In a recent review paper published in the Quarterly Review of Biology, KLI postdoctoral fellow Silvia Basanta, along with Mihaela Pavlicev, explores endocrinological aspects contributing to the evolution of long gestation length in placental mammals. The authors show how numerous independently evolved traits affect gestation length in different lineages. (Click on title to read more.)

Read the editors’ summary of the latest issue 20 (3), with free reading links for all the articles. In this issue we revisit Niels Bohr`s 1932 public lecture “Light and Life” where he discusses the implications of quantum mechanics for biological questions; explore the role of phenotypic plasticity as an evolutionary factor; learn of the incorporation of evolutionary theory in American archaeology; discuss the debate over whether organisms evolve towards greater complexity, with a possible quantitative assessment based on life history strategies. This issue also has a review essay on the book Evolution Evolving. (Click on title to read more.)

A team of evolutionary biologists and theoreticians, including KLI Group Leader for Philosophy Cristina Villegas, and KLI External Faculty members Benedikt Hallgrímsson and Laura Nuño de la Rosa, and led by Christophe Pélabon, has recently published a review article on the notion of evolvability in the journal BioScience. This review article intends to bring the notion of evolvability closer to biologists of all disciplines by summarizing the main progresses made in evolvability research since its emergence in the 1990s, as well as by pointing towards the most salient open lines of evolutionary research that touch upon it. (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome our new Visiting Fellow Ronald Planer to the KLI. Ronald is currently a Lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He will be with us at the KLI from 1st Oct to 23rd Dec 2025. (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Liberty Severs. Liberty is a philosopher and cognitive scientist, currently pursuing her PhD degree from the University of Lisbon. Her research interest lies in understanding the concept of agency and how it can be studied across diverse systems, from unicellular organisms to humans and artificial agents. (Click on title to read more.)

Richard COCKETT (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) October 14, 2025, 15:00 (CET). Please join our colloquium via Zoom!

We are happy to welcome back Richard Gawne as Visiting Fellow to the KLI. Rick is an evolutionary developmental biologist and an alumnus of KLI. He is currently working as Curator of Natural History at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. At the KLI, from 1 to 30 September 2025, Richard will be working on his project titled: “Wing Size and Shape as Mechanisms of Evolvability in Lepidopteran Color Patterns.” (Click on title to read more.)

Richard GAWNE (Nevada State Museum) September 25, 2025, 15:00 (CET). Please join our colloquium via Zoom!

In a new study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, co-lead authors Daniel Stadtmauer (KLI alumnus) and Silvia Basanta (KLI Postdoc Fellow), along with colleagues from the University of Vienna, Yale University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, investigate cell signalling networks in the fetal-maternal interface, and reveal new insights into our current understanding of the co-evolution of fetal and maternal cell types to facilitate pregnancy. (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome Elisabeth Zimmermann to the KLI. Elisabeth joined the KLI in July 2025 as Managing Editor of the journal Biological Theory as well as KLI Communication Officer. She has a background in human biology and cognitive science, and received a MSc degree from the University of Vienna in 2008. Since 2006, Elisabeth has been the Program Coordinator for the Middle European Interdisciplinary Master's Programme in Cognitive Science based at the University of Vienna.

Save the dates! Join us at our Fall-Winter 2025-2026 KLI Colloquium series. This season we have nine great colloquia lined up: Richard Gawne (Nevada State Museum), Richard Cockett (The Economist), Ludo Schoenmakers (KLI), Ronald Planer (University of Wollongong), Thomas Hansen (University of Oslo), Cristina Villegas (KLI), Enrico Petracca (KLI), Patricia Beldade (Lisbon University), and Jan Baedke (Ruhr University Bochum). You can join either in person at the KLI or online via Zoom.

