Amphibia comprises over 7000 extant species distributed in almost every ecosystem on
every continent except Antarctica. Most species also show high specificity for particular …

The morphology of the temporal region in the tetrapod skull traditionally has been a widely
discussed feature of vertebrate anatomy. The evolution of different temporal openings in …

Were molecular data available for extinct taxa, questions regarding the origins of many
groups could be settled in short order. As this is not the case, various strategies have been …

Anura (frogs and toads) constitute over 88% of living amphibian diversity but many important
questions about their phylogeny and evolution remain unresolved. For this study, we …

The global prominence of snakes in religion, myth, and folklore underscores our deep
connection to them—but why, when few of us have firsthand experience? The answer, Isbell …

Abstract The Tropical Andes make up Earth's most species-rich biodiversity hotspot for both
animals and plants. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying this …

The Maastrichtian intertrappean beds of Kisalpuri and Kelapur, India, have yielded new
amphibian and squamate reptile fossils that increase our knowledge of these groups. In …

The geographic and temporal origins of Madagascar's biota have long been in the center of
debate. We reconstructed a time-tree including nearly all native nonflying and nonmarine …

Previously known only from isolated teeth and lower jaw fragments recovered from the
Cretaceous and Palaeogene of the Southern Hemisphere, the Gondwanatheria constitute …

Molecular dating studies typically need fossils to calibrate the analyses. Unfortunately, the
fossil record is extremely poor or presently nonexistent for many species groups, rendering …