BACKGROUND Evolution is a strongly historical process, and evolutionary biology is a field
that combines history and science. How the historical nature of evolution affects the …

Convergent evolution of similar phenotypic features in similar environmental contexts has
long been taken as evidence of adaptation. Nonetheless, recent conceptual and empirical …

Phenotypic plasticity–the ability of an individual organism to alter its features in direct
response to a change in its environment–is ubiquitous. Understanding how and why this …

The morphological and functional evolution of appendages has played a crucial role in the
adaptive radiation of tetrapods, arthropods and winged insects. The origin and …

In pandemic and epidemic forms, influenza causes substantial, sometimes catastrophic,
morbidity and mortality. Intense selection from the host immune system drives antigenic …

The human genome project has been recently complemented by whole-genome
assessment sequence of 32 mammals and 24 nonmammalian vertebrate species suitable …

One of the most surprising biological discoveries of the past two decades is that most
animals, no matter how different in appearance, share several families of genes that …

Changes in form during ontogeny and evolution depend in large measure on changes in the
relative growth of the various parts of the body. The current consensus in developmental …

Parallel phenotypic evolution, the independent evolution of the same trait in closely related
lineages, is interesting because it tells us about the contribution of natural selection to …

Understanding the genetic basis of the physical and behavioural traits that distinguish
humans from other primates presents one of the great new challenges in biology. Of the …