The initial phases of animal evolution proceeded faster than hitherto supposed: New analyses suggest that the first animal phyla emerged in rapid succession -- prior to the global Ice Age that set in ...

At present there are many animal phyla that contain only a few species. The existence of these small phyla can be used to test assumptions about speciation and extinction in multicellular animals. We ...

Jordi Paps receives funding from the University of Essex, the Royal Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a ...

A new study helps explain why different groups of animals differ dramatically in their number of species, and how this is related to differences in their body forms and ways of life. A new study by ...

Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 25 (1994), pp. 351-375 (25 pages) Most animal phyla appeared in the Cambrian radiation, and many have a rich fossil record. The phylogenetic ...

DNA sequence data from neglected animal groups support a controversial hypothesis of deep evolutionary history. Inferring that history using only whole-genome sequences can evidently be misleading.

The fundamental tree of life might have to be redrawn. Researchers looking into the branch that contains all bacteria have discovered that it is far more complex than previously thought. By sequencing ...

A new study by University of Arizona biologists helps explain why different groups of animals differ dramatically in their number of species, and how this is related to differences in their body forms ...