Evolution articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Spatial scale is important for ecological and evolutionary processes, yet objectively identifying critical scales has been challenging. Here, the authors illustrate how network modularity can identify critical scales in animal movement and significantly alter our understanding of ecological processes.

    • Robert J. Fletcher Jr
    • , Andre Revell
    •  & James D. Austin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Differences in resource availability or inequality of wealth are common both in nature and in human societies. Here the authors find that such inequality facilitates cooperation when the generation of public goods is inefficient, but hinders cooperation when the efficiency of joint actions is high.

    • Ádám Kun
    •  & Ulf Dieckmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Between 8000 and 4000 BP, agriculture spread throughout Europe changing consumption patterns and increasing populations. Shennan et al. analyse radiocarbon date distributions and paleoclimate proxies to show that agriculture also triggered regional population oscillations and that climate forcing is an unlikely cause.

    • Stephen Shennan
    • , Sean S. Downey
    •  & Mark G. Thomas

  • Article |

    Tooth shapes vary greatly amongst mammals, but the genetic underpinnings and functional relevance of new dental morphologies are largely unknown. Gomes Rodrigues et al. show that Eda and Edargenes modulate molar crest development in mice, enabling incipient adaptation to highly fibrous diets.

    • Helder Gomes Rodrigues
    • , Sabrina Renaud
    •  & Laurent Viriot

  • Article |

    Some early flying dinosaurs, such as the Early Creataceous Microraptor, possessed four wings, but their aerodynamic performance is poorly understood. Dyke et al. show that Microraptordid not require sophisticated wing morphology to undertake effective glides, supporting the view that the origin of feathers in dinosaurs is not associated with flight.

    • Gareth Dyke
    • , Roeland de Kat
    •  & Bharathram Ganapathisubramani

  • Article |

    Size-related craniofacial ontogenetic shape variation is known to occur in mammals: large individuals tend to be long-faced and small individuals have large braincases. Carnini and Polly now demonstrate that cranial size and shape co-vary in adults across a range of mammalian groups.

    • Andrea Cardini
    •  & P. David Polly

  • Article |

    Social groups often need to take decisions and solve problems together, with each member contributing to the solution in a different way. Zafeiris et al.provide a family of models that allow the definition of the ideal distribution of competences in a group to solve a given task.

    • Anna Zafeiris
    •  & Tamás Vicsek

  • Article |

    Deep-sea coelacanth female fish were thought to enhance genetic variability in their offspring by mating with multiple males. Here, Lampert et al.analyse the paternity of the offspring of two females, and present evidence that coelacanth females are in fact monogamous.

    • Kathrin P. Lampert
    • , Katrin Blassmann
    •  & Manfred Schartl

  • Article |

    Many different factors contribute to the acquisition of drug resistance in cancer cells. Using single-cell analyses of leukaemia cells, the authors here provide evidence for an inductive mode of resistance, where cells express MDR1 in response to drug exposure, rather than selection of pre-existing, partially resistant cells.

    • Angela Oliveira Pisco
    • , Amy Brock
    •  & Sui Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrogenosomes and mitosomes are mitochondria-related organelles with distinct properties. Here the authors find that the mitochondria-related organelle of the salmon parasite Spironucleus salmonicidahas characteristics of both diplomonad mitosomes and of parabasalid hydrogenosomes, suggesting the presence of hydrogenosomes in the last common ancestor.

    • Jon Jerlström-Hultqvist
    • , Elin Einarsson
    •  & Staffan G. Svärd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A central tenet of population genetics is that the probability of fixing beneficial new alleles in a population is twice their fitness effect, but this has not been empirically proven. Chelo et al. show experimentally, using nematode worms, that extinction rates decrease when the number of beneficial alleles increases.

    • Ivo M. Chelo
    • , Judit Nédli
    •  & Henrique Teotónio

  • Article |

    Mosasaurs were the dominant marine reptiles in the Late Cretaceous. Lindgren et al. report a mosasaur fossil with preserved soft tissue, providing the first evidence that mosasaurs were propelled by hypocercal tail fins.

