ArticleCommunications biology2025
Humerus shape evolved in cetaceans under relaxed selection and random drift.
Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Age-dependent development and microarchitecture of the osteochondral unit of the humeral head in harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena).Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Humerus shape evolved in cetaceans under relaxed selection and random drift.Communications biology · 2025Article
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9 authors.
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Abstract
Mammalian humerus shape is mostly predicted by loading. This constraint is lifted for cetaceans and, therefore, can reflect other, specific evolutionary trends. To test this hypothesis, the three-dimensional shape of the humerus for 36 taxa of extinct and extant cetaceans was analyzed. The shape variance concurs with the evolution of diverging baleen and toothed whales and is independent of allometry. It shows traits associated with aquatic locomotion: humeral head twist, diaphysis shortening and straightening, and epiphyses enlargement. Also, changes in the anatomy of the humeral head and greater tubercle, modularity and integration patterns are associated with phylogeny. We suggest relaxed negative selection and random drift as the likely main evolutionary patterns for the evolution of the humerus shape. The evolution of genes regulating the humerus shape corresponds to the anatomical transformations and shows relaxed selection, site-level positive selection and nonsense mutations in cetaceans. Overall, the observed pattern well illustrates a "fly in a tube model" and shows its importance as a framework of emerging evolutionary innovations.
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