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Université de Fribourg

Enigmatic dinosaur precursors bridge the gap to the origin of Pterosauria

Ezcurra, Martín D. ; Nesbitt, Sterling J. ; Bronzati, Mario ; Vecchia, Fabio Marco Dalla ; Agnolin, Federico L. ; Benson, Roger B. J. ; Egli, Federico Brissón ; Cabreira, Sergio F. ; Evers, Serjoscha W. ; Gentil, Adriel R. ; Irmis, Randall B. ; Martinelli, Agustín G. ; Novas, Fernando E. ; Silva, Lúcio Roberto da ; Smith, Nathan D. ; Stocker, Michelle R. ; Turner, Alan H. ; Langer, Max C.

In: Nature, 2020, vol. 588, no. 2020-7838, p. 445–449

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight1 and comprised one of the main evolutionary radiations in terrestrial ecosystems of the Mesozoic era (approximately 252–66 million years ago), but their origin has remained an unresolved enigma in palaeontology since the nineteenth century2,3,4. These flying reptiles have been hypothesized to be the close relatives of a wide...

Université de Fribourg

Genome assembly of the ragweed leaf beetle, a step forward to better predict rapid evolution of a weed biocontrol agent to environmental novelties

Bouchemousse, Sarah ; Falquet, Laurent ; Müller-Schärer, Heinz

In: Genome Biology and Evolution, 2020, vol. 12, no. 7, p. 1167–1173

Rapid evolution of weed biological control agents (BCAs) to new biotic and abiotic conditions is poorly understood and so far only little considered both in pre-release and post-release studies, despite potential major negative or positive implications for risks of nontargeted attacks or for colonizing yet unsuitable habitats, respectively. Provision of genetic resources, such as assembled...

Université de Fribourg

Rapid genomic and phenotypic change in response to climate warming in a widespread plant invader

Sun, Yan ; Bossdorf, Oliver ; Grados, Ramon D. ; Liao, Zhi, Yong ; Müller‐Schärer, Heinz

In: Global Change Biology, 2020//n/a/-

Predicting plant distributions under climate change is constrained by our limited understanding of potential rapid adaptive evolution. In an experimental evolution study with the invasive common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) we subjected replicated populations of the same initial genetic composition to simulated climate warming. Pooled DNA sequencing of parental and offspring...

Université de Fribourg

Genomic footprints of repeated evolution of CAM photosynthesis in a Neotropical species radiation

De La Harpe, Marylaure ; Paris, Margot ; Hess, Jaqueline ; Barfuss, Michael Harald Johannes ; Serrano‐Serrano, Martha Liliana ; Ghatak, Arindam ; Chaturvedi, Palak ; Weckwerth, Wolfram ; Till, Walter ; Salamin, Nicolas ; Wai, Ching Man ; Ming, Ray ; Lexer, Christian

In: Plant, Cell & Environment, 2020/n/a//-

The adaptive radiation of Bromeliaceae (pineapple family) is one of the most diverse among Neotropical flowering plants. Diversification in this group was facilitated by shifts in several adaptive traits or “key innovations” including the transition from C3 to CAM photosynthesis associated with xeric (heat/drought) adaptation. We used phylogenomic approaches, complemented by differential...

Université de Fribourg

Birds have peramorphic skulls, too: anatomical network analyses reveal oppositional heterochronies in avian skull evolution

Plateau, Olivia ; Foth, Christian

In: Communications Biology, 2020, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 195

In contrast to the vast majority of reptiles, the skulls of adult crown birds are characterized by a high degree of integration due to bone fusion, e.g., an ontogenetic event generating a net reduction in the number of bones. To understand this process in an evolutionary context, we investigate postnatal ontogenetic changes in the skulls of crown bird and non-avian theropods using anatomical...

Université de Fribourg

Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur bones from the Langenberg Quarry (Lower Saxony, Germany) provide evidence for several theropod lineages in the central European archipelago

Evers, Serjoscha W. ; Wings, Oliver

In: PeerJ, 2020, vol. 8, p. e8437

Marine limestones and marls in the Langenberg Quarry provide unique insights into a Late Jurassic island ecosystem in central Europe. The beds yield a varied assemblage of terrestrial vertebrates including extremely rare bones of theropod from theropod dinosaurs, which we describe here for the first time. All of the theropod bones belong to relatively small individuals but represent a wide...