ArticleCommunications biology2021
Serial disparity in the carnivoran backbone unveils a complex adaptive role in metameric evolution.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Patterns of spinal motion, kinematic spaces and the land-to-sea transition in carnivorans.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Ecological Inference From Isolated Vertebrae: Evaluating Functional Signal Across the Carnivoran Spine.Journal of morphology · 2026Article
- The Carnivoran Adaptive Landscape Reveals Trade-offs among Functional Traits in the Skull, Appendicular, and Axial Skeleton.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Small- to medium-sized mammals show greater morphological disparity in cervical than lumbar vertebrae across different terrestrial modes of locomotion.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Extreme neck elongation evolved despite strong developmental constraints in bizarre Triassic reptiles-implications for neck modularity in archosaurs.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- The influence of the land-to-sea macroevolutionary transition on vertebral column disparification in Pinnipedia.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Uncovering the mosaic evolution of the carnivoran skeletal system.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Evolutionary ecomorphology for the twenty-first century: examples from mammalian carnivores.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The impact of the land-to-sea transition on evolutionary integration and modularity of the pinniped backbone.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Intravertebral vs. intervertebral integration and modularity in the vertebral column of mammalian carnivorans.Journal of anatomy · 2023Article
- Divergent vertebral formulae shape the evolution of axial complexity in mammals.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Body-axis organization in tetrapods: a model-system to disentangle the developmental origins of convergent evolution in deep time.Biology letters · 2022Review
- A Shrewd Inspection of Vertebral Regionalization in Large Shrews (Soricidae: Crocidurinae).Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Organisms comprise multiple interacting parts, but few quantitative studies have analysed multi-element systems, limiting understanding of phenotypic evolution. We investigate how disparity of vertebral morphology varies along the axial column of mammalian carnivores - a chain of 27 subunits - and the extent to which morphological variation have been structured by evolutionary constraints and locomotory adaptation. We find that lumbars and posterior thoracics exhibit high individual disparity but low serial differentiation. They are pervasively recruited into locomotory functions and exhibit relaxed evolutionary constraint. More anterior vertebrae also show signals of locomotory adaptation, but nevertheless have low individual disparity and constrained patterns of evolution, characterised by low-dimensional shape changes. Our findings demonstrate the importance of the thoracolumbar region as an innovation enabling evolutionary versatility of mammalian locomotion. Moreover, they underscore the complexity of phenotypic macroevolution of multi-element systems and that the strength of ecomorphological signal does not have a predictable influence on macroevolutionary outcomes.
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