low-latitudinal North China following the end-Permian mass extinction

    Wenwei Guo, Li Tian ... Jinnan Tong
    Revised
    Reviewed Preprint v3
    Updated
    • Important
    • Convincing
    1. Evolutionary Biology

    Forecasting protein evolution by integrating birth-death population models with structurally constrained substitution models

    David Ferreiro, Luis Daniel González-Vázquez ... Miguel Arenas
    Not revised
    Reviewed Preprint v1
    • Useful
    • Incomplete
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Highlights

    1. Evolutionary Biology
    2. Neuroscience

    Taking a close look at the cerebellum

    Héloïse de Vareilles
    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Natural History of Model Organisms: E. coqui

    Sarah E Westrick, Mara Laslo, Eva K Fischer
    1. Ecology
    2. Evolutionary Biology

    Plant Biology: Hiding in plain smell

    Youngsung Joo, Meredith C Schuman

Senior editors

  1. Claude Desplan
    New York University, United States
  2. Alan Moses
    University of Toronto, Canada
  3. Detlef Weigel
    Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany
  4. See more editors