Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33604200›Full record

ArticlePeerJ2021

What are the limits on whale ear bone size? Non-isometric scaling of the cetacean bulla.

Sabrina L Groves, Carlos Mauricio Peredo, Nicholas D Pyenson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PeerJ, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 27% 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

1 citing paper in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. 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

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Sabrina L GrovesDepartment of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4813-9840
Carlos Mauricio PeredoDepartment of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7217-9850
Nicholas D PyensonDepartment of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4678-5782
National Museum of Natural History · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The history of cetaceans demonstrates dramatic macroevolutionary changes that have aided their transformation from terrestrial to obligate aquatic mammals. Their fossil record shows extensive anatomical modifications that facilitate life in a marine environment. To better understand the constraints on this transition, we examined the physical dimensions of the bony auditory complex, in relation to body size, for both living and extinct cetaceans. We compared the dimensions of the tympanic bulla, a conch-shaped ear bone unique to cetaceans, with bizygomatic width-a proxy for cetacean body size. Our results demonstrate that cetacean ears scale non-isometrically with body size, with about 70% of variation explained by increases in bizygomatic width. Our results, which encompass the breadth of the whale fossil record, size diversity, and taxonomic distribution, suggest that functional auditory capacity is constrained by congruent factors related to cranial morphology, as opposed to allometrically scaling with body size.

Indexed as

AllometryBullaCetaceanEarEvolutionMysticeteOdontoceteScalingStem cetaceanWhale

Identifiers

PMID33604200
PMCPMC7869665
OpenAlexW3126234672

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.