MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION (MDE) welcomes papers that contribute to a causal understanding of the evolution of development and how development influences patterns of molecular and phenotypic evolution. Papers that take diverse disciplinary approaches, including developmental, molecular, genetic, evolutionary, systematic, ecological, and paleontological, will be published. MDE seeks research articles without page restriction or charges, review articles, invited commentaries, and book reviews. The Editor-in-Chief has discretion over the use of a number of free color plates. Only color illustrations that highlight the text and convey essential scientific information will be considered for reproduction free of charge, subject to the recommendations of the reviewers and Associate Editors.