Despite discussions extending back almost 160 years, the means by which Madagascar's
iconic land vertebrates arrived on the island remains the focus of active debate. Three …

Mammals are the most encephalized vertebrates, with the largest brains relative to body
size. Placental mammals have particularly enlarged brains, with expanded neocortices for …

Islands have long been recognized as distinctive evolutionary arenas leading to
morphologically divergent species, such as dwarfs and giants. We assessed how body size …

In non-mammalian synapsids and early mammals, evolutionary transformations in the
feeding and hearing apparatuses are posited to have been prerequisites for the radiation of …

Aim For 80 years, popular opinion has held that most of Madagascar's terrestrial vertebrates
arrived from Africa by transoceanic dispersal (ie rafting or swimming). We reviewed this …

As evolutionary biologists, we live in exciting and promising times. The material basis of our
science is growing at an unprecedented rate; fossils preserving structures we thought …

Establishing the temporal sequence of the Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota is essential as
it anchors the timing of many key evolutionary innovations in vertebrates. Lack of sufficiently …

The estimation of the timing of major divergences in early mammal evolution is challenging
owing to conflicting interpretations of key fossil taxa. One contentious group is Haramiyida …

Mammaliamorpha comprises the last common ancestor of Tritylodontidae and Mammalia
plus all its descendants. Tritylodontids are nonmammaliaform herbivorous cynodonts that …

Adaptive radiations are hypothesized as a generating mechanism for much of the
morphological diversity of extant species. 1–7 The Cenozoic radiation of placental …