cis-regulatory changes play a central role in morphological divergence, yet the regulatory principles underlying emergence of human traits remain poorly understood. Here, we use epigenomic profiling from human and chimpanzee cranial neural crest cells to systematically and quantitatively annotate divergence of craniofacial cis-regulatory landscapes. Epigenomic divergence is often attributable t...

1. The competitive interactions of closely related species have long been considered important determinants of community composition and a major cause of phenotypic diversification. However, while patterns such as character displacement are well documented, less is known about how local adaptation influences diversifying selection from interspecific competition. 2. We examined body size and hea...

Development in marsupials is specialized towards an extremely short gestation and highly altricial newborns. As a result, marsupial neonates display morphological adaptations at birth related to functional constraints. However, little is known about the variability of marsupial skull development and its relation to morphological diversity. We studied bony skull development in five marsupial spe...

The evolution of cranial design in lepidosaurians is characterized by a general trend toward the loss of cranial elements. The evolution of relatively lighter skulls in squamates appears tightly coupled to a reduction in relative mass of the jaw adductor, implying functional consequences for bite force and feeding behavior. Interestingly, among squamates the postorbital bar was reduced or lost ...

When we talk about phonological change, it is reasonably clear what we mean, but the scope of morphological change is less obvious, and depends heavily on the scope of what we take to be ‘morphology’. This is because characteristics and effects of the structure of words are somewhat more ‘metastasised’ in grammatical structure, interrelated with sound structure, syntax and meaning. For concrete...

Linear and depressed skull fractures are frequent mechanisms of head injury and are often associated with traumatic brain injury. Accurate knowledge of the fracture of cranial bone can provide insight into the prevention of skull fracture injuries. A set of cranial bone specimens were extracted from 8 crania and, after !CT imaging, the specimens were tested in a three-point bend set-up at dynam...

An account is offered to change over time in English verb morphology, based on a connectionist approach to how morphological knowledge is acquired and used. A technique is first described that was developed for modeling historical change in connectionist networks, and that technique is applied to model English verb inflection as it developed from the highly complex past tense system of Old Engl...