PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
During mammalian terrestrial locomotion, body flexibility facilitated by the vertebral column is expected to be correlated with observed modes of locomotion, known as gait (e.g., sprawl, trot, hop, bound, gallop). In small- to medium-sized mammals (average weight up to 5 kg), the relationship between locomotive mode and vertebral morphology is largely unexplored. Here we studied the vertebral column from 46 small- to medium-sized mammals. Nine vertebrae across cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions were chosen to represent the whole vertebral column. Vertebra shape was analysed using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics with the phylogenetic comparative method. We also applied the multi-block method, which can consider all vertebrae as a single structure for analysis. We calculated morphological disparity, phylogenetic signal, and evaluated the effects of allometry and gait on vertebral shape. We also investigated the pattern of integration in the column. We found the cervical vertebrae show the highest degree of morphological disparity, and the first thoracic vertebra shows the highest phylogenetic signal. A significant effect of gait type on vertebrae shape was found, with the lumbar vertebrae having the strongest correlation; but this effect was not significant after taking phylogeny into account. On the other hand, allometry has a significant effect on all vertebrae regardless of the contribution from phylogeny. The regions showed differing degrees of integration, with cervical vertebrae most strongly correlated. With these results, we have revealed novel information that cannot be captured from study of a single vertebra alone: although the lumbar vertebrae are the most correlated with gait, the cervical vertebrae are more morphologically diverse and drive the diversity among species when considering whole column shape.
摘要：
在哺乳动物陆地运动期间，脊柱促进的身体灵活性预计与观察到的运动模式相关，称为步态(例如，蔓延，小跑,跳，绑定,疾驰）。在中小型哺乳动物中（平均体重达5公斤），机车模式和椎体形态之间的关系在很大程度上还没有被探索。在这里，我们研究了46种中小型哺乳动物的脊柱。穿过颈椎的九个椎骨，胸廓,选择腰椎区域代表整个脊柱。使用系统发育比较方法，使用三维几何形态计量学分析了椎骨形状。我们还应用了多块法，可以将所有椎骨视为单个结构进行分析。我们计算了形态差异，系统发育信号，并评估了异速和步态对椎体形状的影响。我们还研究了列中的集成模式。我们发现颈椎表现出最高程度的形态差异，第一个胸椎显示出最高的系统发育信号。发现步态类型对椎骨形状有显著影响，腰椎具有最强的相关性；但是考虑到系统发育后，这种影响并不明显。另一方面,无论系统发育的贡献如何，异速测速对所有椎骨都有显着影响。这些地区表现出不同程度的整合，与颈椎的相关性最强。有了这些结果,我们揭示了无法从单独研究单个椎骨中捕获的新信息：尽管腰椎与步态最相关，颈椎在形态上更加多样化，并且在考虑整个圆柱形状时驱动物种之间的多样性。
