Laboratory of Animal Anatomy, Federal University of Pampa (UNIPAMPA), Uruguaiana, RS, Brazil.
Laboratory of Animal Anatomy, Presidente Antonio Carlos University (UNIPAC), Uberlândia, RS, Brazil.
Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2021 Jun;304(6):1344-1356. doi: 10.1002/ar.24593. Epub 2021 Feb 18.
Thoracic limbs are extremely versatile and exhibit informative characteristics about habits of the Carnivora order in the wild. Despite this relevance, comparative studies with quantitative variables on thoracic limb muscles are still scarce in carnivorans. The aims of this study were to measure the mass of the intrinsic muscles of the thoracic limb of neotropical species of the Carnivora order and to establish comparative conjectures. For this purpose, 39 thoracic limbs of 10 neotropical carnivorans species were dissected. The mass of each muscle was measured on a digital scale, muscles were grouped by function, and the mass average percentage that each functional group of muscles occupied in the thoracic limb was calculated. The data of the present study was added to that available in the literature for 22 other carnivoran species. Three groups of species were considered: Canidae, Musteloidea, and Feliformia. Comparatively, the eight canid species included in this analyses concentrate muscle mass proximally in the thoracic limb to prioritize essential cursoriality. The nine musteloids had more muscle mass in the distal muscles due to the demand for versatility and manual strength, and the 14 Feliformia species exhibited an intermediate trend. The analysis of clusters revealed a great overlap of the percentage distribution of muscle mass with the phylogeny previously established for carnivorans. It could be verified that the distribution of muscle masses meets the demand of the locomotor habits of the species up to a certain level, from which phylogeny begins to limit morphological adaptations.
胸肢非常灵活，具有关于野生食肉目动物习性的信息特征。尽管如此，对食肉目动物胸肢肌肉的定量变量进行比较研究仍然很少。本研究的目的是测量 10 种新热带食肉目动物的胸肢固有肌肉的质量，并建立比较推测。为此，对 39 只新热带食肉目动物的胸肢进行了解剖。用数字秤测量每块肌肉的质量，将肌肉按功能分组，并计算每个功能组肌肉在胸肢中所占的平均质量百分比。本研究的数据与文献中其他 22 种食肉动物的数据相加。考虑了三个物种组：犬科、鼬科和猫科。相比之下，本分析中包含的 8 种犬科动物在胸肢近端集中肌肉质量，以优先考虑基本的奔跑能力。9 种鼬科动物由于需要多功能性和手动力量，因此在远端肌肉中有更多的肌肉质量，而 14 种猫科动物则表现出中间趋势。聚类分析显示，肌肉质量的百分比分布与之前为食肉目动物建立的系统发育有很大的重叠。可以验证，肌肉质量的分布在一定程度上满足了物种的运动习惯的需求，而系统发育开始限制形态适应。