    • Johan Lindgren
    • , Hani F. Kaddumi
    •  & Michael J. Polcyn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is still not clear when the introduction of animal domestication in northwestern Europe occurred. Here the authors provide evidence that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Northern Germany already possessed domestic pigs, and pigs were present in the region ~500 years earlier than previously thought.

    • Ben Krause-Kyora
    • , Cheryl Makarewicz
    •  & Almut Nebel

  • Article |

    MADS-box genes regulate flowering plant development, but their evolutionary origins are unclear. Here, Ruelens et al.show that three major, apparently flowering plant-specific, MADS-box gene clades are derived from a single ancestral tandem duplication, and identify FLOWERING LOCUS C-like genes in cereals.

    • Philip Ruelens
    • , Ruud A. de Maagd
    •  & Kerstin Kaufmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unicellular ancestors of metazoans can provide significant insights into the origin of multicellularity. Suga et al. present the first complete genome of the filasterean Capsaspora owczarzakiand suggest an evolutionary mechanism for the transition from unicellular protists to metazoans.

    • Hiroshi Suga
    • , Zehua Chen
    •  & Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo

  • Article |

    Sequencing whole microbial genomes has become standard practice and methods to examine their phylogenetic relationships need to match the increasing demand. Segata et al. present a new computational pipeline that allows fast and accurate taxonomic assignment of microbial species.

    • Nicola Segata
    • , Daniela Börnigen
    •  & Curtis Huttenhower

  • Article |

    Uncovering the factors that influence the generation of copy number variation (CNV) across the genome may increase our understanding of the role of CNVs in disease. Here, Makino et al.provide insights into the mechanisms underlying CNV formation and suggest a method for identifying disease-associated CNVs.

    • Takashi Makino
    • , Aoife McLysaght
    •  & Masakado Kawata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abscisic acid plays an essential role in the induction of vegetative desiccation tolerance in bryophytes. Here the authors show that elimination of protein phosphatases 2C is sufficient for the mossPhyscomitrella patensto survive desiccation without the assistance of abscisic acid.

    • Kenji Komatsu
    • , Norihiro Suzuki
    •  & Yoichi Sakata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endothermy facilitated mammalian species radiation, but the events leading to sustained thermogenesis are not clear. Here, the authors report functional brown adipose tissue in a protoendothermic mammal, linking nonshivering thermogenesis directly to the roots of eutherian endothermic evolution.

    • Rebecca Oelkrug
    • , Nadja Goetze
    •  & Carola W. Meyer

  • Article |

    Energy demand in muscle is largely due to maintaining the membrane potential of muscle fibres. Jimenez et al.study the metabolic cost of maintaining the membrane potential of muscle fibres across different species of crustaceans and fishes, and find that larger fibres are metabolically cheaper to maintain.

    • Ana Gabriela Jimenez
    • , Richard M. Dillaman
    •  & Stephen T. Kinsey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolutionary origins of the costal and neural bony plates of the turtle shell have long remained elusive. Here the authors show, through comparative morphological and embryological analyses, that the most of the carapace is derived from endoskeletal ribs.

    • Tatsuya Hirasawa
    • , Hiroshi Nagashima
    •  & Shigeru Kuratani

  • Article |

    Environmental fluctuation is known to promote biodiversity on ecological timescales, but its consequences for the evolution of biodiversity are unknown. Here, the authors report that alternations in environmental conditions help maintain evolved biodiversity in rapidly diversifying bacterial populations.

    • Jiaqi Tan
    • , Colleen K. Kelly
    •  & Lin Jiang

  • Article |

    Excessive and costly defensive traits sometimes evolve contrary to what is expected based on the individual fitness. Here the authors provide evidence that asymmetrical natural selection explains the evolution of excessive investments in defence against enemies, including autoimmune responses.

