Genome-scale data and the development of novel statistical phylogenetic approaches have
greatly aided the reconstruction of a broad sketch of the tree of life and resolved many of its …

There can be no doubt that early land plant evolution transformed the planet but, until
recently, how and when this was achieved was unclear. Coincidence in the first appearance …

Artificial intelligence-based protein structure prediction methods such as AlphaFold have
revolutionized structural biology. The accuracies of these predictions vary, however, and …

Beetles constitute the most biodiverse animal order with over 380 000 described species
and possibly several million more yet unnamed. Recent phylogenomic studies have arrived …

Molecular phylogeny indicates that metazoans (animals) emerged early in the
Neoproterozoic era, but physical evidence is lacking. The search for animal fossils from the …

Proper biological interpretation of a phylogeny can sometimes hinge on the placement of
key taxa—or fail when such key taxa are not sampled. In this light, we here present the first …

Chaetognaths (arrow worms) are an enigmatic group of marine animals whose phylogenetic
position remains elusive, in part because they display a mix of developmental and …

Resolving the relationships between the major lineages in the animal tree of life is
necessary to understand the origin and evolution of key animal traits. Sponges …

Comprising over 15 000 living species, decapods (crabs, shrimp and lobsters) are the most
instantly recognizable crustaceans, representing a considerable global food source …

Identifying our most distant animal relatives has emerged as one of the most challenging
problems in phylogenetics. This debate has major implications for our understanding of the …