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Manafzadeh AR, Gatesy SM, Bhullar BAS. Articular surface interactions distinguish dinosaurian locomotor joint poses. Nat Commun 2024; 15:854. [PMID: 38365765 PMCID: PMC10873393 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44832-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Our knowledge of vertebrate functional evolution depends on inferences about joint function in extinct taxa. Without rigorous criteria for evaluating joint articulation, however, such analyses risk misleading reconstructions of vertebrate animal motion. Here we propose an approach for synthesizing raycast-based measurements of 3-D articular overlap, symmetry, and congruence into a quantitative "articulation score" for any non-interpenetrating six-degree-of-freedom joint configuration. We apply our methodology to bicondylar hindlimb joints of two extant dinosaurs (guineafowl, emu) and, through comparison with in vivo kinematics, find that locomotor joint poses consistently have high articulation scores. We then exploit this relationship to constrain reconstruction of a pedal walking stride cycle for the extinct dinosaur Deinonychus antirrhopus, demonstrating the utility of our approach. As joint articulation is investigated in more living animals, the framework we establish here can be expanded to accommodate additional joints and clades, facilitating improved understanding of vertebrate animal motion and its evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Armita R Manafzadeh
- Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
- Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
| | - Stephen M Gatesy
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
| | - Bhart-Anjan S Bhullar
- Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
- Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
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Persons WS, Street HP, Kelley A. A long-snouted and long-necked polycotylid plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. iScience 2022; 25:105033. [PMID: 36317161 PMCID: PMC9617461 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Plesiosaurs are a group of Mesozoic marine diapsids. Most derived plesiosaurs fall into one of two typical body forms: those with proportionately small heads, short snouts, and elongated necks, and those with large heads, elongated snouts, and short necks. Serpentisuchops pfisterae is a polycotylid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale that presents the trait combination of both an elongate snout and elongate neck (consisting of 32 vertebrae). Phylogenetic analysis places Serpentisuchops within the Polycotylinae, indicating that its long snout is an ancestral trait, while its long neck is secondarily derived and convergent with that of ancestral plesiosaurs, contemporaneous elasmosaurids, and some more basal members of the Polycotylidae. The conical, recurved, and narrow teeth are consistent with a piscivorous diet. The tall and anteroposteriorly broad cervical neural spines indicate large epaxial muscles, suggesting that Serpentisuchops used both its neck and snout in fast lateral strikes aimed at proportionately small prey. Serpentisuchops is a polycotylid plesiosaur, from the Cretaceous of Wyoming Unlike most plesiosaurs, it has both a long neck and large, elongated jaws The partial skeleton indicates the animal was over seven meters long The long jaws and neck likely aided in rapid lateral striking to snag fast, small prey
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Affiliation(s)
- Walter Scott Persons
- Mace Brown Museum of Natural History, Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29401, USA
- Glenrock Paleon Museum, Bronco Building, 506 W Birch St, Glenrock, WY 82637, USA
- Corresponding author
| | - Hallie P. Street
- MacEwan University, Department of Biological Sciences, Edmonton, AB T5J 4S2, Canada
| | - Amanda Kelley
- Department of Biological Sciences, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
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Large size in aquatic tetrapods compensates for high drag caused by extreme body proportions. Commun Biol 2022; 5:380. [PMID: 35484197 PMCID: PMC9051157 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03322-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Various Mesozoic marine reptile lineages evolved streamlined bodies and efficient lift-based swimming, as seen in modern aquatic mammals. Ichthyosaurs had low-drag bodies, akin to modern dolphins, but plesiosaurs were strikingly different, with long hydrofoil-like limbs and greatly variable neck and trunk proportions. Using computational fluid dynamics, we explore the effect of this extreme morphological variation. We find that, independently of their body fineness ratio, plesiosaurs produced more drag than ichthyosaurs and modern cetaceans of equal mass due to their large limbs, but these differences were not significant when body size was accounted for. Additionally, necks longer than twice the trunk length can substantially increase the cost of forward swimming, but this effect was cancelled out by the evolution of big trunks. Moreover, fast rates in the evolution of neck proportions in the long-necked elasmosaurs suggest that large trunks might have released the hydrodynamic constraints on necks thus allowing their extreme enlargement.