We are pleased to share that KLI alumnus Elis Jones was awarded the prestigious Callebaut Prize for Interdisciplinary Research at the ISHPSSB 2025, held in Porto, Portugal, in July. The prize is supported by the KLI, in honour of philosopher Werner Callebaut, who also served as Scientific Director of the KLI from 1999 to 2014. The KLI congratulates Elis to this success! (Click on title to read more.)

Elis Jones (former KLI Postdoc Fellow), along with Jose A. Cañada (University of Helsinki) and Sabina Leonelli (Technical University of Munich) have jointly contributed to editing a special issue for the journal History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, titled: ‘Values at Sea.’ This special issue comprises six original papers spanning diverse aspects of the study marine systems, highlighting the role of the blue humanities, especially in the face of ecological crisis. (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Oryan Zacks to the KLI. Oryan is a PhD student in the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Eva Jablonka. Her research interest lies in the evolution of imagination. (Click on title to read more.)

We are pleased to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Saudat Alishayeva to the KLI. Saudat is pursuing her PhD in the lab of Luisa F. Pallares, Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Tuebingen, Germany, where she is investigating the effects of environmental stresses on the evolution of complex traits in Drosophila melanogaster. She will be at the KLI from 1 September 2025 to 26 February 2026. (Click on title to read more).

We are pleased to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Henry Camarillo to the KLI. Henry is a PhD candidate in Martha Muñoz’s lab at Yale University. His research interests lie in understanding form-function evolution and investigating how biomechanical constraints may influence morphological evolution, especially focussing on the diversity of salamander cranial anatomy. During his fellowship at the KLI from 1 September 2025 to 26 February 2026, Henry will be working on the evolutionary anatomy of lungless salamanders. (Click on title to read more.)

In a recent paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, KLI Senior Fellow Mauricio González-Forero and KLI alumna Aida Gómez-Robles (University College London) discuss a new explanation for evolution of large brain size in humans. Using in-silico experiments done in an evo-devo mathematical model that replicates major patterns of human development and evolution, Mauricio and Aida explain that brain size in humans, hitherto thought to be one of the greatest adaptations of all, instead evolves in the model as an evolutionary by-product of selection for reproductive capacity. (Click on the title to read more.)

The 43rd Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology, “The Waddingtonian Landscape: Rediscovering Conrad Hal Waddington's Legacies in Biology and Beyond” (June 17–20, 2025), was devoted to the life and work of the British polymath Conrad Hal Waddington on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his passing (1975–2025). Organized by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (KU Leuven) and Francisco Vergara-Silva (National Autonomous University of Mexico), the workshop brought together philosophers of biology, evolutionary biologists, theoretical biologists, social scientists, historians of science, and historians of architecture from diverse backgrounds to offer the first interdisciplinary, critical reappraisal of Waddington’s lifelong work.

The year 2025 marks the centenary of Rupert Riedl, the founding president of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), which itself was established 35 years ago in 1990. Since its inception, the KLI has played a pivotal role in supporting research in theoretical biology. To commemorate this milestone, the KLI hosted a day-long symposium on 16 June 2025, under the theme "What is Theoretical Biology?" The event commenced with a welcome address by KLI President Philipp Mitteroecker, followed by a keynote lecture from Honorary President Gerd Müller, titled, "Rupert Riedl and the Austrian School of Theoretical Biology." Prof. Müller’s talk provided historical context for the academic environment in which Riedl developed his interest in theoretical biology and introduced key concepts of his theoretical approach to evolution. The symposium featured several distinguished speakers who explored different dimensions of theoretical biology. (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome our new Visiting Fellow Emilie Raymer to the KLI. Emilie is a faculty member in the Harvard College Writing Program. She holds a doctorate degree in the history of science and technology from Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include the development of the life and human sciences, the philosophy of science, epistemology, evolutionary theory, and environmental history. Emilie will be a Visiting Fellow at the KLI from 23 June to 6 July 2025. Her KLI project is titled, ‘The Web of Life: Ecology, Culture, and Reciprocal Evolution.’