From an in press study that was published yesterday[ 1 ] on terrestrial mammals: ... Comparative genomics identifies 25 hearing-related genes showing rapid evolution, positive selection, lineage-specific mutations and coevolution with [relative vocal fold length], suggesting a reciprocal evolutionary interplay between vocal and auditory systems ... This genetic link is supported by laryngeal MRI evidence from wild-type and Pjvk knockout mice ... Besides the really cool result, all I could think of was how I was under the wrong impression that genotype to phenotype mapping was a very hard problem. My question is: what has changed in the last 5 years? As in, it seems like (hence the question: corrections invited) that combining phylogenetics with allometry and knockout experiments should have been doable for much longer. In the meantime, on my reading list now is a 2025 review[ 2 ]. Thanks in advance!…