Introduction. Evolution is a unifying paradigm with important implications in virtually all areas of biology. Indeed, all characters that are studied in biology, from morphological or behavioural traits to the fine regulatory mechanisms of gene expression are the products of biological evolution. Evolutionary concepts are pertinent not only to the large diversity of possible applications across disciplines, but also to the massive realm of diversity across living beings - i.e., from natural/artificial clones to the major kingdoms made of approximately 50 millions of extant species, all living beings are connected through pedigrees and the phylogenetic tree of life.

The core activities in my laboratory have revolved these last 10 years around three domains of evolutionary genetics: Conservation Genetics, Molecular Phylogenetics, and Applied Evolutionary Genetics. Although we will continue working on a selected number of issues within some of these disciplines, a major proportion of our activities will relate to two of the most fascinating and promising challenges in evolutionary biology: Evolutionary Developmental Genetics (Evo-Devo) and The Physics of Biology.

How snakes smell with their tongue. We show in ‘Genome Biology & Evolution’ how squamate reptiles adapted the vertebrate ancestral chemoreceptor toolkit to exploit the terrestrial environment

1. Saving a species of Galápagos tortoise from extinction: check HERE the success story of the Española Island tortoise 
   

2. Job offers: Check HERE the positions opened for Post-Docs, Ph.D students & Masters students.
   

Cracking the Code of Crocodile Scales. We show in ‘Science’ that Crocodile Head Scales Are Not Developmental Units But Emerge from Physical Cracking

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