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Jones KE, Brocklehurst RJ, Pierce SE. AutoBend: An Automated Approach for Estimating Intervertebral Joint Function from Bone-Only Digital Models. Integr Org Biol 2021; 3:obab026. [PMID: 34661062 PMCID: PMC8514422 DOI: 10.1093/iob/obab026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Deciphering the biological function of rare or extinct species is key to understanding evolutionary patterns across the tree of life. While soft tissues are vital determinants of joint function, they are rarely available for study. Therefore, extracting functional signals from skeletons, which are more widely available via museum collections, has become a priority for the field of comparative biomechanics. While most work has focused on the limb skeleton, the axial skeleton plays a critical role in body support, respiration, and locomotion, and is therefore of central importance for understanding broad-scale functional evolution. Here, we describe and experimentally validate AutoBend, an automated approach to estimating intervertebral joint function from bony vertebral columns. AutoBend calculates osteological range of motion (oROM) by automatically manipulating digitally articulated vertebrae while incorporating multiple constraints on motion, including both bony intersection and the role of soft tissues by restricting excessive strain in both centrum and zygapophyseal articulations. Using AutoBend and biomechanical data from cadaveric experiments on cats and tegus, we validate important modeling parameters required for oROM estimation, including the degree of zygapophyseal disarticulation, and the location of the center of rotation. Based on our validation, we apply a model with the center of rotation located within the vertebral disk, no joint translation, around 50% strain permitted in both zygapophyses and disks, and a small amount of vertebral intersection permitted. Our approach successfully reconstructs magnitudes and craniocaudal patterns of motion obtained from ex vivo experiments, supporting its potential utility. It also performs better than more typical methods that rely solely on bony intersection, emphasizing the importance of accounting for soft tissues. We estimated the sensitivity of the analyses to vertebral model construction by varying joint spacing, degree of overlap, and the impact of landmark placement. The effect of these factors was small relative to biological variation craniocaudally and between bending directions. We also present a new approach for estimating joint stiffness directly from oROM and morphometric measurements that can successfully reconstruct the craniocaudal patterns, but not magnitudes, derived from experimental data. Together, this work represents a significant step forward for understanding vertebral function in difficult-to-study (e.g., rare or extinct) species, paving the way for a broader understanding of patterns of functional evolution in the axial skeleton.
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Affiliation(s)
- K E Jones
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - R J Brocklehurst
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - S E Pierce
- Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Wintrich T, Jonas R, Wilke HJ, Schmitz L, Sander PM. Neck mobility in the Jurassic plesiosaur Cryptoclidus eurymerus: finite element analysis as a new approach to understanding the cervical skeleton in fossil vertebrates. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7658. [PMID: 31720095 PMCID: PMC6842296 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2018] [Accepted: 08/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The sauropterygian clade Plesiosauria arose in the Late Triassic and survived to the very end of the Cretaceous. Plesiosauria evolved the greatest species diversity of any marine reptile clade, attaining a global distribution. Plesiosauria consist of two clades, Rhomaleosauridae and Neoplesiosauria. Basal Neoplesiosauria have long necks with at least 30 cervicals, but show qualitative osteological evidence for a stiff neck. Here we quantify neck mobility in lateral, ventral, and dorsal directions based on finite element modeling of neck vertebrae from the Middle Jurassic plesiosaur Cryptoclidus eurymerus. We model the mobility in a single motion segment, consisting of two adjacent cervical vertebrae and the joints connecting them. Based on the model with a maximum intervertebral spacing of 3 mm, we find that in Cryptoclidus, the maximum angle of lateral deflection in the motion segment was 2°. The maximum angle of ventral deflection was 5° and of dorsal deflection was 5°. When these values are multiplied by the number of cervical vertebrae, it becomes apparent that neck mobility was limited in all directions. The maximum angle of total lateral deflection in the neck was 67°. The maximum angle of total ventral deflection was 148° and of total dorsal deflection was 157°. This raises the question of the function of such a long, multi-segment but immobile neck. We posit that the long neck served in hydrodynamic and visual camouflage, hiding the bulk of the body from the small but abundant prey, such as schooling fish and squid. Neck immobility may have been advantageous in withstanding strong hydrodynamic forces acting on the neck during predatory strikes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja Wintrich
- Section Paleontology, Institute of Geosciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.,Institute of Anatomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - René Jonas
- Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics, Universität Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| | | | - Lars Schmitz
- Keck Science Department of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA, USA.,Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - P Martin Sander
- Section Paleontology, Institute of Geosciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.,Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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