Prof Robin Beck's Outputs (44)

Bone microstructure supports a Mesozoic origin for a semiaquatic burrowing lifestyle in monotremes (Mammalia) (2025)
Journal Article

The platypus and four echidna species are the only living egg-laying mammals and the sole extant representatives of Order Monotremata. The platypus and echidnas are very disparate both morphologically and ecologically: The platypus is a specialized s... Read More about Bone microstructure supports a Mesozoic origin for a semiaquatic burrowing lifestyle in monotremes (Mammalia).

Phylogenetic Signal in Primate Tooth Enamel Proteins and its Relevance for Paleoproteomics (2025)
Journal Article

Ancient tooth enamel, and to some extent dentin and bone, contain characteristic peptides that persist for long periods of time. In particular, peptides from the enamel proteome (enamelome) have been used to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships... Read More about Phylogenetic Signal in Primate Tooth Enamel Proteins and its Relevance for Paleoproteomics.

Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline (2024)
Journal Article

Dental topographic metrics (DTMs), which quantify different aspects of the shape of teeth, are powerful tools for studying dietary adaptation and evolution in mammals. However, comparative samples of scanned mammal teeth suitable for analysis with D... Read More about Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline.

Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline (2024)
Journal Article

Dental topographic metrics (DTMs), which quantify different aspects of the shape of teeth, are powerful tools for studying dietary adaptation and evolution in mammals. Current DTM protocols usually rely on proprietary software, which may be unavailab... Read More about Comparison of dental topography of marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae) to other platyrrhine primates using a novel freeware pipeline.

Identification of constrained sequence elements across 239 primate genomes. (2023)
Journal Article

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

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.

The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates. (2023)
Journal Article

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtain... Read More about The landscape of tolerated genetic variation in humans and primates..

A global catalog of whole-genome diversity from 233 primate species. (2023)
Journal Article

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..

Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences (2023)
Journal Article

Phylogenies with estimates of divergence times are essential for investigating many evolutionary questions. In principle, “tip-dating” is arguably the most appropriate approach, with fossil and extant taxa analysed together in a single analysis, and... Read More about Twenty-five well-justified fossil calibrations for primate divergences.

Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae) (2022)
Journal Article
Louys, J., Duval, M., Beck, R., Pease, E., Sobbe, I., Sands, N., & Price, G. (2022). Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae). Papers in Palaeontology, 8(6), https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1475

Giant wombats (defined here as ≥70 kg) are found in the genera Phascolonus, Ramsayia and perhaps Sedophascolomys. Ramsayia is currently the most poorly known, having been described from mandibular and cranial fragments. Here, we report the most compl... Read More about Cranial remains of Ramsayia magna from the Late Pleistocene of Australia and the evolution of gigantism in wombats (Marsupialia, Vombatidae).

Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches (2022)
Journal Article
Beck, R., de Vries, D., Janiak, M., Goodhead, I., & Boubli, J. (2022). Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches. Journal of Human Evolution, 174, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103293

There have been multiple published phylogenetic analyses of platyrrhine primates (New World
monkeys) using both morphological and molecular data, but relatively few that have integrated
both types of data into a total evidence approach. Here, we pr... Read More about Total evidence phylogeny of platyrrhine primates and a comparison of undated and tip-dating approaches.

Changes in morphological disparity in eutherian mammals across the K-Pg boundary and Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum using discrete morphofunctional characters (2022)
Thesis
morphofunctional characters. (Dissertation). University of Salford

The mammalian clade Eutheria comprises placental mammals (the dominant group of mammals today, with >6000 living species, ~93% of living diversity) plus their stem relatives. A major event in Earth history that had a profound influence on Eutheria wa... Read More about Changes in morphological disparity in eutherian mammals across the K-Pg boundary and Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum using discrete morphofunctional characters.

Evolution: the evolutionary rat race in New Guinea and Australia (2022)
Journal Article

A new molecular phylogeny of a remarkable radiation of New Guinean and Australian rodents indicates multiple transitions between biomes and biogeographical regions within the group, and suggests that a key role was played by the geological history of... Read More about Evolution: the evolutionary rat race in New Guinea and Australia.

Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials (2022)
Journal Article
Beck, R., Voss, R., & Jansa, S. (in press). Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1-350. https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090.457.1.1

The current literature on marsupial phylogenetics includes numerous studies based on analyses of morphological data with limited sampling of Recent and fossil taxa, and many studies based on analyses of molecular data with dense sampling of Recent ta... Read More about Craniodental morphology and phylogeny of marsupials.

Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates (2022)
Journal Article

Mitochondrial DNA remains a cornerstone for molecular ecology, especially for study species from which high-quality tissue samples cannot be easily obtained. Methods using mitochondrial markers are usually reliant on reference databases, but these ar... Read More about Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates.

Total evidence phylogeny of ducks, geese and swans (family Anatidae): implications for macroevolution and biogeography (2022)
Thesis

The neornithine bird family Anatidae comprises the ducks, geese and swans, and is one of the largest (approximately 150 species) and most studied families of modern birds. The fossil record of definitive anatids stretches from the Oligocene epoch to... Read More about Total evidence phylogeny of ducks, geese and swans (family Anatidae): implications for macroevolution and biogeography.

Ancient DNA of the pygmy marmoset type specimen Cebuella pygmaea (Spix, 1823) resolves a taxonomic conundrum (2021)
Journal Article

The pygmy marmoset, the smallest of the anthropoid primates, has a broad distribution in Western Amazonia. Recent studies using molecular and morphological data have identified two distinct species separated by the Napo and Solimões-Amazonas rivers.... Read More about Ancient DNA of the pygmy marmoset type specimen Cebuella pygmaea (Spix, 1823) resolves a taxonomic conundrum.