Muzeum Ewolucji Instytutu Paleobiologii PAN

Popularyzujemy wiedzę o ewolucji życia na Ziemi

Science News 

The mammalian skull: development, structure, and function

Agnieszka K.

The mammalian skull: development, structure, and function

Beginning from 1665, Philosophical Transactions published by the Royal Society of London is the oldest continuously running scientific journal in the world. The theme issue “The mammalian skull: development, structure, and function”, assembled by Guest Editors Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik (Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences) and Jack Tseng (University of California, Berkeley, USA), brings together multiple perspectives on this fast evolving topic. Overall, 12 original contributions divided evenly between research papers and reviews written by scientists from five continents offer a series of snapshots of the mammalian skull.
 
Fostowicz-Frelik Ł., Cox P. G., and Li Q. 2023. Mandibular characteristics of early Glires (Mammalia) reveal mixed rodent and lagomorph morphotypes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378, 20220087, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0087
 
Glires (rodents, lagomorphs and their fossil kin) is the most speciose and arguably most diversified clade of living placentals. Within the Glires, two basically opposite chewing movements evolved: a mostly transversal power stroke in lagomorphs, and a mostly proal power stroke in rodents, but the ancestral condition for Glires is still unclear. We studied mandibles of Chinese Paleocene Glires representing the lagomorph-like (duplicidentate) and rodent-like (simplicidentate) lineages. The results of biomechanical analysis demonstrate a mixture of duplicidentate and simplicidentate characters among the basal Glires and suggest an early occurrence of a lagomorph-like morphotype.


Ruf I., Meng J., Fostowicz-Frelik Ł 2023. Auditory region circulation in Lagomorpha: the internal carotid artery pattern revisited. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378, 20220088, doi:10.1098/rstb.2022.0088

The internal carotid artery (ICA) is one of the main vessels in the cranial circulation. Because the ICA openings, canals, and groves can be studied also in fossils, these characters have been used often in comprehensive phylogenetic analyses. We studied the ICA-related features in 11 genera of living lagomorphs and key extinct taxa using μCT data. Our results show that the proposed ancestral state of the ICA course for Lagomorpha is similar to that of the earliest rodents, plesiadapids, and scandentians, and support lagomorphs as as a morphologically conservative clade in contrast to its counterpart, rodents.

PUBLICATION: Fostowicz-Frelik Ł. and Tseng J. 2023. Introduction: The mammalian skull: development, structure and function. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378, 20220077, doi:10.1098/rstb.2022.0077

Cookies preferences

✕

Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

Necessary

 Necessary
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.

Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.

Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.