Background Colonial invertebrates such as corals exhibit nested levels of modularity,
imposing a challenge to the depiction of their morphological evolution. Comparisons among …

Despite the relative simplicity of their modular growth, marine invertebrates such as
arborescent gorgonian octocorals (Octocorallia: Cnidaria) generate complex colonial forms …

Multi-branched arborescent networks are common patterns for many sessile marine modular
organisms but no clear understanding of their development is yet available. This paper …

Pocillopora corals, the dominant reef-builders in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, exhibit a high
level of phenotypic plasticity, making the interpretation of morphological variation and the …

Morphological traits that appear multiple times when mapped onto molecular phylogenies
have been associated with character lability. In an ecological context, functional characters …

Background Phenotypic plasticity, as a phenotypic response induced by the environment,
has been proposed as a key factor in the evolutionary history of corals. A significant number …

Despite the universality of branching patterns in marine modular colonial organisms, there is
neither a clear explanation about the growth of their branching forms nor an understanding …

Geomorphological methods for quantifying branching networks are used to describe inter-
and intra-specific differences in branching patterns among two species of arborescent …

Global habitat degradation heightens the need to better understand patterns of genetic
connectivity and diversity of marine biota across geographical ranges to guide conservation …

Background Colonial reef-building corals have evolved a broad spectrum of colony
morphologies based on coordinated asexual reproduction of polyps on a secreted calcium …