Metazoa comprises 35–40 phyla that include some 1.3 million described species.
Phylogenetic analyses of metazoan interrelationships have progressed in the past two …

Molluscs comprise the second largest phylum of animals (after arthropods), occurring in
virtually all habitats. Some are commercially important, a few are pests and some carry …

Recent progress in reconstructing animal relationships enables us to draw a better picture of
the evolution of important characters such as organ systems and developmental processes …

Pelagic larval stages are widespread across animals, yet it is unclear whether larvae were
present in the last common ancestor of animals or whether they evolved multiple times due …

The discovery and application of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method has greatly
enhanced the ease with which transgenic manipulation can occur. We applied this …

Molecular approaches to the study of development and evolution have had profound effects
on our understanding of the nature of the evolutionary process. Developmental biologists …

The evolution of nervous systems in animals has always fascinated biologists, and thus
multiple evolutionary scenarios have been proposed to explain the appearance of neurons …

At least five animal phyla exhibit spiralian development, which is characterized by striking
similarities in the geometry of the early cleavage pattern and the fate map of the blastula …

Abstract Background The polychaete annelid Capitella teleta (formerly Capitella sp. I)
develops by spiral cleavage and has been the focus of several recent developmental …

The fate of the blastopore during development in the bilaterian ancestor is currently not well
understood. In deuterostomes, the blastopore forms the anus, but its fate in protostome …