ArticleJournal of anatomy2021
Low elbow mobility indicates unique forelimb posture and function in a giant extinct marsupial.
Article in Journal of anatomy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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24 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Powerful or non-powerful? Revisiting hallucal grasping as a key evolutionary innovation in small arboreal mammals.iScience · 2026Article
- Digital range of motion analysis is sensitive to subjective steps in joint model construction.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Scaling of internal joint distance in the elbow of small- to medium-sized mammals: Implications for range of motion analyses.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- First forelimb reconstruction and range of motion assessment of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurPeerJ · 2026Article
- Collagen fingerprinting and sequence analysis provides a molecular phylogeny of extinct Australian megafauna.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Soft tissue constraints on joint mobility in the avian shoulder.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Centres of rotation and osteological constraints on caudal ranges of motion in the sauropod dinosaurRoyal Society open science · 2025Article
- Improving Mobility: A Case Report on the Rehabilitation of a Gait Anomaly in an Asian Elephant at a Thai Elephant Conservation Center.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Late acquisition of erect hindlimb posture and function in the forerunners of therian mammals.Science advances · 2024Article
- Articular surface interactions distinguish dinosaurian locomotor joint poses.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Elbow dimensions in quadrupedal mammals driven by lubrication regime.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The functional significance of aberrant cervical counts in sloths: insights from automated exhaustive analysis of cervical range of motion.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- A comparative approach for characterizing the relationship among morphology, range-of-motion and locomotor behaviour in the primate shoulder.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Description of the Pliocene marsupialRoyal Society open science · 2023Article
- Modern three-dimensional digital methods for studying locomotor biomechanics in tetrapods.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Review
- Article
- Spherical frame projections for visualising joint range of motion, and a complementary method to capture mobility data.Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
- A toolbox for the retrodeformation and muscle reconstruction of fossil specimens in Blender.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- A proposed standard for quantifying 3-D hindlimb joint poses in living and extinct archosaurs.Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Joint mobility is a key factor in determining the functional capacity of tetrapod limbs, and is important in palaeobiological reconstructions of extinct animals. Recent advances have been made in quantifying osteological joint mobility using virtual computational methods; however, these approaches generally focus on the proximal limb joints and have seldom been applied to fossil mammals. Palorchestes azael is an enigmatic, extinct ~1000 kg marsupial with no close living relatives, whose functional ecology within Australian Pleistocene environments is poorly understood. Most intriguing is its flattened elbow morphology, which has long been assumed to indicate very low mobility at this important joint. Here, we tested elbow mobility via virtual range of motion (ROM) mapping and helical axis analysis, to quantitatively explore the limits of Palorchestes' elbow movement and compare this with their living and extinct relatives, as well as extant mammals that may represent functional analogues. We find that Palorchestes had the lowest elbow mobility among mammals sampled, even when afforded joint translations in addition to rotational degrees of freedom. This indicates that Palorchestes was limited to crouched forelimb postures, something highly unusual for mammals of this size. Coupled flexion and abduction created a skewed primary axis of movement at the elbow, suggesting an abducted forelimb posture and humeral rotation gait that is not found among marsupials and unlike that seen in any large mammals alive today. This work introduces new quantitative methods and demonstrates the utility of comparative ROM mapping approaches, highlighting that Palorchestes' forelimb function was unlike its contemporaneous relatives and appears to lack clear functional analogues among living mammals.
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