Cranial modularity and sequence heterochrony in mammals. 2007

Anjali Goswami
Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. A.Goswami@nhm.ac.uk

Heterochrony, the temporal shifting of developmental events relative to each other, requires a degree of autonomy among those processes or structures. Modularity, the division of larger structures or processes into autonomous sets of internally integrated units, is often discussed in relation to the concept of heterochrony. However, the relationship between the developmental modules derived from studies of heterochrony and evolutionary modules, which should be of adaptive importance and relate to the genotype-phenotype map, has not been explicitly studied. I analyzed a series of sectioned and whole cleared-and-stained embryological and neonatal specimens, supplemented with published ontogenetic data, to test the hypothesis that bones within the same phenotypic modules, as determined by morphometric analysis, are developmentally integrated and will display coordinated heterochronic shifts across taxa. Modularity was analyzed in cranial bone ossification sequences of 12 therian mammals. A dataset of 12-18 developmental events was used to assess if modularity in developmental sequences corresponds to six phenotypic modules, derived from a recent morphometric analysis of cranial modularity in mammals. Kendall's tau was used to measure rank correlations, with randomization tests for significance. If modularity in developmental sequences corresponds to observed phenotypic modules, bones within a single phenotypic module should show integration of developmental timing, maintaining the same timing of ossification relative to each other, despite differences in overall ossification sequences across taxa. Analyses did not find any significant conservation of developmental timing within the six phenotypic modules, meaning that bones that are highly integrated in adult morphology are not significantly integrated in developmental timing.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008322 Mammals Warm-blooded vertebrate animals belonging to the class Mammalia, including all that possess hair and suckle their young. Mammalia,Mammal
D010012 Osteogenesis The process of bone formation. Histogenesis of bone including ossification. Bone Formation,Ossification, Physiologic,Endochondral Ossification,Ossification,Ossification, Physiological,Osteoclastogenesis,Physiologic Ossification,Endochondral Ossifications,Ossification, Endochondral,Ossifications,Ossifications, Endochondral,Osteoclastogeneses,Physiological Ossification
D005075 Biological Evolution The process of cumulative change over successive generations through which organisms acquire their distinguishing morphological and physiological characteristics. Evolution, Biological
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D012886 Skull The SKELETON of the HEAD including the FACIAL BONES and the bones enclosing the BRAIN. Calvaria,Cranium,Calvarium,Skulls

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