There is a widespread view that the process of adaptation in complex systems is made
difficult due to an evolutionary cost of complexity that is reflected in lower evolvability. This …

The neck is a critical portion of the avian spine, one that works in tandem with the beak to act
as a surrogate forelimb and allows birds to manipulate their surroundings despite the lack of …

The evolution of mammals from their extinct forerunners, the non-mammalian synapsids, is
one of the most iconic locomotor transitions in the vertebrate fossil record. In the limb …

Complexity, defined as the number of parts and their degree of differentiation, is a poorly
explored aspect of macroevolutionary dynamics. The maximum anatomical complexity of …

The evolutionary transition from early synapsids to therian mammals involved profound
reorganization in locomotor anatomy and function, centered around a shift from “sprawled” …

The evolution of semi-independent modules is hypothesized to underlie the functional
diversification of serially repeating (metameric) structures. The mammal vertebral column is …

Background The axial skeleton consists of repeating units (vertebrae) that are integrated
through their development and evolution. Unlike most tetrapods, vertebrae in the …

Cetacean reinvasion of the aquatic realm is an iconic ecological transition that led to drastic
modifications of the mammalian body plan, especially in the axial skeleton. Relative to the …

In this study, we investigate how the terrestrial-aquatic transition influenced patterns of axial
integration and modularity in response to the secondary adaptation to a marine lifestyle. We …

Bird necks display unparalleled levels of morphological diversity compared to other
vertebrates, yet it is unclear what factors have structured this variation. Using three …