ArticleScientific reports2018
Convergent evolution of an extreme dietary specialisation, the olfactory system of worm-eating rodents.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Disparity of turbinal bones in placental mammals.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Killing behaviors in rodents: from predation to infanticide.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The olfactory bulb endocast as a proxy for mammalian olfaction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Genomic insights into adaptive evolution of Island brown rats (Rattus norvegicus): evidence from Iturup Island in the Russian Far East.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Degeneration of the Olfactory System in a Murid Rodent that Evolved Diurnalism.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Phylogeny, Ecology, and Gene Families Covariation Shaped the Olfactory Subgenome of Rodents.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Mammalian maxilloturbinal evolution does not reflect thermal biology.Nature communications · 2023Article
- When morphology does not fit the genomes: the case of rodent olfaction.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Article
- Ecological constraints on highly evolvable olfactory receptor genes and morphology in neotropical bats.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Head transcriptome profiling of glossiphoniid leech (Open biology · 2022Article
- Article
- Molecular Evolution of Ecological Specialisation: Genomic Insights from the Diversification of Murine Rodents.Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Behavioral variation according to feeding organ diversification in glossiphoniid leeches (Phylum: Annelida).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Mitogenomes Reveal Multiple Colonization of Mountains by Rattus in Sundaland.The Journal of heredity · 2020Article
- Convergent evolution of olfactory and thermoregulatory capacities in small amphibious mammals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 9 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Turbinal bones are key components of the mammalian rostrum that contribute to three critical functions: (1) homeothermy, (2) water conservation and (3) olfaction. With over 700 extant species, murine rodents (Murinae) are the most species-rich mammalian subfamily, with most of that diversity residing in the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Their evolutionary history includes several cases of putative, but untested ecomorphological convergence, especially with traits related to diet. Among the most spectacular rodent ecomorphs are the vermivores which independently evolved in several island systems. We used 3D CT-scans (N = 87) of murine turbinal bones to quantify olfactory capacities as well as heat or water conservation adaptations. We obtained similar results from an existing 2D complexity method and two new 3D methodologies that quantify bone complexity. Using comparative phylogenetic methods, we identified a significant convergent signal in the rostral morphology within the highly specialised vermivores. Vermivorous species have significantly larger and more complex olfactory turbinals than do carnivores and omnivores. Increased olfactory capacities may be a major adaptive feature facilitating rats' capacity to prey on elusive earthworms. The narrow snout that characterises vermivores exhibits significantly reduced respiratory turbinals, which may reduce their heat and water conservation capacities.
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