Understanding the head is one of the great challenges in the fields of comparative anatomy,
developmental biology, and palaeontology of arthropods. Numerous conflicting views and …

It is arguable that the evolutionary and ecological success of insects is due in large part to
the versatility of their articulated appendages. Recent advances in our understanding of …

The origins of novel complex phenotypes represent one of the most fundamental, yet largely
unresolved, issues in evolutionary biology. Here we explore the developmental genetic …

During development of higher organisms, most patterning events occur in growing tissues.
Thus, unraveling the mechanism of how growing tissues are patterned into final …

The mechanisms by which cells obtain instructions to precisely re-create the missing parts of
an organ remain an unresolved question in regenerative biology. Urodele limb regeneration …

Background The vast diversity in morphology of insect wings provides an excellent model to
study morphological evolution. The best-described wing modification is the specification of …

The cobweb spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum (CL Koch, 1841; syn.: Achaearanea
tepidariorum) has become an important study organism in developmental biology and …

The mechanism by which Decapentaplegic (Dpp) and its antagonist Short gastrulation (Sog)
specify the dorsoventral pattern in Drosophila embryos has been proposed to have a …

Beetle 'horns' are rigid outgrowths of the insect cuticle used as weapons in contests for
access to mates. Relative to their body size, beetle horns can be enormous. They protrude …

Specification of the proximal–distal (PD) axis of insect appendages is best understood in
Drosophila melanogaster, where conserved signaling molecules encoded by the genes …