▪ Abstract Co-option occurs when natural selection finds new uses for existing traits,
including genes, organs, and other body structures. Genes can be co-opted to generate …

That biological features may change their function during evolution has long been
recognized. Particularly, the acquisition of new functions by molecules involved in …

The role of gene expression in evolutionary adaptation has been a subject of debate for over
40 years. cis‐regulation of transcription has been proposed to be the primary source of …

Reciprocal questions often frame studies of the evolution of developmental mechanisms.
How can species share similar developmental genetic toolkits but still generate diverse life …

An important tenet of evolutionary developmental biology (“evo devo”) is that adaptive
mutations affecting morphology are more likely to occur in the cis-regulatory regions than in …

Is genetic evolution predictable? Evolutionary developmental biologists have argued that, at
least for morphological traits, the answer is a resounding yes. Most mutations causing …

A recurrent theme in evolutionary biology is to contrast natural selection and developmental
constraint–two forces pitted against each other as competing explanations for organismal …

The history of life is a history of evolutionary innovations, qualitatively new phenotypic traits
that endow their bearers with new, often game-changing abilities. We know many individual …

A central topic in research at the intersection of development and evolution is the origin of
novel traits. Despite progress on understanding how developmental mechanisms underlie …

Evolutionary theory has been extended almost continually since the evolutionary synthesis
(ES), but except for the much greater importance afforded genetic drift, the principal tenets of …