ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2019
Transitions between foot postures are associated with elevated rates of body size evolution in mammals.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Layer-by-layer soft-tissue effects on flexion-extension-dominant passive ex vivo limb joint ROM in quadrupedal mammals: An anatomical contribution to a morphofunctional framework.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Joint Angular Excursions and Angular Range Utilization During Stance-Phase Locomotion in Terrestrial Mammals: A Comparative Morphofunctional Data Set.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2026Article
- Morphofunctional Spaces from the Astragalus: Exploring Angular Excursions and Mechanical Efficiency inBiology · 2025Article
- Morphofunctional Space of the Forelimb in Caraguatypotherium munozi (Notoungulata; Mesotheriidae): Insights Into Wrist-Powered Digging.Journal of morphology · 2025Article
- Body mass evolution as a driver of morphological and ecological diversity in terrestrial mammals.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Cursorial ecomorphology and temporal patterns in theropod dinosaur evolution during the mid-Cretaceous.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Deep-sea origin and depth colonization associated with phenotypic innovations in scleractinian corals.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Turtle body size evolution is determined by lineage-specific specializations rather than global trends.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Mammalian forelimb evolution is driven by uneven proximal-to-distal morphological diversity.eLife · 2023Article
- Phylogenomic resolution of the root of Panpulmonata, a hyperdiverse radiation of gastropods: new insight into the evolution of air breathing.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The evolutionary biomechanics of locomotor function in giant land animals.The Journal of experimental biology · 2021Article
- Functional traits of the world's late Quaternary large-bodied avian and mammalian herbivores.Scientific data · 2021Article
- No evidence for parallel evolution of cursorial limb adaptations among Neogene South American native ungulates (SANUs).PloS one · 2021Article
- Introduced herbivores restore Late Pleistocene ecological functions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Can skeletal surface area predict in vivo foot surface area?Journal of anatomy · 2020Article
- Coevolution of vocal signal characteristics and hearing sensitivity in forest mammals.Nature communications · 2019Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Terrestrial mammals have evolved various foot postures: flat-footed (plantigrady), tiptoed (digitigrady), and hooved (unguligrady) postures. Although the importance of foot posture on ecology and body size of mammalian species has been widely recognized, its evolutionary trajectory and influence on body size evolution across mammalian phylogeny remain untested. Taking a Bayesian phylogenetic approach combined with a comprehensive dataset of foot postures in 880 extant mammalian species, we investigated the evolutionary history of foot postures and rates of body size evolution, within the same posture and at transitions between postures. Our results show that the common ancestor of mammals was plantigrade, and transitions predominantly occurred only between plantigrady and digitigrady and between digitigrady and unguligrady. At the transitions between plantigrady and digitigrady and between digitigrady and unguligrady, rates of body size evolution are significantly elevated leading to the larger body masses of digitigrade species (∼1 kg) and unguligrade species (∼78 kg) compared with their respective ancestral postures [plantigrady (∼0.75 kg) and digitigrady]. Our results demonstrate the importance of foot postures on mammalian body size evolution and have implications for mammalian body size increase through time. In addition, we highlight a way forward for future studies that seek to integrate morphofunctional and macroevolutionary approaches.
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