Christopher W. Botka

TL;DR: Comparative gene analysis shows that amniote egg proteins have evolved significantly more rapidly than other proteins, and an anole phylogeny resolves basal branches to illuminate the history of their repeated adaptive radiations.

TL;DR: The evolution of the amniotic egg was one of the great evolutionary innovations in the history of life, freeing vertebrates from an obligatory connection to water and thus permitting the conquest of terrestrial environments as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: Common vertebrate regulatory networks, some of which have analogs in human diseases, are often involved in the western painted turtle's extraordinary physiological capacities, and may offer important insights into the management of a number of human health disorders.

TL;DR: A megabase-scale phylogenomic analysis of the Reptilia suggests a diverse array of interspersed and SSRs in the common ancestor of amniotes and a genomic conservatism and gradual loss of retroelements in reptiles that culminated in the minimalist chicken genome.