Organisms and their features represent a complex system of solutions that can efficiently
inspire the development of original and cutting-edge design applications: the related …

As an important contributor to the habitability of our planet, the oxygen cycle is
interconnected with the emergence and evolution of complex life and is also the basis to …

Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth.
Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species …

A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the
trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit …

Vertebrates have evolved to gigantic sizes repeatedly over the past 250 Myr, reaching their
extreme in today's baleen whales (Mysticeti). Hypotheses for the evolution of exceptionally …

Anthropogenic climate change is increasing rapidly and already impacting biodiversity.
Despite its importance in future projections, understanding of the underlying mechanisms by …

Mean body size in marine animals has increased more than 100-fold since the Cambrian, a
discovery that brings to attention the key life-history parameters of lifespan and growth rate …

Mammalian omnivores are a broad group of species that are often treated uniformly in
ecological studies. Here, we incorporate omnivorous dietary differences to investigate …

Chaetognaths, with their characteristic grasping spines, are the oldest known pelagic
predators, found in the lowest Cambrian (Terreneuvian). Here, we describe a large stem …

The transition of hominins to a largely meat-based diet∼ 1.8 million years ago led to the
exploitation of other mammals for food and resources. As hominins, particularly archaic and …