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Berghäuser T, Nyakatura JA, Wölfer J. Evolution of gliding in squirrel-related rodents (Mammalia: Sciuromorpha) did not induce a new optimum on the cortical thickness of the scapular glenoid fossa. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2023; 306:2716-2728. [PMID: 36583480 DOI: 10.1002/ar.25146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 11/26/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Many of the squirrel-related rodents (i.e., Sciuromorpha) are tree-dwelling species known to be very agile climbers. This taxon also includes the most diverse clade of gliding (aerial) mammals that likely descended from a non-gliding arboreal ancestor and evolved a patagium (i.e., a gliding membrane) to increase gliding performance. Glides can cover distances of up to 150 m and landing is typically accomplished by stalling the patagium to reduce impact velocity. It remains unclear if this behavior suffices to keep stresses on the locomotor apparatus similar to those experienced by their arboreal relatives or whether gliding behavior increases landing forces and stresses. The sparsely available support reaction force data are ambiguous, but bone microstructure is highly adaptable to changes in loading regime and likely provides insights into this question. Using μCT scans, we compared the cortical thickness of the glenoid fossa of the shoulder joint between arboreal and aerial Sciuromorpha using evolutionary model comparison, while also accounting for regional differences of the glenoid fossa. We did not find any differences between these locomotor behaviors, irrespective of the glenoid region. These findings agree with previous analyses of the microstructure of the femur in Sciuromorpha. We discuss different aspects that could explain the similarity in cortical thickness. According to our analysis of glenoid cortical thickness the loading regime appears not to have changed after the evolution of gliding locomotion, likely due to adjustments in landing performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timo Berghäuser
- AG Vergleichende Zoologie, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - John A Nyakatura
- AG Vergleichende Zoologie, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jan Wölfer
- AG Vergleichende Zoologie, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Erasmy M, Leuschner C, Balkenhol N, Dietz M. Three-dimensional stratification pattern in an old-growth lowland forest: How does height in canopy and season influence temperate bat activity? Ecol Evol 2021; 11:17273-17288. [PMID: 34938507 PMCID: PMC8668798 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Revised: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of animal-habitat interactions is of primary importance for the formulation of conservation recommendations. Flying, gliding, and climbing animals have the ability to exploit their habitat in a three-dimensional way, and the vertical canopy structure in forests plays an essential role for habitat suitability. Forest bats as flying mammals may seasonally shift their microhabitat use due to differing energy demands or changing prey availability, but the patterns are not well understood. We investigated three-dimensional and seasonal habitat use by insectivorous bats in a temperate lowland old-growth forest, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus. We acoustically sampled broadleaved and mixed coniferous plots in the forest interior and in gaps in three heights during two reproductive periods (pregnancy/lactation vs. postlactation). In canopy gaps, vertical stratification in bat activity was less pronounced than in the forest interior. Vertical activity patterns differed among species. The upper canopy levels were important foraging habitats for the open-space forager guild and for some edge-space foragers like the Barbastelle bat Barbastella barbastellus and the soprano pipistrelle Pipistrellus pygmaeus. Myotis species had highest activity levels near the ground in forest gaps. Moreover, we found species-dependent seasonal microhabitat shifts. Generally, all species and species groups considered except Myotis species showed higher activity levels during postlactation. Myotis species tended toward higher activity in the forest interior during postlactation. P. pygmaeus switched from high activity levels in the upper canopy during pregnancy and lactation to high activity levels near the ground during postlactation. We conclude that a full comprehension of forest bat habitat use is only possible when height in canopy and seasonal patterns are considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maude Erasmy
