Microanatomy of the radius and lifestyle in amniotes (Vertebrata, Tetrapoda)

Germain, Damien; Laurin, Michel

doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2005.00198.x

Cited by 112 publications

(211 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Inference models (using respectively the humerus [26], radius [27], tibia [28] and femur [29]) were tentatively applied to our data. Pilosans, which are currently not included in these models, were often incorrectly interpreted as aquatic or amphibious, owing to the high compactness generally displayed by their bones.…”

Section: (C) Treatment Of Sectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gradual adaptation of bone structure to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths from Peru

et al. 2014

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Non-pathological densification (osteosclerosis) and swelling ( pachyostosis) of bones are the main modifications affecting the skeleton of land vertebrates (tetrapods) that returned to water. However, a precise temporal calibration of the acquisition of such adaptations is still wanting. Here, we assess the timing of such acquisition using the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus, from the Neogene of the Pisco Formation, Peru. This genus is represented by five species occurring in successive vertebrate-bearing horizons of distinct ages. It yields the most detailed data about the gradual acquisition of aquatic adaptations among tetrapods, in displaying increasing osteosclerosis and pachyostosis through time. Such modifications, reflecting a shift in the habitat from terrestrial to aquatic, occurred over a short geological time span (ca 4 Myr). Otherwise, the bones of terrestrial pilosans (sloths and anteaters) are much more compact than the mean mammalian condition, which suggests that the osteosclerosis of Thalassocnus may represent an exaptation.

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Section: (C) Treatment Of Sectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gradual adaptation of bone structure to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths from Peru

et al. 2014

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“…The bone cortex (b.c.) in older specimens is relatively compact (up to 93%) and characteristic of mostly terrestrial extant tetrapods (Germain & Laurin 2005).…”

Section: Limb-bone Histology Of Discosauriscusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salamander-like development in a seymouriamorph revealed by palaeohistology

et al. 2008

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The amniotes generally lay eggs on land and are thereby differentiated from lissamphibians (salamanders, frogs and caecilians) by their developmental pattern. Although a number of 330–300-Myr old fossils are regarded as early tetrapods placed close to amniotes on the basis of anatomical data, we still do not know whether their developmental pattern was more similar to those of lissamphibians or amniotes. Here we report palaeohistological and skeletochronological evidence supporting a salamander-like development in the seymouriamorph Discosauriscus . Its long-bone growth pattern, slow diaphyseal growth rate and delayed sexual maturity (at more than 10 years old) are more comparable with growth features of extant salamanders rather than extant amniotes, even though they are mostly hypothesized to be phylogenetically closer to living amniotes than salamanders.

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“…There are several trends in the bone microstructure, which are shared in secondarily aquatic tetrapods with similar lifestyles (e.g. Buffrénil and Schoevaert 1988;Germain and Laurin 2005;Canoville and Laurin 2010;Houssaye 2010). Tetrapods which secondarily adapted to shallow marine environments often show very dense long bones (Ricqlès and Buffrénil 2001) in which they are considered to play the functional role of ballast for hydrostatic regulation of the body trim (Taylor 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%