The role of fossils in dating the tree of life has been misunderstood. Fossils can provide
good “minimum” age estimates for branches in the tree, but “maximum” constraints on those …

Teeth and dentitions contain many morphological characters which give them a particularly
important weight in comparative anatomy, systematics, physiology and ecology. As teeth are …

The evidentiary basis of the currently accepted classification of living amphibians is
discussed and shown not to warrant the degree of authority conferred on it by use and …

Dating the tree of life is a core endeavor in evolutionary biology. Rates of evolution are
fundamental to nearly every evolutionary model and process. Rates need dates. There is …

Vertebrate palaeontology is a lively field, with new discoveries reported every week... and
not only dinosaurs! This new edition reflects the international scope of vertebrate …

In recent years, avian systematics has been characterized by a diminished reliance on
morphological cladistics of modern taxa, intensive palaeornithogical research stimulated by …

The Neotropics contains half of remaining rainforests and Earth's largest reservoir of
amphibian biodiversity. However, determinants of Neotropical biodiversity (ie, vicariance …

About 96% of the more than 4,800 living anuran species belong to the Neobatrachia or
advanced frogs,,. Because of the extremely poor representation of these animals in the …

The evolution of body size in tetrapods is assessed using a database that includes 107 early
stegocephalian species ranging in time from the Frasnian (Upper Devonian) to the Tatarian …

The origin of extant amphibians (Lissamphibia: frogs, salamanders and caecilians) is one of
the most controversial questions in vertebrate evolution, owing to large morphological and …