Petrović Tamara G, Vukov Tanja D, Tomašević Kolarov Nataša
Faculty of biology, university of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Institute for biological research, department of evolutionary biology, university of Belgrade, 142, Bulevar despota Stefana, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
C R Biol. 2017 Apr;340(4):250-257. doi: 10.1016/j.crvi.2017.02.004. Epub 2017 Mar 30.
Current studies of anuran morphology use sacral vertebrae, hindlimbs as main predictor for locomotor modes, while forelimbs and their segments were not analysed in this context. Due the fact that the complex interplay of numerous morphological traits determines the locomotion ability of anurans, we used ratios for both fore- and hindlimbs to obtain useful information of the structural and functional properties of locomotor system. We examined patterns of variation in total length of fore-, and hindlimbs as well as sacral vertebrae width and diapophyseal expansion in order to position two locomotor modes (jumpers and walkers) in a morphological shape space. Further, we investigated patterns of variability in limbs proximal, medial and distal elements to highlight differences in intra- and inter-limb relations in two locomotor modes. Our results showed that the ratios between total hindlimb length and sacral width/diapophyseal expansion, as well as ratio between humerus and tibiofibula relate the most to locomotor modes. This implies that functional specialization in different locomotor modes is attained through modifications of ratios, not only within hindlimbs, but also through modifications of the whole integrated system, which consists of forelimb, hindlimb, and girdle elements.
当前对无尾目形态学的研究将骶椎、后肢作为运动模式的主要预测指标，而在前肢及其各部分在这方面未进行分析。由于众多形态特征之间复杂的相互作用决定了无尾目的运动能力，我们使用前肢和后肢的比例来获取运动系统结构和功能特性的有用信息。我们研究了前肢和后肢的总长度以及骶椎宽度和横突扩展的变化模式，以便在形态形状空间中定位两种运动模式（跳跃者和行走者）。此外，我们研究了肢体近端、中间和远端元素的变异性模式，以突出两种运动模式在肢体内和肢体间关系上的差异。我们的结果表明，后肢总长度与骶骨宽度/横突扩展之间的比例，以及肱骨与胫腓骨之间的比例与运动模式的关系最为密切。这意味着不同运动模式下的功能特化是通过比例的改变实现的，不仅是后肢内部比例的改变，还包括由前肢、后肢和带骨元素组成的整个整合系统的改变。
