What did the very first complex vertebrate brain look like? To find out, scientists turned to an unlikely time traveler: the ...

Vertebrates have extremely different brain sizes: even with the same body size, brain size can vary a hundredfold. As a rule, mammals and birds have the largest brains in relation to their body size, ...

Archaea are often mistaken as bacteria, given that both are small, single-cell organisms. However, archaea are as genetically different from bacteria as humans are from bacteria. While archaea are ...

The ecological context of early vertebrate evolution is envisaged as a long-term trend towards increasingly active food acquisition and enhanced locomotory capabilities culminating in the emergence of ...

A new study constructs the first 3D single-cell brain atlas of the lamprey, uncovering the 450-million-year-old molecular blueprint of vertebrates.

The researchers from the HiLIFE Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki compared two central bearded dragon lizards (Pogona vitticeps): a normal one and a mutant with no body scales. They ...

Vertebrates have extremely different brain sizes: even with the same body size, brain size can vary a hundredfold. As a rule, mammals and birds have the largest brains in relation to their body size, ...

Researchers have long assumed that a tube in the famous Pikaia fossil ran along the animal’s back. But a new study turned the fossil upside down. By Carl Zimmer Over the past 500 million years, ...

A team of herpetologists at the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz just reported that a tiny frog found only in a hilltop forest in southern Bahia, Brazil, may be the smallest vertebrate in the world ...

Researchers report that ancient viruses may be to thank for myelin -- and, by extension, our large, complex brains. The team found that a retrovirus-derived genetic element or 'retrotransposon' is ...

The world's longest-lived vertebrate puzzled scientists for decades, until radioactive carbon released by thermonuclear ...

Limb formation in vertebrates begins with the emergence of a limb bud from the lateral plate mesoderm beneath the surface ectoderm. Three orthogonal signalling centres establish the fundamental axes ...