Fossil age data and molecular sequences are increasingly combined to establish a
timescale for the Tree of Life. Arthropods, as the most species-rich and morphologically …

Insects are the largest and most diverse group of living organisms on Earth, playing a critical
but underestimated role as agents of geomorphic change. Burrowing insects create micro …

Ecdysozoans have been key components of ecosystems since the early Cambrian, when
trilobites and soft-bodied Burgess Shale-type ecdysozoans dominated marine animal …

Abstract The Eumetabola (Endopterygota (also known as Holometabola) plus
Paraneoptera) have the highest number of species of any clade, and greatly contribute to …

Animals have body parts made of similar cell types located at different axial positions, such
as limbs. The identity and distinct morphology of each structure is often specified by the …

The rise of arthropods is a decisive event in the history of life. Likely the first animals to have
established themselves on land and in the air, arthropods have pervaded nearly all …

Life in fresh water is osmotically and energetically challenging for living organisms, requiring
increases in ion uptake from dilute environments. However, mechanisms of ion uptake from …

Concurrent gaps in the Late Devonian/Mississippian fossil records of insects and tetrapods
(ie Romer's Gap) have been attributed to physiological suppression by low atmospheric p …

To test the extent of herbivory in early terrestrial ecosystems, we examined compression–
impression specimens of the late M iddle D evonian liverwort M etzgeriothallus sharonae …

The earliest fossils of winged insects (Pterygota) are mid-Carboniferous (latest
Mississippian, 328–324 Mya), but estimates of their age based on fossil-calibrated …