ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2013
The nocturnal bottleneck and the evolution of activity patterns in mammals.
Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Basidiomycete fruiting body morphology correlates with the convergent loss of photolyase-related proteins.iScience · 2026Article
- MARINER: a surround visual stimulator for vision research in aquatic animals.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Social Organisation Predicts Lifespan in Mammals.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Reconsidering mammalian circadian organization.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2026Article
- Cis-regulatory evolution reveals sensory trade-offs as a genetic basis for temporal niche evolution in tapirs.Science advances · 2026Article
- Pinopsin Regulates Melatonin Production and Daily Locomotor Activity: Functional Insights From Gene-Edited Xenopus Tadpoles.Journal of pineal research · 2026Article
- A cellular basis for the mammalian nocturnal-diurnal switch.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Deep-sea fish reveal an alternative developmental trajectory for vertebrate vision.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Rhodopsin molecular evolution from mouse to human phenylalanine 88 to leucine substitution enhances thermal stability and post-activation decay.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Carotenoid bioavailability in humans reflects the mammalian nocturnal bottleneck: a position paper.Journal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition · 2026Article
- Looking back: tracing the origins of sleep across the animal kingdom.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- A key amino acid site associated with rhodopsin mammal evolution to diurnal vision.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- 6-4 photolyase differentially modulates transcription in the vertebrate circadian clock.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Don't You Know That I'm Toxic? Wild Birds Learn to Avoid a Novel Aposematic Warning Signal.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- High melanosome diversity exhibits weak correlation with color and environmental variables in the early evolution of therian mammals.Science advances · 2025Article
- Co-Conservation of synaptic gene expression and circuitry in collicular neurons.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Exceptional Visual-Opsin Coexpression and Phenotypic Diversity in Outer-Retinal Photoreceptors of Caenophidian Snakes.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2025Article
- Is cranial anatomy indicative of fossoriality? A case study of the mammaliaform Hadrocodium wui.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2025Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In 1942, Walls described the concept of a 'nocturnal bottleneck' in placental mammals, where these species could survive only by avoiding daytime activity during times in which dinosaurs were the dominant taxon. Walls based this concept of a longer episode of nocturnality in early eutherian mammals by comparing the visual systems of reptiles, birds and all three extant taxa of the mammalian lineage, namely the monotremes, marsupials (now included in the metatherians) and placentals (included in the eutherians). This review describes the status of what has become known as the nocturnal bottleneck hypothesis, giving an overview of the chronobiological patterns of activity. We review the ecological plausibility that the activity patterns of (early) eutherian mammals were restricted to the night, based on arguments relating to endothermia, energy balance, foraging and predation, taking into account recent palaeontological information. We also assess genes, relating to light detection (visual and non-visual systems) and the photolyase DNA protection system that were lost in the eutherian mammalian lineage. Our conclusion presently is that arguments in favour of the nocturnal bottleneck hypothesis in eutherians prevail.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.