Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes. (2023)
Journal Article
Kuderna, L. F., Ulirsch, J. C., Rashid, S., Ameen, M., Sundaram, L., Hickey, G., …Farh, K. K.-H. (2023). Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes. Nature, 36, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06798-8

Noncoding DNA is central to our understanding of human gene regulation and complex diseases , and measuring the evolutionary sequence constraint can establish the functional relevance of putative regulatory elements in the human genome . Identifying... Read More about Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes..

Complex evolutionary history with extensive ancestral gene flow in an African primate radiation (2023)
Journal Article
Jensen, A., Swift, F., de Vries, D., Beck, R., Kuderna, L. F. K., Knauf, S., …Guschanski, K. (in press). Complex evolutionary history with extensive ancestral gene flow in an African primate radiation. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 40(12), https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad247

Understanding the drivers of speciation is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and recent studies highlight hybridization as an important evolutionary force. Using whole-genome sequencing data from 22 species of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini), one o... Read More about Complex evolutionary history with extensive ancestral gene flow in an African primate radiation.

Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation (2023)
Journal Article
Jensen, A., Swift, F., de Vries, D., Beck, R. M. D., Kuderna, L. F. K., Knauf, S., …Guschanski, K. (2023). Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 40(12), https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad247

Understanding the drivers of speciation is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and recent studies highlight hybridization as an important evolutionary force. Using whole-genome sequencing data from 22 species of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini), one o... Read More about Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation.

A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation (2023)
Journal Article
Hand, S. J., Maugoust, J., Beck, R. M., & Orliac, M. J. (2023). A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation. Current Biology, 33(21), 4624-4640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.043

Bats are among the most recognizable, numerous, and widespread of all mammals. But much of their fossil record is missing, and bat origins remain poorly understood, as do the relationships of early to modern bats. Here, we describe a new early Eocene... Read More about A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved bat skull supports an early origin for modern echolocation.

A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution (2023)
Journal Article
Crichton, A. I., Beck, R. M. D., Couzens, A. M. C., Worthy, T. H., Camens, A. B., & Prideaux, G. J. (2023). A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 14521. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41471-0

Diprotodontians are the morphologically and ecologically most diverse order of marsupials. However, an approximately 30-million-year gap in the Australian terrestrial vertebrate fossil record means that the first half of diprotodontian evolution is u... Read More about A probable koala from the Oligocene of central Australia provides insights into early diprotodontian evolution.

First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography (2023)
Journal Article
Fabian, P. R., Archer, M., Hand, S. J., & Beck, R. M. (in press). First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography. Alcheringa, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2023.2242439

Four new fossil feathertail possum species (Marsupialia, Diprotodontia, Phalangerida, Petauroidea, Acrobatidae) are described from late Oligocene to middle Miocene fossil deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland. They... Read More about First known extinct feathertail possums (Acrobatidae, Marsupialia): palaeobiodiversity, phylogenetics, palaeoecology and palaeogeography.

A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species. (2023)
Journal Article
Kuderna, L. F. K., Gao, H., Janiak, M. C., Kuhlwilm, M., Orkin, J. D., Bataillon, T., …Jolly, C. J. (2023). A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species. Science, 380(6648), 906-913. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7829

The rich diversity of morphology and behavior displayed across primate species provides an informative context in which to study the impact of genomic diversity on fundamental biological processes. Analysis of that diversity provides insight into lon... Read More about A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species..