Martín-Serra Alberto, Figueirido Borja, Pérez-Claros Juan Antonio, Palmqvist Paul
Departamento de Ecología y Geología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 20971-Málaga, Spain.
Evolution. 2015 Feb;69(2):321-40. doi: 10.1111/evo.12566. Epub 2015 Jan 5.
We investigated patterns of evolutionary integration in the appendicular skeleton of mammalian carnivores. The findings are discussed in relation to performance selection in terms of organismal function as a potential mechanism underlying integration. Interspecific shape covariation was quantified by two-block partial least-squares (2B-PLS) analysis of 3D landmark data within a phylogenetic context. Specifically, we compared pairs of anatomically connected bones (within-limbs) and pairs of both serially homologous and functional equivalent bones (between-limbs). The statistical results of all the comparisons suggest that the carnivoran appendicular skeleton is highly integrated. Strikingly, the main shape covariation relates to bone robustness in all cases. A bootstrap test was used to compare the degree of integration between specialized cursorial taxa (i.e., those whose forelimbs are primarily involved in locomotion) and noncursorial species (i.e., those whose forelimbs are involved in more functions than their hindlimb) showed that cursors have a more integrated appendicular skeleton than noncursors. The findings demonstrate that natural selection can influence the pattern and degree of morphological integration by increasing the degree of bone shape covariation in parallel to ecological specialization.
我们研究了哺乳动物食肉目动物附肢骨骼的进化整合模式。根据作为整合潜在机制的机体功能方面的性能选择来讨论这些发现。在系统发育背景下，通过对三维地标数据进行两块偏最小二乘法（2B-PLS）分析来量化种间形状协变。具体而言，我们比较了解剖学上相连的骨骼对（肢体内部）以及系列同源且功能等效的骨骼对（肢体之间）。所有比较的统计结果表明，食肉目动物的附肢骨骼高度整合。引人注目的是，在所有情况下，主要的形状协变都与骨骼粗壮度有关。使用自举检验比较了特化的奔跑类群（即前肢主要参与运动的类群）和非奔跑类物种（即前肢比后肢参与更多功能的物种）之间的整合程度，结果表明奔跑类动物的附肢骨骼比非奔跑类动物的更具整合性。这些发现表明，自然选择可以通过与生态特化并行增加骨骼形状协变程度来影响形态整合的模式和程度。
