The Tooth of the Matter

Boughner, Julia C.

doi:10.1002/9781118524756.ch3

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 157 publications

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“…Functional integration within individuals occurs when morphological traits participate in a common function, and their interactions affect the performance of that function. Examples for functional integration include skeletal elements across a joint or bones within a limb (Conaway et al, 2018), as well as the cranial elements that comprise the oral cavity (Boughner, 2016;Cheverud, 1995). Cheverud (1995Cheverud ( , 1996 considered developmental and functional integration to be related, as functional relationships are not only emergent through, but also maintained by, developmental processes.…”

Section: Morphological Integration and Evolutionary Covariancementioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology, evolution, and the whole organism imperative: Why evolutionary questions need multi‐trait evolutionary quantitative genetics

Auerbach

Savell

Agosto

2023

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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Since Washburn's New Physical Anthropology, researchers have sought to understand the complexities of morphological evolution among anatomical regions in human and non‐human primates. Researchers continue, however, to preferentially use comparative and functional approaches to examine complex traits, but these methods cannot address questions about evolutionary process and often conflate function with fitness. Moreover, researchers also tend to examine anatomical elements in isolation, which implicitly assumes independent evolution among different body regions. In this paper, we argue that questions asked in primate evolution are best examined using multiple anatomical regions subjected to model‐bound methods built from an understanding of evolutionary quantitative genetics. A nascent but expanding number of studies over the last two decades use this approach, examining morphological integration, evolvability, and selection modeling. To help readers learn how to use these methods, we review fundamentals of evolutionary processes within a quantitative genetic framework, explore the importance of neutral evolutionary theory, and explain the basics of evolutionary quantitative genetics, namely the calculation of evolutionary potential for multiple traits in response to selection. Leveraging these methods, we demonstrate their use to understand non‐independence in possible evolutionary responses across the limbs, limb girdles, and basicranium of humans. Our results show that model‐bound quantitative genetic methods can reveal unexpected genetic covariances among traits that create a novel but measurable understanding of evolutionary complexity among multiple traits. We advocate for evolutionary quantitative genetic methods to be a standard whenever appropriate to keep studies of primate morphological evolution relevant for the next seventy years and beyond.

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Section: Morphological Integration and Evolutionary Covariancementioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology, evolution, and the whole organism imperative: Why evolutionary questions need multi‐trait evolutionary quantitative genetics

Auerbach

Savell

Agosto

2023

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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Evolvability and constraint in the primate basicranium, shoulder, and hip and the importance of multi-trait evolution

Agosto

Auerbach

2021

Preprint

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The scapula shares developmental and functional relationships with traits of the basicranium, vertebral column, humerus, and clavicle. As a limb girdle, it also shares analogous characteristics with the pelvis. Despite these relationships, studies of primate shoulder evolution often focus on traits of the scapula in isolation. Such analyses may lead to spurious conclusions, as they implicitly model the scapula as evolving independent of other anatomical regions. Traits of the shoulder girdle share genetic covariances with each other, as well as potential covariances with dimensions of other skeletal elements. To create accurate models of shoulder evolution, it is imperative to account for the constraints imposed by these sources of covariance. Here, we use evolutionary quantitative methods to test a model in which shoulder morphological evolution is influenced by its developmental and functional covariances with the basicranium in the Colobus genus. This evolutionary relationship is also assessed with morphology of the pelvis to provide context to the evolutionary covariance among traits of the basicranium and shoulder girdle. Our results indicate potential evolutionary implications arising from covariances among the basicranium, shoulder, and pelvis. We further propose that the shoulder and basicranium may be examples of developmental, functional, and genetic covariances among traits that manifest an evolutionary suite of mutually constrained morphologies. We demonstrate novel evolutionary relationships among the shoulder girdle and basicranium that affect not only models of primate shoulder evolution but have broader implications for modeling trait evolution across the skeleton.

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The Tooth of the Matter

Cited by 2 publications

References 157 publications

Morphology, evolution, and the whole organism imperative: Why evolutionary questions need multi‐trait evolutionary quantitative genetics

Morphology, evolution, and the whole organism imperative: Why evolutionary questions need multi‐trait evolutionary quantitative genetics

Evolvability and constraint in the primate basicranium, shoulder, and hip and the importance of multi-trait evolution

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