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 …

The whole‐body (tachymetabolic) endothermy seen in modern birds and mammals is long
held to have evolved independently in each group, a reasonable assumption when it was …

Mammals are arguably the most conspicuous tetrapods in the modern biota. Although there
are fewer extant mammal species (~ 5,500) than birds (~ 10,000) or squamates (~ 10,000) …

Body growth is typically thought to be indeterminate in ectothermic vertebrates. Indeed, until
recently, this growth pattern was considered to be ubiquitous in ectotherms. Our recent …

Background Plesiosaurs are marine reptiles that arose in the Late Triassic and survived to
the Late Cretaceous. They have a unique and uniform bauplan and are known for their very …

The only true living endothermic vertebrates are birds and mammals, which produce and
regulate their internal temperature quite independently from their surroundings. For mammal …

Varanids are the only non-avian sauropsids that are known to approach the warm-blooded
mammals in stamina. Furthermore, a much higher maximum metabolic rate (MMR) gives …

Ophiacodontids have long been considered the basalmost synapsids, and to have retained
a fairly aquatic, piscivorous lifestyle typical of stem-amniotes. A restudy of their bone …

Therocephalians were a speciose clade of nonmammalian therapsids whose ecological
diversity and survivorship of the end-Permian mass extinction offer the potential to …

The independent acquisition of endothermy in synapsids and diapsids are major events in
vertebrate evolution since they were the driving force of a suite of correlated changes in …