Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis

Paolo Piras; Gabriele Sansalone; Luciano Teresi; Marco Moscato; Antonio Profico; Ronald Eng; Timothy C. Cox; Anna Loy; Paolo Colangelo; Tassos Kotsakis

doi:10.1002/jmor.20405

Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis

Paolo Piras^*, Gabriele Sansalone, Luciano Teresi, Marco Moscato, Antonio Profico, Ronald Eng, Timothy C. Cox, Anna Loy, Paolo Colangelo, Tassos Kotsakis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The enigmatic Early Miocene fossorial mammal Mesoscalops montanensis shows one of the most modified humeri among terrestrial mammals. It has been suggested, on qualitative considerations, that this species has no extant homologues for humerus kinematics and that, functionally, the closest extant group is represented by Chrysochloridae. We combine here three dimensional geometric morphometrics, finite element analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods to explore the shape and mechanical stress states of Mesoscalops montanensis as well as of extant and extinct Talpidae and Chrysochloridae under realistic digging simulations. Evolutionary convergence analyses reveal that the shape of Mesoscalops montanensis represents a unique morphology in the context of fossorial mammals and that its functional performance, albeit superficially similar to that of extant Chrysochloridae, still represents a nonconvergent optimum for adaptation to digging.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1157-1171
Number of pages	15
Journal	Journal of morphology
Volume	276
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20405
Publication status	Published - 9 Sept 2015

Keywords

Biomechanical simulation
Chrysochloridae
Comparative methods
Functional morphology
Proscalopidae
Talpidae

Access to Document

10.1002/jmor.20405

Cite this

Piras, P., Sansalone, G., Teresi, L., Moscato, M., Profico, A., Eng, R., Cox, T. C., Loy, A., Colangelo, P., & Kotsakis, T. (2015). Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis. Journal of morphology, 276(10), 1157-1171. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20405

@article{98a2305b4d3e4766ae4e646c9c9d389d,

title = "Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis",

abstract = "The enigmatic Early Miocene fossorial mammal Mesoscalops montanensis shows one of the most modified humeri among terrestrial mammals. It has been suggested, on qualitative considerations, that this species has no extant homologues for humerus kinematics and that, functionally, the closest extant group is represented by Chrysochloridae. We combine here three dimensional geometric morphometrics, finite element analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods to explore the shape and mechanical stress states of Mesoscalops montanensis as well as of extant and extinct Talpidae and Chrysochloridae under realistic digging simulations. Evolutionary convergence analyses reveal that the shape of Mesoscalops montanensis represents a unique morphology in the context of fossorial mammals and that its functional performance, albeit superficially similar to that of extant Chrysochloridae, still represents a nonconvergent optimum for adaptation to digging.",

keywords = "Biomechanical simulation, Chrysochloridae, Comparative methods, Functional morphology, Proscalopidae, Talpidae",

author = "Paolo Piras and Gabriele Sansalone and Luciano Teresi and Marco Moscato and Antonio Profico and Ronald Eng and Cox, {Timothy C.} and Anna Loy and Paolo Colangelo and Tassos Kotsakis",

year = "2015",

month = sep,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1002/jmor.20405",

language = "English",

volume = "276",

pages = "1157--1171",

journal = "Journal of morphology",

issn = "0362-2525",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "10",

}

Piras, P, Sansalone, G, Teresi, L, Moscato, M, Profico, A, Eng, R, Cox, TC, Loy, A, Colangelo, P & Kotsakis, T 2015, 'Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis', Journal of morphology, vol. 276, no. 10, pp. 1157-1171. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.20405

TY - JOUR

T1 - Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis

AU - Piras, Paolo

AU - Sansalone, Gabriele

AU - Teresi, Luciano

AU - Moscato, Marco

AU - Profico, Antonio

AU - Eng, Ronald

AU - Cox, Timothy C.

AU - Loy, Anna

AU - Colangelo, Paolo

AU - Kotsakis, Tassos

PY - 2015/9/9

Y1 - 2015/9/9

N2 - The enigmatic Early Miocene fossorial mammal Mesoscalops montanensis shows one of the most modified humeri among terrestrial mammals. It has been suggested, on qualitative considerations, that this species has no extant homologues for humerus kinematics and that, functionally, the closest extant group is represented by Chrysochloridae. We combine here three dimensional geometric morphometrics, finite element analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods to explore the shape and mechanical stress states of Mesoscalops montanensis as well as of extant and extinct Talpidae and Chrysochloridae under realistic digging simulations. Evolutionary convergence analyses reveal that the shape of Mesoscalops montanensis represents a unique morphology in the context of fossorial mammals and that its functional performance, albeit superficially similar to that of extant Chrysochloridae, still represents a nonconvergent optimum for adaptation to digging.

AB - The enigmatic Early Miocene fossorial mammal Mesoscalops montanensis shows one of the most modified humeri among terrestrial mammals. It has been suggested, on qualitative considerations, that this species has no extant homologues for humerus kinematics and that, functionally, the closest extant group is represented by Chrysochloridae. We combine here three dimensional geometric morphometrics, finite element analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods to explore the shape and mechanical stress states of Mesoscalops montanensis as well as of extant and extinct Talpidae and Chrysochloridae under realistic digging simulations. Evolutionary convergence analyses reveal that the shape of Mesoscalops montanensis represents a unique morphology in the context of fossorial mammals and that its functional performance, albeit superficially similar to that of extant Chrysochloridae, still represents a nonconvergent optimum for adaptation to digging.

KW - Biomechanical simulation

KW - Chrysochloridae

KW - Comparative methods

KW - Functional morphology

KW - Proscalopidae

KW - Talpidae

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941176424&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/jmor.20405

DO - 10.1002/jmor.20405

M3 - Article

C2 - 26134243

AN - SCOPUS:84941176424

SN - 0362-2525

VL - 276

SP - 1157

EP - 1171

JO - Journal of morphology

JF - Journal of morphology

IS - 10

ER -

Digging adaptation in insectivorous subterranean eutherians. The enigma of Mesoscalops montanensis unveiled by geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Cite this