Reviews & Analysis

Homo sapiens remains, molecular data and a revised chronology for the Bulgarian site of Bacho Kiro document the earliest known presence of our species in Europe, representing an important jigsaw piece in the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition.

Urbanization can cause rapid evolutionary responses among city-dwelling species but evolution is rarely accounted for in urban conservation efforts. Here, the authors outline a framework for integrating evolutionary principles into the management of urban biodiversity.

A global analysis of biodiversity time series across temperate zones shows contrasting fingerprints of contemporary climate warming on species assemblages over land and sea. A net increase in the number of species is evident in the warmest temperate oceans but no systematic biodiversity trend is detected in the terrestrial realm.

A comparative analysis of developmental transcriptomes across Metazoa provides a quantitative approach to test scenarios of life-cycle evolution and supports an ancestral adult form with later intercalation of larval stages.

A large-scale field experiment in a prey–enemy system demonstrates that spatial and temporal variation in population dynamics can both drive and respond to evolution. This is a crucial step in scaling up our understanding of how ecology and evolution are intertwined in mosaic landscapes.

The postdoctoral experience is in need of reform. Here the authors outline concrete steps that institutions, postdocs and mentors can take to improve the landscape.

Ecosystem restoration needs to incorporate network and evolutionary approaches to focus on long-term recovery of the complexity of ecosystems.

Anthropogenic sensory pollutants, such as noise, light and chemicals, are affecting biodiversity. This Perspective uses an understanding of animal sensory ecology to explore how these impacts can be mitigated.

A new model suggests that energetic costs of development are minimized within narrow ranges of temperature. Temperatures below an optimum raise costs by extending development times more than metabolic rates are depressed, whereas temperatures above the optimum cause development rates to stall even as metabolic rates rise.

Proteomic analysis of human dental calculus finds evidence that ruminant dairying was accompanied with eastward human migration into Central Mongolia about 5,000 years ago and horse milk consumption was a part of the economic transformation in Mongolia around 1200 bc.

Ancient Salmonella enterica genomes from humans beginning to adopt farming lifestyles reveal insight into how epidemiological pathways were affected by human cultural transitions.

A decentralized community is introduced that aims to standardize and integrate species trait data across organismal groups, based on principles of Open Science.

Slow ecological cycles, resulting in the recurrent dispersal of cells between resource patches, can drive the evolution of collectivity.

Expert elicitation methods identify a set of essential ecological variables that may be used to guide effective conservation and management of the deep sea.

Time lags in the response of species to conservation interventions may mask success. In this Perspective, the authors explore the effects of time lags on biodiversity indicators using both theory and empirical data.

Analysis of niche related morphological traits in nearly 10,000 species of birds shows concordance between phenotypic traits and trophic function. Avian trophic niche space can be described by only two to four dimensions, with the occurrence of similar adaptive morphologies primarily driven by convergent evolution.