Examining biological diversity in an explicitly evolutionary context has been the subject of
research for several decades, yet relatively recent advances in analytical techniques and the …

Background The best European locality for complete Eocene mammal skeletons is Grube
Messel, near Darmstadt, Germany. Although the site was surrounded by a para-tropical rain …

The molecular clock has become an increasingly important tool in evolutionary biology and
biological anthropology. Nevertheless, a source of contention with respect to this method is …

Variation in relative brain size is commonly interpreted as the result of selection on neuronal
capacity. However, this approach ignores that relative brain size is also linked to another …

Background Brain size is a key adaptive trait. It is often assumed that increasing brain size
was a general evolutionary trend in primates, yet recent fossil discoveries have documented …

A distinctive trait in primate evolution is the expansion in brain mass. The potential drivers of
this trend and how and whether encephalization influenced diversification dynamics in this …

Interpretation of the adaptive profile of ancestral primates is controversial and has been
constrained for decades by general acceptance of the premise that the first primates were …

Chewing on different food types is a demanding biological function. The classic assumption
in studying the shape of feeding apparatuses is that animals are what they eat, meaning that …

Abstract The La Venta fauna of Colombia (∼ 13.5–11.5 Ma) represents the most diverse
Tertiary locality in the neotropics, with 75 mammal species and a highly non-analogue …

Aim Small body size in Madagascar's dwarf and mouse lemurs (Cheirogaleidae) is
generally viewed as primitive. We investigated the evolution of body size in this family and in …