Fast running restricts evolutionary change of the vertebral column in mammals

11242 14 13786 2 25028 document 13786 IR-14-029.pdf application/pdf e97d1f0bb62b02d0632bf6fd944ca285 MD5 8676929 2016-01-15 08:52:19 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/11242/1/IR-14-029.pdf 11242 1 1 text en public

IR-14-029.pdf

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IR-14-029.pdf

http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/13786 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/13786 http://eprints.org/relation/isCoversheetVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/13786 archive 351 disk0/00/01/12/42 2016-01-15 08:52:19 2021-08-27 17:24:45 2016-01-15 08:52:19 monograph show 3 Galis F. Carrier D.R. van Alphen J. van der Mije S.D. Van Dooren T.J.M. Metz H.J.A.J. 7506 ten Broek C.M.A. Fast running restricts evolutionary change of the vertebral column in mammals pub iis_ecl prog_eep body plans; evolutionary conservation; stabilizing selection; homeotic transformations; mammals; mammals; locomotion The mammalian vertebral column is highly variable, reflecting adaptations to a wide range of lifestyles, from burrowing in moles to flying in bats. Yet, in many taxa the number of trunk vertebrae is surprisingly constant. We argue that the latter constancy result from strong selection against initial changes of thse numbers in fast-running or agile mammals, while such selection is weak in slower-running, sturdier mammals. The rationale is that changes of the number of trunk vertebrae require homeotic transformations from trunk into sacral vertebrae, or vice versa, and mutations outwards such transformations generally produce transitional lumbosacral vertebrae that are incompletely fused to the sacrum. We hypothesize that such incomplete homeotic transformations impair flaxibility of the lumbosacral joint and, thereby threaten survival in species that depend on axial mobility for speed and agility. Such transformations will only marginally affect performance in slow sturdy species, so that sufficient individuals with transitional vertebrae survive to allow eventual evolutionary changes of trunk vertebral numbers. We present data on fast and slow carnivores and artiodactyls and on slow afrotherians and monotremes that strongly support this hypothesis. The conclusion is that the selective constraints on the number of trunk vertebrae stem from a combination of developmental and biomechanical constraints. 2014 published IR-14-029 IR-14-029 206 public interim_report IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria 27 FALSE info:eu-repo/semantics/book