The recent increase in genomic data is revealing an unexpected perspective of gene loss as
a pervasive source of genetic variation that can cause adaptive phenotypic diversity. This …

An important tenet of evolutionary developmental biology (“evo devo”) is that adaptive
mutations affecting morphology are more likely to occur in the cis-regulatory regions than in …

What is the nature of the genetic changes underlying phenotypic evolution? We have
catalogued 1008 alleles described in the literature that cause phenotypic differences among …

Understanding the diversification of phenotypes through time—“descent with modification”—
has been the focus of evolutionary biology for 150 years. If, contrary to expectations …

One of the most important shifts in evolutionary biology in the past 50 years is an increased
recognition of sluggish evolution and failures to adapt, which seem paradoxical in view of …

Flower colour is a key component for plant signaling to pollinators and a staggering variety
of colour variations are found in nature. Patterning of flower colour, such as pigment spots or …

The extent to which evolution is reversible has long fascinated biologists,,,,,,,. Most previous
work on the reversibility of morphological and life-history evolution,,,, has been indecisive …

Background Cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and morphologically most diverse
prokaryotic phyla on our planet. The early development of an oxygen-containing …

Evolutionary shifts to bird pollination (ornithophily) have occurred independently in many
lineages of flowering plants. This shift affects many floral features, particularly those …

Although animal pollination is often proposed as a major driver of floral divergence,
questions remain about its importance in plant speciation. One issue is whether pollinator …