We have recently reconstructed the evolutionary history of bird Z/W sex chromosomes, based on analyses of a total of 17 species’ genomes [4]. To our surprise, many species besides the known cases of Palaeognathae birds (ostrich and tinamou) [36], degenerate very slowly in their W chromos...
Carotenoids, a class of colour pigments, are responsible for red, yellow and orange hues in nature. They play an important role in visual animals, and specially birds, where dietary carotenoids can act as honest sexual signals. Long-standing interest in the function of carotenoid-based colours ...
The findings challenge the widely-held belief that the dinosaurian extinction was followed by a rapid evolution of bird species. Previous studies indicated that the catastrophe resulted in the elimination of birds' competition for resources, thereby facilitating their fast diversification into the 11,000...
Island faunas can be characterized by gigantism in small animals and dwarfism in large animals, but the extent to which this so-called ‘island rule’ provides a general explanation for evolutionary trajectories on islands remains contentious. Here we us
(fruit, seed, and/or nut eater) at the archosaur-to-bird transition. The evolutionary shift of the CALB to herbivory may have essentially made them become a low-level consumer and, consequently, subject to relatively high predation risk from potential predators such as gliding non-avian mani...
Rescue 'em All! - Assemble a strike force of great magnitude and go on rescue missions behind enemy lines in the game's 1 - 4 player drop-in / drop-out, online/offline Rescue Mode. Leave no bird behind! Evolution is Delicious! - Featuring enhanced, nuanced controls, new combat systems...
Overall, our analyses indicate that by improving the taxonomic sampling, complete mt genomes can solve the evolutionary relationships among major bird groups. Second, we used our phylogenetic hypotheses to estimate the time of origin of major avian orders as a way to test if their diversification ...
The presence/absence patterns of those elements that were active at different periods of gamebird evolution provided evidence for a clade (Cracidae + (Numididae + (Odontophoridae + Phasianidae))) not including Megapodiidae; and for Rollulus as the sister taxon of the other analyzed Phasianidae...
— Of the approximately 9500 bird species, the vast majority is small-bodied. That is a general feature of evolutionary lineages, also observed for instance in mammals and plants. The avian interspecific body size distribution is right-skewed even on a logarithmic scale. That has previously been...
Monocots are one of the most diverse groups of flowering plants, and tracing the evolution of their ancestral genome into modern species is essential for understanding their evolutionary success. Here, we report a high-quality assembly of the Acorus tatarinowii genome, a species that diverged early...