The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Issue Information ‐ Information for Authors
(Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology)
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Tags: Issue Information ‐ Information for Authors Source Type: research

Dynamic Musculoskeletal Functional Morphology: Integrating diceCT and XROMM
ABSTRACT The tradeoff between force and velocity in skeletal muscle is a fundamental constraint on vertebrate musculoskeletal design (form:function relationships). Understanding how and why different lineages address this biomechanical problem is an important goal of vertebrate musculoskeletal functional morphology. Our ability to answer questions about the different solutions to this tradeoff has been significantly improved by recent advances in techniques for quantifying musculoskeletal morphology and movement. Herein, we have three objectives: (1) review the morphological and physiological parameters that affect muscle ...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Courtney P. Orsbon, Nicholas J. Gidmark, Callum F. Ross Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Non ‐Destructive Determination of Muscle Architectural Variables Through the Use of DiceCT
We present the results of a digital technique to non‐destructively assess muscle architectural variables for three jaw‐adductor muscles within a specimen of the cercopithecine primate Macaca fascicularis (crab‐eating macaque). The specimen is first subjected to a contrast‐enhanced staining protocol to increase the density of internal soft tissues. High‐resolution µCT scans are then collected and segmented to isolate individual muscles. A textural orientation algorithm is then applied to each muscle volume to reconstruct constituent muscle fascicles in three dimensions. Using this technique, we report muscle volu...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Edwin Dickinson, Heiko Stark, Kornelius Kupczik Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Inferring the Diets of Extinct Giant Lemurs from Osteological Correlates of Muscle Dimensions
ABSTRACT The jaw adductor muscles of extinct mammals are often reconstructed to elucidate paleoecological relationships and to make broad comparisons among taxa. Muscle lever arms, bite load arms, muscle dimensions, and gape are often also reconstructed to better understand feeding. Several different approaches to these and related goals are discussed here. A protocol for reconstructing muscle dimensions and bite force using biomechanically informative skull measurements and osteological proxies of muscle dimensions is described and applied to a case study of subfossil Malagasy lemurs. The results of this case study show t...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Jonathan M. G. Perry Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Jaw ‐Muscle Fiber Architecture and Leverage in the Hard‐Object Feeding Sooty Mangabey are not Structured to Facilitate Relatively Large Bite Forces Compared to Other Papionins
ABSTRACT Numerous studies have sought to link craniofacial morphology with behavioral ecology in primates. Extant hard‐object feeders have been of particular interest because of their potential to inform our understanding about the diets of early fossil hominins. Sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) are hard‐object feeders that frequently generate what have been described as audibly powerful bites at wide jaw gapes to process materially stiff and hard seeds. We address the hypothesis that sooty mangabeys have features of the masticatory apparatus that facilitate this feeding behavior by comparing fiber architecture and le...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Andrea B. Taylor, Claire E. Terhune, Maxx Toler, Megan Holmes, Callum F. Ross, Christopher J. Vinyard Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Dietary Correlates of Primate Masticatory Muscle Fiber Architecture
ABSTRACT Analyses of masticatory muscle architecture—specifically fascicle length (FL; a correlate of muscle stretch and contraction speed) and physiological cross‐sectional area (PCSA; a correlate of force)—reveal soft‐tissue dietary adaptations. For instance, consumers of large, soft foods are expected to have relatively long FL, while consumers of obdurate foods are expected to have relatively high PCSA. Unfortunately, only a few studies have analyzed these variables across large primate samples—an order of particular interest because it is our own. Previous studies found that, in strepsirrhines, force variabl...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Adam Hartstone ‐Rose, Ashley R. Deutsch, Carissa L. Leischner, Francisco Pastor Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Do Muscles Constrain Skull Shape Evolution in Strepsirrhines?