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems ResearchAlbrecht‐von‐Haller Institute for Plant SciencesUniversity of GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Christoph Leuschner
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems ResearchAlbrecht‐von‐Haller Institute for Plant SciencesUniversity of GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Niko Balkenhol
- Wildlife SciencesFaculty of Forest SciencesUniversity of GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Markus Dietz
- Institute for Animal Ecology and Nature EducationLaubachGermany
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Hofmann R, Lehmann T, Warren DL, Ruf I. The squirrel is in the detail: Anatomy and morphometry of the tail in Sciuromorpha (Rodentia, Mammalia). J Morphol 2021; 282:1659-1682. [PMID: 34549832 DOI: 10.1002/jmor.21412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
In mammals, the caudal vertebrae are certainly among the least studied elements of their skeleton. However, the tail plays an important role in locomotion (e.g., balance, prehensility) and behavior (e.g., signaling). Previous studies largely focused on prehensile tails in Primates and Carnivora, in which certain osteological features were selected and used to define tail regions (proximal, transitional, distal). Interestingly, the distribution pattern of these anatomical characters and the relative proportions of the tail regions were similar in both orders. In order to test if such tail regionalization can be applied to Rodentia, we investigated the caudal vertebrae of 20 Sciuridae and six Gliridae species. Furthermore, we examined relationships between tail anatomy/morphometry and locomotion. The position of selected characters along the tail was recorded and their distribution was compared statistically using Spearman rank correlation. Vertebral body length (VBL) was measured to calculate the proportions of each tail region and to perform procrustes analysis on the shape of relative vertebral body length (rVBL) progressions. Our results show that tail regionalization, as defined for Primates and Carnivora, can be applied to almost all investigated squirrels, regardless of their locomotor category. Moreover, major locomotor categories can be distinguished by rVBL progression and tail region proportions. In particular, the small flying squirrels Glaucomys volans and Hylopetes sagitta show an extremely short transitional region. Likewise, several semifossorial taxa can be distinguished by their short distal region. Moreover, among flying squirrels, Petaurista petaurista shows differences with the small flying squirrels, mirroring previous observations on locomotory adaptations based on their inner ear morphometry. Our results show furthermore that the tail region proportions of P. petaurista, phylogenetically more basal than the small flying squirrels, are similar to those of bauplan-conservative arboreal squirrels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Hofmann
- Abteilung Messelforschung und Mammalogie, Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Thomas Lehmann
- Abteilung Messelforschung und Mammalogie, Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Dan L Warren
- Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan
| | - Irina Ruf
- Abteilung Messelforschung und Mammalogie, Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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Miard P, Arifuddin MN, Mukri I, Sapno SS, Yazid H, Ruppert N, Kumaran JV. Sighting of Petaurista petaurista (Pallas, 1766) (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) on limestone hills in Merapoh, Malaysia. JOURNAL OF THREATENED TAXA 2020. [DOI: 10.11609/jott.5419.12.3.15355-15358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Flying squirrels are poorly studied nocturnal mammals as their elusive and nocturnal behaviour makes it hard to observe them in the wild. Here, we describe sightings of Petaurista petaurista on a limestone hill and its foot at Merapoh, Pahang, Malaysia. This is the first report as the species is usually known to inhabit forest habitat. We observed the first squirrel resting on a steep limestone wall at night. During subsequent nights, three individuals were observed feeding on Ficus hispida and Terminalia catappa fruits on the foot of the hill in nearby trees. These sightings suggest that P. petaurista may use limestone hill habitat.
