Phenotypic integration in the carnivoran backbone and the evolution of functional differentiation in metameric structures.

ABSTRACT: Explaining the origin and evolution of a vertebral column with anatomically distinct regions that characterizes the tetrapod body plan provides understanding of how metameric structures become repeated and how they acquire the ability to perform different functions. However, despite many decades of inquiry, the advantages and costs of vertebral column regionalization in anatomically distinct blocks, their functional specialization, and how they channel new evolutionary outcomes are poorly understood. Here, we investigate morphological integration (and how this integration is structured [modularity]) between all the presacral vertebrae of mammalian carnivorans to provide a better understanding of how regionalization in metameric structures evolves. Our results demonstrate that the subunits

SUBMITTER: Martin-Serra A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8190453 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature