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A new fossil cnidarian, Auroralumina attenboroughi, from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest, UK, described as showing mosaic anthozoan and medusozoan characters, is the oldest yet-known crown-group cnidarian.
Studying the odorant receptor subfamily Or67a in Drosophila melanogaster and closely related species, the authors show that independent selection on co-expressed receptors has contributed to species-specific peripheral coding of olfactory information.
Using 46 years of individually monitored data for European red deer, the authors show that older individuals become less socially connected, with correlated changes to their spatial behaviour.
Using a literature review and meta-analysis, the authors quantify the proportion of ecological research that is wasted because of poor study design and implementation, or because the work remains unpublished.
Populations of a bulb mite that were experimentally selected for a male weapon showed reduced diversity across the genome, indicating that strong sexual selection increases the strength of purifying selection.
Several cases of replicated radiations (in which sets of similar forms evolve repeatedly within different regions) have been described in animals. Here the authors provide a well-documented example in plants, specifically the Oreinotinus lineage within the angiosperm clade Viburnum in its spread from Mexico to Argentina through disjunct cloud forest environments.
Analysing whole-genome sequences from 68 rattlesnakes, the authors show a role of long-term balancing selection in maintaining diversity of multiple venom gene families and find reduced selective interference of venom genes with neighbouring loci.
Using a 30-year dataset of North American bird species, the authors show that species’ abundances and distributions have become more decoupled from climate over time and that this is associated with ecological traits; the effect is particularly strong in threatened species.
The authors construct a time-calibrated phylogeny spanning >90% of spiny-rayed fishes to explore patterns of body shape disparity within acanthomorphs. They find a trend of steady accumulation of lineages from the Cenozoic, with an increase in morphological disparity following the Cretaceous–Palaeogene event, facilitating the radiation of diverse morphotypes that characterize acanthomorphs’ widespread ecological success today.
Genome sequencing and haplotype assembly of two cyprinid teleosts, a sexual tetraploid and an unisexual hexaploid, reveal insights into the evolutionary mechanisms underpinning the reproductive success of unisexual polyploid vertebrates.
A ten-year dataset from the Tibetan Plateau shows a general increase in tree-ring growth that is largely explained by enhanced nitrogen recycling through increased litterfall under elevated atmospheric CO2.
Using estimation data on neuron numbers in 111 bird species across 24 families, the authors show that number of neurons is positively associated with innovation propensity and encephalization.
Directed evolution shows that low expression of the green fluorescent protein facilitates the evolution of cyan fluorescence in E. coli, which can be explained by synergy between the protein’s scarcity and its stability.
A panel of scientists, policymakers and practitioners have used an iterative voting process to collate a list of 15 priority emerging issues likely to affect marine and coastal biodiversity over the next 5–10 years.
Combining field data and greenhouse experiments, the authors show how agricultural management practices like fungicide applications can affect the degree to which arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the soil provision phosphorus to plants.
Mammals host a diversity of parasites including lice. Using cophylogenetics and phylogenetic comparative methods, the authors show that the main lineages of placental mammal lice had a single common ancestor and find that all parasitic lice had an avian ancestral host.
A multidisciplinary approach, including genetics and behavioural assays, identifies a single gene, CYP4PC1, which integrates both sex differentiation and hormone signalling with sexual attractiveness in the German cockroach.
Biogeochemical analysis of a chronosequence of secondary forest succession in lowland Central Africa suggests that calcium becomes an increasingly scarce and potentially limiting resource with stand age and ecosystem calcium storage shifts from soil to woody biomass.