    • Mark C. Urban
    • , Reinhard Bürger
    •  & Daniel I. Bolnick

  • Article |

    Kin selection predicts female-biased sex ratios in haplodiploid eusocial insects because sisters are more related to each other than to their brothers. Here the authors provide evidence that sex ratio bias also occurs in diploid eusocial insects, which do not show asymmetric relatedness.

    • Kazuya Kobayashi
    • , Eisuke Hasegawa
    •  & Kenji Matsuura

  • Article |

    The Hula painted frog was the first amphibian to be declared extinct, and it has survived undetected for almost 60 years. Here Gafny and colleagues report a surviving Hula painted frog and provide evidence that it belongs to the otherwise extinct genus Latonia.

    • Rebecca Biton
    • , Eli Geffen
    •  & Sarig Gafny

  • Article |

    Modern crocodylian diversity is in decline and sympatry is rare, with usually no more than two or three species occurring in the same geographic area. Here Scheyer et al. identify a diversity peak in sympatric occurrence of at least seven new and previously characterized crocodylian species during the Miocene in South America.

    • T. M. Scheyer
    • , O. A. Aguilera
    •  & M. R. Sánchez-Villagra

  • Article |

    Rates of molecular evolution vary significantly between species, but the reasons behind this variation remain unclear. Lanfear et al.show that height accounts for one-fifth of the rate variation measured in plant genomes, and suggest that is because taller plants copy their genomes less frequently.

    • Robert Lanfear
    • , Simon Y. W. Ho
    •  & Andrew P. Allen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The South African archaeological record contains evidence of the early flourishing of the human mind. Ziegler et al. provide new paleoclimate reconstructions, which suggest that rapid fluctuations in global climate have played a key role in the evolution of these early human cultures.

    • Martin Ziegler
    • , Margit H. Simon
    •  & Rainer Zahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    5,000 years ago, the Minoans established the first advanced civilization of Europe, but their origin remains unclear. Here the authors show that the Minoans were a European population, genetically similar to other ancient European populations and to the present inhabitants of the island of Crete.

    • Jeffery R. Hughey
    • , Peristera Paschou
    •  & George Stamatoyannopoulos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The endemic Tibetan antelope is adapted to high-altitude environments with low partial pressure of oxygen and high level of ultraviolet radiation. Here Ge et al. report a draft genome of this species and by comparison with other mammals, present possible genetic bases of highland adaptation.

    • Ri-Li Ge
    • , Qingle Cai
    •  & Jian Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hermaphrodites develop and maintain male and female reproductive organs in a single individual. Chong et al. show that a DM domain transcription factor is required for male germ cell regeneration and maintains ‘maleness’ in a hermaphrodite, the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea.

    • Tracy Chong
    • , James J. Collins III
    •  & Phillip A. Newmark

  • Article |

    The adaptive significance of predation on conspecifics in non-carnivorous species is unclear. Here Vijendravarma et al. show that predatory cannibalism in Drosophila larvae has hallmarks of a functional behaviour, is genetically variable, and is favoured during experimental evolution under nutritional stress.

    • Roshan K. Vijendravarma
    • , Sunitha Narasimha
    •  & Tadeusz J. Kawecki

  • Article |

    The brains of rock- and sand-dwelling Lake Malawi cichlid fishes differ in telencephalon partitioning. Sylvester et al. show that these differences can be attributed to divergence in Hedgehog and Wingless signalling during development.

    • J B. Sylvester
    • , C A. Rich
    •  & J T. Streelman

  • Article |

    Here, Brotherton and colleagues sequence 39 mitochondrial genomes from ancient human remains. They track population changes across Central Europe and find that the foundations of the European mitochondrial DNA pool were formed during the Neolithic rather than the post-glacial period.

    • Paul Brotherton
    • , Wolfgang Haak
    •  & Janet S. Ziegle

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