Serial disparity in the carnivoran backbone unveils a complex adaptive role in metameric evolution.

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

SUBMITTER: Figueirido B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8282787 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature