We present a testable hypothesis related to an origin of life on land in which fluctuating
volcanic hot spring pools play a central role. The hypothesis is based on experimental …

The first animals evolved from an unknown single-celled ancestor in the Precambrian
period. Recently, the identification and characterization of the genomic and cellular traits of …

Chromosomes are a central unit of genome organization. One-tenth of all described species
on Earth are butterflies and moths, the Lepidoptera, which generally possess 31 …

Diverse bilaterian clades emerged apparently within a few million years during the early
Cambrian, and various environmental, developmental, and ecological causes have been …

Ichnology is the study of traces created in the substrate by living organisms. This is the first
book to systematically cover basic concepts and applications in both paleobiology and …

James A. Shapiro proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological
evolution, the core organizing principle of biology. Shapiro introduces crucial new molecular …

Abstract The Neoproterozoic era (1,000–542 Myr ago) was an era of climatic extremes and
biological evolutionary developments culminating in the emergence of animals (Metazoa) …

Divergent morphology of species has largely been ascribed to genetic differences in the
tissue-specific expression of proteins, which could be achieved by divergence in cis …

Simple multicellularity has evolved numerous times within the Eukarya, but complex
multicellular organisms belong to only six clades: animals, embryophytic land plants …

The Cambrian diversification of animals was long thought to have begun with an explosive
phase at the start of the Tommotian Age. Recent stratigraphic discoveries, however, suggest …