An unprecedented level of confidence has recently crystallized around a new hypothesis of
how living placental mammals share a pattern of common descent. The major groups are …

To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of
origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 …

ABSTRACT Ever since Tyson (1699), anatomists have noted and compared differences in
the regional numbers of vertebrae among humans and other hominoids. Subsequent …

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 …

No large group of recently extinct placental mammals remains as evolutionarily cryptic as
the approximately 280 genera grouped as 'South American native ungulates'. To Charles …

Background Variation is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is observable at all levels of
morphology, from anatomical variations of DNA molecules to gross variations between …

The development of distinct regions in the amniote vertebral column results from somite
formation and Hox gene expression, with the adult morphology displaying remarkable …

Phylogenetic relationships among gekkotan lizards were estimated from five nuclear protein‐
coding genes in separate and combined analyses using maximum parsimony, maximum …

Mammals show a very low level of variation in vertebral count, particularly in the neck.
Phenotypes exhibited at various stages during the development of the axial skeleton may …

Within mammals, different reproductive strategies (eg, egg laying, live birth of extremely
underdeveloped young, and live birth of well-developed young) have been linked to …