Birds harbor complex gut bacterial communities that may sustain their ecologies and
facilitate their biological roles, distribution, and diversity. Research on gut microbiomes in …

Modularity is now generally recognized as a fundamental feature of organisms, one that may
have profound consequences for evolution. Modularity has recently become a major focus of …

Evolutionary radiation is a widely recognized mode of species diversification, but its
underlying mechanisms have not been unambiguously resolved for species-rich …

Evolutionary innovations are scattered throughout the tree of life, and have allowed the
organisms that possess them to occupy novel adaptive zones. While the impacts of these …

The island syndrome is a widespread biological phenomenon that describes a suite of
morphological, behavioural, demographic and life‐history changes associated with island …

Many animal appendages, such as avian beaks and mammalian ears, can be used to
dissipate excess body heat. Allen's rule, wherein animals in warmer climates have larger …

Characterizing how variation in the tempo and mode of evolution has structured the
phenotypic diversity of extant species is a central goal of macroevolution,–. However …

Birds show tremendous ecological disparity in spite of strong biomechanical constraints
imposed by flight. Modular skeletal evolution is generally accepted to have facilitated this …

Evolvability is best addressed from a multi-level, macroevolutionary perspective through a
comparative approach that tests for among-clade differences in phenotypic diversification in …

The kinetic skull is a key innovation that allowed snakes to capture, manipulate, and swallow
prey exclusively using their heads using the coordinated movement of eight bones. Despite …