Birds are one of the most recognizable and diverse groups of modern vertebrates. Over the
past two decades, a wealth of new fossil discoveries and phylogenetic and …

Morphology forms the most fundamental level of data in vertebrate palaeontology because it
is through interpretations of morphology that taxa are identified, creating the basis for broad …

Large-scale adaptive radiations might explain the runaway success of a minority of extant
vertebrate clades. This hypothesis predicts, among other things, rapid rates of morphological …

Background The origin of birds is one of the most enduring and dramatic evolutionary
debates. The hypothesis that the primarily small-sized birds are nested within a theropod …

Uncertainties in the phylogeny of birds (Avialae) and their closest relatives have impeded
deeper understanding of early theropod flight. To help address this, we produced an …

The interplay of evolution and development has been at the heart of evolutionary theory for
more than a century. Heterochrony—change in the timing or rate of developmental events …

The largest known dinosaurs weighed at least 20 million times as much as the smallest,
indicating exceptional phenotypic divergence. Previous studies have focused on extreme …

Most scientists and researchers aren't prepared to talk to the press or to policymakers—or to
deal with backlash. Many researchers have the horror stories to prove it. What's clear …

Birds today are the most diverse clade of terrestrial vertebrates, and understanding why
extant birds (Aves) alone among dinosaurs survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass …

In amniotes, the predominant developmental strategy underlying body size evolution is
thought to be adjustments to the rate of growth rather than its duration. However, most …