📄 Category

evolutionary biology

294 papers

Evolutionary biology explores the dynamic history of life on Earth, tracing how species change, adapt, and diversify over time. This field investigates the mechanisms driving everything from the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria to the complex social behaviors of primates, revealing the deep connections that bind all living organisms together.

On Gist.Science, we ensure these groundbreaking discoveries remain accessible by processing every new preprint uploaded to bioRxiv in this category. Our team generates both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries for each paper, bridging the gap between raw research and public understanding without requiring a specialized background.

Below are the latest studies in evolutionary biology, offering fresh insights into the ongoing story of life.

📄 evolutionary biology

Comparison of directional random walk and weighted least squares modeling of sparse fossil data

This paper demonstrates through simulations and weighted mean squared error comparisons that weighted least squares (WLS) is a superior and more flexible method than the general random walk (GRW) model for analyzing sparse fossil data with realistic measurement errors, as GRW struggles to estimate parameters accurately and may yield overly optimistic AIC results under such conditions.

Ergon, R.2026-07-01
📄 evolutionary biology

Conflict-Mediated Group Size Regulation: A Theory of Supraoptimal and Suboptimal Group Size

This paper proposes a theory explaining why observed group sizes often deviate from optimal levels by demonstrating how the interplay between insider-outsider admission conflicts and internal crowding tensions, mediated through strategies of exclusion, fission, and admission, drives populations into either stable optimal regimes or bimodal distributions of supra- and sub-optimal sizes.

Schniter, E.2026-07-01
📄 evolutionary biology

An adhesion GPCR regulates cell adhesion and mating in the closest living relatives of metazoans

This study identifies Cupidon, an adhesion GPCR in the choanoflagellate *Salpingoeca rosetta*, as a dual-function regulator that suppresses cell aggregation under nutrient-rich conditions but promotes gamete fusion during starvation-induced mating, thereby demonstrating that aGPCR-mediated control of cell adhesion predates the origin of metazoans.

Garcia De Las Bayonas, A., Gonzalez, S., King, N.2026-07-01
📄 evolutionary biology

Where the tree of life is empirically resolved, and where it is not: an open atlas of species-level phylogenies and their archival uncertainty

This paper introduces a versioned, continuously updated atlas and accompanying R package that systematically maps the empirical resolution and archival uncertainty of species-level phylogenies across the tree of life, enabling researchers to transparently incorporate provenance and inclusion-criterion variability into comparative analyses rather than treating phylogenies as fixed inputs.

Richter, F.2026-06-30
📄 evolutionary biology

The evolution of structural variation across 500 million years of vertebrate evolution

This study leverages haplotype-resolved genome assemblies from over 600 vertebrate species to comprehensively map 35.3 million structural variants across 500 million years of evolution, revealing distinct clade-specific patterns in abundance and mechanisms driven by transposable elements and DNA structures, while demonstrating that structural variants have a disproportionately large impact on functional genetic variation compared to single nucleotide variants.

Lou, R. N., Lim, D., Daigavane, M., Gozashti, L., Owens, G., Ioannidis, N. M., The Vertebrate Genomes Project Consortium (…)2026-06-29
📄 evolutionary biology

Integrating genomic and tagging data reveals spatio-temporal population structure in Northeast Atlantic European sea bass

By integrating genomic and electronic tagging data, this study reveals that Northeast Atlantic European sea bass exhibit seasonal genetic shifts between Bay of Biscay and Northern stocks driven by regional spawning-site philopatry, which maintains demographic subdivision despite seasonal mixing and has critical implications for fisheries management.

Gagnaire, P.-A., Woillez, M., de Pontual, H.2026-06-26
📄 evolutionary biology

Environmental complexity constrains evolutionary adaptation across taxa

A meta-experimental evolution study across 14 diverse species demonstrates that environmental complexity, characterized by multiple simultaneous stressors, generally constrains adaptive evolution and reduces fitness gains compared to single stressors, though these effects vary by species and stressor type.

Zilio, G., Aubin, E., Bedhomme, S., Bolick, L., Bravo, I. G., Bruand, C., Capela, D., Challe, M., Charriere, G. M., Cour (…)2026-06-25
📄 evolutionary biology

Evolutionary dynamics of insect odorant receptors reveal ecological tuning shaping olfactory perception

This study employs a multiscale protein similarity network analysis across 115 insect species to reveal how the evolutionary history of odorant receptors, marked by the emergence of Orco and shaped by the end-Permian mass extinction, has driven ecological tuning in olfactory perception through associations with diet, circadian rhythm, and habitat.

Zhang, T., Yang, X., Fu, Y., Xue, W., Zhang, Y., Duan, S., Yin, Y., Guo, Y., Gao, C., Liu, Y., Li, G., Xu, C., Lu, H.2026-06-25