Explaining broad molecular, phenotypic and species biodiversity patterns necessitates a
unifying framework spanning multiple evolutionary scales. Here we argue that although …

The concept of evolvability emerged in the early 1990s and soon became fashionable as a
label for different streams of research in evolutionary biology. In evolutionary quantitative …

Heritable variation is a prerequisite for evolutionary change, but the relevance of genetic
constraints on macroevolutionary timescales is debated. By using two datasets on fossil and …

Understanding the causes and limits of population divergence in phenotypic traits is a
fundamental aim of evolutionary biology, with the potential to yield predictions of adaptation …

Phylogenetic comparative methods are important tools in biology, providing insights into the
way traits evolve. There are many technical resources describing how these methods work …

A recurrent theme in evolutionary biology is to contrast natural selection and developmental
constraint–two forces pitted against each other as competing explanations for organismal …

Modularity is now generally recognized as a fundamental feature of organisms, one that may
have profound consequences for evolution. Modularity has recently become a major focus of …

For centuries, ecologists and evolutionary biologists have used images such as drawings,
paintings and photographs to record and quantify the shapes and patterns of life. With the …

Many traits of interest are highly heritable and genetically complex, meaning that much of
the variation they exhibit arises from differences at numerous loci in the genome. Complex …

The degree to which developmental biases affect trait evolution is subject to much debate.
Here, we first quantify fluctuating asymmetry as a measure of developmental variability, ie …