Recent discoveries of previously unknown fossil forms have dramatically transformed
understanding of many aspects of the fish-tetrapod transition. Newer paleobiological …

For the first time the phylogenetic relationships of early eureptiles, consisting of captorhinids,
diapsids, and protorothyridids, are investigated in a modern phylogenetic context using both …

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an up-to-date analysis of the South American
Tithonian reptile fauna in a biogeographical context and interprets the pattern of the marine …

The dominant consumers in today's ocean ecosystems are marine mammals, including
cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, and other marine carnivorans. The ecological …

Amniotes, tetrapods that evolved the cleidoic egg and thus independence from aquatic
larval stages, appeared ca 314 Ma during the Coal Age. The rapid diversification of …

Craniate animals, it is estimated, are represented today by some 50,000 species, about half
of which constitute the piscine world. Their fossil record extends back to the Upper …

Axis and germ-layer formations are central issues in vertebrate embryology that can be
examined in the zebrafish, Xenopus, chick, and mouse. An intriguing question is how the …

Because actinopterygians have not given rise to thoroughly terrestrial forms of life, they are
often regarded as some mere “sideline” or “dead-end” of vertebrate evolution. But it is …

Ray‐finned fishes (A ctinopterygii) constitute approximately half of all living vertebrate
species. A stable hypothesis of relationships among major modern lineages has emerged …

How clades diversify early in their history is integral to understanding the origins of
biodiversity and ecosystem recovery following mass extinctions. Moreover, diversification …