Developmentally cascading structures do not lose evolutionary potential, but compound developmental instability in rat molars.

ABSTRACT: Increasing variability down serially segmented structures, such as mammalian molar teeth and vertebrate limb segments, is a much-replicated pattern. The same phenotypic pattern has conflicting interpretations at different evolutionary scales. Macroevolutionary patterns are thought to reflect greater evolutionary potential in later-forming segments, but microevolutionary patterns are thought to reflect less evolutionary potential and greater phenotypic plasticity. We address this conflict by recalculating evolutionary potential (evolvability) from a systematic review of published mammalian molar sizes, then directly measure phenotypic plasticity from a controlled feeding experiment. Effects on lengths and widths are discordant in a way that suggests general growth pathways have a role in ph

SUBMITTER: Vitek NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11761367 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature