Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, EBC, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble Cedex, France.
J Evol Biol. 2010 Oct;23(10):2076-2090. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02081.x. Epub 2010 Sep 6.
The locomotion of early tetrapods has long been a subject of great interest in the evolutionary history of vertebrates. However, we still do not have a precise understanding of the evolutionary radiation of their locomotory strategies. We present here the first palaeohistological study based on theoretical biomechanical considerations among a highly diversified group of early tetrapods, the temnospondyls. Based on the quantification of microanatomical and histological parameters in the humerus and femur of nine genera, this multivariate analysis provides new insights concerning the adaptations of temnospondyls to their palaeoenvironments during the Early Permian, and clearly after the Permo-Triassic crisis. This study therefore presents a methodology that, if based on a bigger sample, could contribute towards a characterization of the behaviour of species during great evolutionary events.
早期四足动物的运动方式一直是脊椎动物进化历史上备受关注的课题。然而，我们仍然没有精确地了解它们运动策略的进化辐射。我们在这里提出了第一个基于理论生物力学考虑的古组织学研究，该研究针对的是早期四足动物中高度多样化的一个群体——迷齿螈类。基于对 9 个属的肱骨和股骨的微观解剖和组织学参数的量化，这种多变量分析为迷齿螈类在早二叠世的古环境中的适应提供了新的见解，并且显然是在二叠纪-三叠纪灭绝之后。因此，这项研究提出了一种方法，如果基于更大的样本，可能有助于在重大进化事件中对物种行为进行特征描述。
