The rate and mechanism of protein sequence evolution have been central questions in
evolutionary biology since the 1960s. Although the rate of protein sequence evolution …

The origin story and emergence of molecular biology is muddled. The early triumphs in
bacterial genetics and the complexity of animal and plant genomes complicate an intricate …

The vertebrate body plan and organs are shaped during a conserved embryonic phase
called the phylotypic stage. However, the mechanisms that guide the epigenome through …

The transition from maternal to zygotic control is fundamental to the life cycle of all
multicellular organisms. It is widely believed that genomes are transcriptionally inactive from …

Sizable minorities of protein-coding genes from every sequenced eukaryotic and prokaryotic
genome are unique to the species. These so-called 'orphan genes' may evolve de novo from …

Complex multicellularity has emerged independently across a few eukaryotic lineages and
is often associated with the rise of elaborate, tightly coordinated developmental processes …

The hourglass model of embryonic evolution predicts an hourglass-like divergence during
animal embryogenesis–with embryos being more divergent at the earliest and latest stages …

The developmental hourglass model has been used to describe the morphological
transitions of related species throughout embryogenesis. Recently, quantifiable approaches …

There have been repeated attempts in the history of comparative biology to provide a
mechanistic account of morphological homology. However, it is well-established that …

Despite morphological diversification of chordates over 550 million years of evolution, their
shared basic anatomical pattern (or 'bodyplan') remains conserved by unknown …