Paleontologists at University College Cork have discovered that the evolution of fish is linked to the shape, location and ...

Draft genomes generated using more affordable second-generation sequencing technologies could be assembled for a larger number of species, but these were of lower quality because they were highly ...

Paired appendages—the pectoral and pelvic fins of fishes and the forelimbs and hindlimbs of tetrapods—were a major innovation in vertebrate evolution. Their emergence greatly expanded the ways ...

Invertebrate research bias in ecology is measurable and worsening: a new audit of 1.38 million papers across 612 journals by UNSW researchers finds vertebrate studies attract 43% more online attention ...

Walking is a complex mechanism involving both automatic processes and conscious control. Its dysfunction can have multiple, sometimes extremely subtle causes, within the motor cortex, brain stem, ...

A new review proposes that the RAG transposon was co-opted in two stages to help create the V(D)J recombination system of jawed vertebrates.

Innate immunity is an ancient and highly diversified layer of host defense. In vertebrates its evolution has been tied closely to the origin and ...

Hox9–10 genes act at the earliest stages of pelvic fin and hindlimb development in zebrafish and newts, revealing a conserved ...

Researchers report that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin -- and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element or 'retrotransposon' is ...

The researchers from the HiLIFE Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki compared two central bearded dragon lizards (Pogona vitticeps): a normal one and a mutant with no body scales. They ...

A team of herpetologists at the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz just reported that a tiny frog found only in a hilltop forest in southern Bahia, Brazil, may be the smallest vertebrate in the world ...