ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
New insights on equid locomotor evolution from the lumbar region of fossil horses.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review: Genomic insights into the adaptive traits and stress resistance in modern horses.Stress biology · 2026Review
- Small- to medium-sized mammals show greater morphological disparity in cervical than lumbar vertebrae across different terrestrial modes of locomotion.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Back motion in unridden horses in walk, trot and canter on a circle.Veterinary research communications · 2023Article
- Truly dorsostable runners: Vertebral mobility in rhinoceroses, tapirs, and horses.Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- Divergent vertebral formulae shape the evolution of axial complexity in mammals.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Serial disparity in the carnivoran backbone unveils a complex adaptive role in metameric evolution.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Rapid and longer-term effects of selective breeding for voluntary exercise behavior on skeletal morphology in house mice.Journal of anatomy · 2021Article
- Detecting taxonomic and phylogenetic signals in equid cheek teeth: towards new palaeontological and archaeological proxies.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
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Abstract
The specialization of equid limbs for cursoriality is a classic case of adaptive evolution, but the role of the axial skeleton in this famous transition is not well understood. Extant horses are extremely fast and efficient runners, which use a stiff-backed gallop with reduced bending of the lumbar region relative to other mammals. This study tests the hypothesis that stiff-backed running in horses evolved in response to evolutionary increases in body size by examining lumbar joint shape from a broad sample of fossil equids in a phylogenetic context. Lumbar joint shape scaling suggests that stability of the lumbar region does correlate with size through equid evolution. However, scaling effects were dampened in the posterior lumbar region, near the sacrum, which suggests strong selection for sagittal mobility in association with locomotor-respiratory coupling near the lumbosacral joint. I hypothesize that small-bodied fossil horses may have used a speed-dependent running gait, switching between stiff-backed and flex-backed galloping as speed increased.
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