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A natural similarity in body dimensions of terrestrial animals noticed by ancient philosophers remains the main key to the problem of mammalian skeletal evolution with body mass explored in theoretical and experimental biology and tested by…
The necks of the sauropod dinosaurs reached 15 m in length: six times longer than that of the world record giraffe and five times longer than those of all other terrestrial animals. Several anatomical features enabled this extreme…
Divergence time estimation requires the reconciliation of two major sources of data. These are fossil and/or biogeographic evidence that give estimates of the absolute age of nodes (ancestors) and molecular estimates that give us estimates…
We discuss the problem of observation of natural similarity in skeletal evolution of terrestrial mammals. Analysis is given by means of testing of the power scaling laws established in long bone allometry, which describe development of…
The last few million years on planet Earth have witnessed two remarkable phases of hominid development, starting with a phase of biological evolution characterised by rather rapid increase of the size of the brain. This has been followed by…
In birds, diverticula of the lungs and air sacs pneumatize specific regions of the postcranial skeleton. Relationships among pulmonary components and skeletal regions they pneumatize allow inferences about pulmonary anatomy in non-avian…
Darwin introduced the concept of the "living fossil" to describe species belonging to lineages that have experienced little evolutionary change, and suggested that species in more slowly evolving lineages are more prone to extinction (1).…
Foot stiffness underlies its mechanical function, and is central to the evolution of human bipedal locomotion. The stiff and propulsive human foot has two distinct arches, the longitudinal and transverse. By contrast, the feet of non-human…
We present results of a long-term team collaboration of mathematicians and biologists. We focus on building a mathematical framework for the shape space constituted by a collection of homologous bones or teeth from many species. The…
Although typically possessing four limbs and short bodies, lizards have evolved a diversity of body plans, from short-bodied and fully-limbed to elongate and nearly limbless. Such diversity in body morphology is hypothesized as adaptations…
Recent advances have allowed for both morphological fossil evidence and molecular sequences to be integrated into a single combined inference of divergence dates under the rule of Bayesian probability. In particular the fossilized…
1. Animal movement patterns contribute to our understanding of variation in breeding success and survival of individuals, and the implications for population dynamics. 2. Over time, sensor technology for measuring movement patterns has…
An increasing number of studies have demonstrated correlations between climate trends and body size change of organisms. In many cases, climate might be expected to influence body size by altering thermoregulation, energetics or food…
Understanding the growth and form of shapes is one of the most fundamental problems in biology. While many prior works have analyzed the beak shapes of Darwin's finches, other cranial features are relatively less explored. In this work, we…
Although the sauropod dinosaurs have been recognised for more than a hundred and sixty years, much remains to be discovered and understood about their functional anatomy and palaeobiology. Older taxa require revision and new taxa await…
Humans and chimpanzees are believed to have shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago. Here using a new distance measure called the Jump distance, we calculate the number of base substitutions that might have occurred in the…
Animals often exhibit changes in their behavior during migration. Telemetry data provide a way to observe geographic position of animals over time, but not necessarily changes in the dynamics of the movement process. Continuous-time models…
This paper deals with 3D reconstruction of seabirds which recently came into focus of environmental scientists as valuable bio-indicators for environmental change. Such 3D information is beneficial for analyzing the bird's behavior and…
Bird flocking is a striking example of collective animal behaviour. A vivid illustration of this phenomenon is provided by the aerial display of vast flocks of starlings gathering at dusk over the roost and swirling with extraordinary…
Gene gains and losses have shaped the gene repertoire of species since the universal last common ancestor to species today. Genes in extant species were gained at different historical times via de novo creation of new genes, duplication of…