Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31358868›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2019

Phylogenetic and Developmental Constraints Dictate the Number of Cusps on Molars in Rodents.

Robert W Burroughs

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
0.5field-weighted citation impact, top 35% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Reduced Dietary Protein Induces Changes in the Dental Proteome.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Six million years of vole dental evolution shaped by tooth development.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. The developmental basis for scaling of mammalian tooth size.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Developmental influence on evolutionary rates and the origin of placental mammal tooth complexity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Robert W BurroughsCommittee on Evolutionary Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. rburroughs@uchicago.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4384-3430
Field Museum of Natural History · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mammal tooth morphology and function correlate strongly with dietary ecology, and convergence is a major feature of mammalian tooth evolution. Yet, function and ecology are insufficient to explain morphological diversification and convergence within mammalian molar evolution; suggesting that development and phylogeny also limit possible structural solutions to selective pressures. Here, I use in silico models and empirical studies of extant and fossil rodent teeth to identify morphogenetic rules that influence molar morphology. Because rodents are the most diverse group of mammals with corresponding dental disparity they represent an excellent system for investigating how genetic interactions limit morphology. I find that lower first molars are limited to a minimum of four cusps and a maximum of nine cusps. Multiple developmental pathways produce the same numbers of cusps, despite highly variable cusp morphologies, indicating the existence of limits on how morphological evolution can fill a morphospace defined by cusp numbers. These constraints are both developmental and phylogenetic in nature and the identification of their influence on rodent molar shape provides a framework for investigation of how tooth batteries evolved an array of functions despite fundamental structural limits. The data presented here increase predictability of cusp number and evolutionary outcomes of rodent cheek dentition.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionMorphogenesisAnimalsComputer SimulationFossilsMolarRodentia

Identifiers

PMID31358868
PMCPMC6662684
OpenAlexW2965309667

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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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.