My new paper addresses the evolution of hagfish slime thread and the thread cells. It shows the largest cell size allometry in animals known. The results suggest a significant impact from body size-related selection (via predator-prey interactions) for the evolution of slime threads. See interviews by The Scientists and SYFY Wire.
We showed cells with distinctive motilities can move together with a division of labor https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01300-w
new manuscript explaining the connection between post-hatch dispersal into tree canopies and the evolution of gliding in nymphs of Extatosoma tiaratum, a stick insect native to coastal Queensland. https://jeb.biologists.org/content/223/19/jeb226266
The origin of insect flight presumably underwent a series of intermediate morphologies, which, unfortunately, has not been shown in the fossil record. However, we can infer such transition by studying extant insects undergoing secondary flight reduction. In this new publication (link), we presented a framework for describing the evolutionary pathway between winged and wingless (volant)
YU ZENG - 曾昱 