ABSTRACT Despite great interest and decades of research, the musculoskeletal relationships of the masticatory system in primates are still not fully understood. However, without a clear understanding of the interplay between muscles and bones it remains difficult to understand the functional significance of morphological traits of the skeleton. Here, we aim to study the impacts of the masticatory muscles on the shape of the cranium and the mandible as well as their co‐variation in strepsirrhine primates. To do so, we use 3D geometric morphometric approaches to assess the shape of each bone of the skull of 20 species for ...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Anne ‐Claire Fabre, Jonathan M. G. Perry, Adam Hartstone‐Rose, AuróLien Lowie, Andy Boens, MaÏtena Dumont Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Jaw ‐Dropping: Functional Variation in the Digastric Muscle in Bats
In this study, we explored how the morphology of the digastric muscle, the primary jaw abducting muscle in mammals, and its jaw lever mechanics are related to diet in morphologically diverse noctilionoid bats. Results showed that insectivorous bats have strong digastric muscles associated with proportionally long jaws, which suggests these species can open their jaws quickly and powerfully during prey capture and chewing. Short snouted frugivorous bats exhibit traits that would enable them to open their jaws proportionally wider to accommodate the large fruits that they commonly feed on. Our results support the hypothesis ...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Abigail A. Curtis, Sharlene E. Santana Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Comparative Anatomy of Bat Jaw Musculature via Diffusible Iodine ‐Based Contrast‐Enhanced Computed Tomography
ABSTRACT Noctilionoid bats exhibit an extraordinary array of cranial specializations that match diverse diets, including variation in jaw musculature physiological cross‐sectional areas (PCSA), lever arms, and relative contribution to bite force. Although previous research in this group has linked variation in skull shape and muscle mechanics to biting performance, there are still important gaps about the anatomical underpinnings of noctilionoid dietary adaptations, including the degree of compartmentalization of the jaw musculature, and whether and how muscle attachment sites have evolved across noctilionoid species tha...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Sharlene E. Santana Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Skull Size and Biomechanics are Good Estimators of In Vivo Bite Force in Murid Rodents
ABSTRACT Rodentia is a species‐rich group with diversified modes of life and diets. Although rodent skull morphology has been the focus of a voluminous literature, the functional significance of its variations has yet to be explored in live animals. Myomorphous rodents, including murids, have been suggested to represent “high‐performance generalists.” We measured in vivo bite force in 14 species of wild and lab‐reared murid rodents of various sizes and diets to investigate potential morphofunctional differences between them. We dissected their skulls and computed a biomechanical model to estimate bite force. We f...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Samuel Ginot, Anthony Herrel, Julien Claude, Lionel Hautier Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Craniomandibular Variation in Phalangeriform Marsupials: Functional Comparisons with Primates
ABSTRACT Phalangeriform marsupials have often been compared with primates because of similarity in the range of external morphology, ecological niches, and body size between the two radiations. We explore morphological convergence in the masticatory anatomy of strepsirrhine primates and phalangeriforms, through osteological measurements of the mandible and facial skeleton, and through dissection of the masticatory musculature, presenting new data on the arrangement and proportions of jaw adductors in phalangeriforms. Phalangeriforms and primates have a large number of shape differences in mandibular morphology. Despite the...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Elizabeth M. ST Clair, Nicholas Reback, Jonathan M. G. Perry Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Intrinsic Constraints on the Diversification of Neotropical Cichlid Adductor Mandibulae Size
ABSTRACT The diversification of functional traits may be constrained by intrinsic factors, such as structural, mechanical, developmental, or physiological limitations. We explored the biomechanical and constructional constraints on the size of the major jaw closing muscles, the adductor mandibulae complex (AM), in a diverse clade of freshwater fish ‐ the Neotropical cichlids. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, we contrasted patterns of size variation and diversification rates of three AM divisions with variables describing head size and biomechanical coefficients describing force and velocity transmission. We found ...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Jessica Arbour, Hern án López‐Fernández Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Functional Morphology of Mimetic Musculature in Primates: How Social Variables and Body Size Stack up to Phylogeny
ABSTRACT Mammalian skeletal muscle is influenced by the functional demands placed upon it. Functional morphology of facial expression musculature, or mimetic musculature, is largely unknown. Recently, primate mimetic musculature has been shown to respond to demands associated with social factors. Body size has also been demonstrated to affect many aspects of primate functional morphology and evolutionary morphology. The present study was designed to further examine the role of social variables and body size in influencing the morphology of primate mimetic musculature using a broad phylogenetic range of primates, primates w...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Anne M Burrows Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Behavioral Correlates of Cranial Muscle Functional Morphology
ABSTRACT This issue of the Anatomical Record is the first of a two‐volume set that focuses on new investigations into behavioral correlates of muscle functional morphology. Much of the research on functional morphology and adaptation to specific functional niches focuses on the shapes of hard‐tissues—bones and teeth. Investigations into soft‐tissue anatomy tend to be predominantly descriptive with only brief allusion to ontogenetic or evolutionary origins of structures. When muscles are included in analyses of functional systems, their function tends to be oversimplified—usually considered a simple force vector c...
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Adam Hartstone ‐Rose, Sharlene E. Santana Tags: Special Issue Article Source Type: research

Why Muscles Look and Act the Way They Do: Uncovering the Nexus Among Form, Function, Behavior, and Evolution.
(Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology)
Source: The Anatomical Record Part A: Discoveries in Molecular, Cellular, and Evolutionary Biology - January 13, 2018 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Jeffrey T. Laitman Tags: Special Issue / Commentary Source Type: research