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Wölfer J, Amson E, Arnold P, Botton-Divet L, Fabre AC, van Heteren AH, Nyakatura JA. Femoral morphology of sciuromorph rodents in light of scaling and locomotor ecology. J Anat 2019; 234:731-747. [PMID: 30957252 DOI: 10.1111/joa.12980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Sciuromorph rodents are a monophyletic group comprising about 300 species with a body mass range spanning three orders of magnitude and various locomotor behaviors that we categorized into arboreal, fossorial and aerial. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the interplay of locomotor ecology and body mass affects the morphology of the sciuromorph locomotor apparatus. The most proximal skeletal element of the hind limb, i.e. the femur, was selected, because it was shown to reflect a functional signal in various mammalian taxa. We analyzed univariate traits (effective femoral length, various robustness variables and the in-levers of the muscles attaching to the greater, third and lesser trochanters) as well as femoral shape, representing a multivariate trait. An ordinary least-squares regression including 177 species was used to test for a significant interaction effect between body mass and locomotor ecology on the variables. Specifically, it tested whether the scaling patterns of the fossorial and aerial groups differ when compared with the arboreal, because the latter was identified as the ancestral sciuromorph condition via stochastic character mapping. We expected aerial species to display the highest trait values for a given body mass as well as the steepest slopes, followed by the arboreal and fossorial species along this order. An Ornstein-Uhlenbeck regression fitted to a phylogenetically pruned dataset of 140 species revealed the phylogenetic inertia to be very low in the univariate traits, hence justifying the utilization of standard regressions. These variables generally scaled close to isometry, suggesting that scaling adjustments might not have played a major role for most of the femoral features. Nevertheless, the low phylogenetic inertia indicates that the observed scaling patterns needed to be maintained during sciuromorph evolution. Significant interaction effects were discovered in the femoral length, the centroid size of the condyles, and the in-levers of the greater and third trochanters. Additionally, adjustments in various femoral traits reflect the acquisitions of fossorial and aerial behaviors from arboreal ancestors. Using sciuromorphs as a focal clade, our findings exemplify the importance of statistically accounting for potential interaction effects of different environmental factors in studies relating morphology to ecology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Wölfer
- AG Morphologie und Formengeschichte, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bild Wissen Gestaltung, Ein Interdisziplinäres Labor, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Eli Amson
- AG Morphologie und Formengeschichte, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bild Wissen Gestaltung, Ein Interdisziplinäres Labor, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany
| | - Patrick Arnold
- Institut für Anatomie I, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany.,Institut für Zoologie und Evolutionsforschung, mit Phyletischem Museum, Ernst-Haeckel-Haus und Biologiedidaktik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany.,Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Léo Botton-Divet
- AG Morphologie und Formengeschichte, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,UMR 7179, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Pavillon d'Anatomie Comparée, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
| | - Anne-Claire Fabre
- UMR 7179, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Pavillon d'Anatomie Comparée, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.,Life Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Anneke H van Heteren
- Sektion Mammalogie, Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, München, Germany.,GeoBio-Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany.,Department Biologie II, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany
| | - John A Nyakatura
- AG Morphologie und Formengeschichte, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Bild Wissen Gestaltung, Ein Interdisziplinäres Labor, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Kawashima T, Thorington RW, Bohaska PW, Sato F. Evolutionary Transformation of the Palmaris Longus Muscle in Flying Squirrels (Pteromyini: Sciuridae): An Anatomical Consideration of the Origin of the Uniquely Specialized Styliform Cartilage. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2016; 300:340-352. [PMID: 27611816 DOI: 10.1002/ar.23471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2015] [Revised: 06/20/2016] [Accepted: 07/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
A long-standing issue in squirrel evolution and development is the origin of the styliform cartilage of flying squirrels, which extends laterally from the carpus to support the gliding membrane (patagium). Because the styliform cartilage is one of the uniquely specialized structures permitting gliding locomotion, the knowledge of its origin and surrounding transformation is key for understanding their aerodynamic evolution. The developmental study that would definitely answer this question would be difficult due to the rarity of embryological material. Instead, anatomical examinations have suggested two major hypotheses on the homology of the styliform cartilage: the pisiform bone of other mammals, or an additional carpal structure, such as the ulnar sesamoid of some of the other mammals or the hypothenar cartilage of the non-gliding squirrels. To test these hypotheses, a detailed examination of the anatomy of the carpus of gliding and non-gliding squirrels, and the colugo were undertaken. Based on physical and virtual dissections of the carpus, this study showed that both the pisiform bone and styliform cartilage were present in flying squirrels. This finding is further supported by demonstration that a "true Palmaris longus," with innervation typical for this muscle, inserts on the styliform cartilage. Taken together, our osteological, muscular, and neurological results suggest that the styliform cartilage was transformed in flying squirrels from an initially superficial and ulnar-derived anlagen into its current form. Anat Rec, 300:340-352, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomokazu Kawashima
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Richard W Thorington
- Division of Mammals, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia
| | - Paula W Bohaska
- Division of Mammals, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia
| | - Fumi Sato
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan
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