目的:磨牙冠配置在系统学中起着重要作用,以及功能和比较形态。特别是,灵长类磨牙上尖点的数量通常用于识别化石物种并推断其系统发育关系。然而,这种变异性值得重新考虑,因为现在许多研究都强调了一些哺乳动物分类群磨牙尖的重要发育机制.啮齿动物磨牙的实验研究表明,在形态动力学下形成尖点,图案化级联发展模型(PCM),涉及牙釉质结的迭代形成。这个模型认为大小,第一个形成尖点的形状和位置决定了后面形成尖点的存在和位置。
方法:在这里,我们测试了13个猕猴下颌第二磨牙(M2s)的副尖牙存在的变化是否与PCM的预测一致。使用Micro-CT,我们对这些M2进行了成像,并采用了几何形态计量学来检查牙釉质-牙本质交界处(EDJ)的形状变化是否与副尖尖的存在相关。
结果:我们发现,猕猴M2s中的辅助尖点图案与PCM基本一致。与没有辅助牙尖的磨牙相比,带有辅助牙尖的磨牙的尺寸更大,相对牙尖高度更短。外围尖点形成也与更中心位置的原发性尖点相关,正如PCM预测的那样。
结论:虽然这些结果表明图案级联模型广泛适用于解释食蟹猴磨牙的牙尖变异,它不能解释该样本中附属尖点表达的所有表现。
OBJECTIVE: Molar crown configuration plays an important role in systematics, and functional and comparative morphology. In particular, the number of cusps on primate molars is often used to identify fossil species and infer their phylogenetic relationships. However, this variability deserves renewed consideration as a number of studies now highlight important developmental mechanisms that may be responsible for the presence of molar cusps in some mammalian taxa. Experimental studies of rodent molars suggest that cusps form under a morphodynamic, patterning cascade model of development (PCM) that involve the iterative formation of enamel knots. This model posits that the size, shape and location of the first-forming cusps determines the presence and positioning of later-forming cusps.
METHODS: Here we test whether variation in accessory cusp presence in 13
Macaca fascicularis mandibular second molars (M2s) is consistent with predictions of the PCM. Using micro-CT, we imaged these M2s and employed geometric morphometrics to examine whether shape variation in the enamel-dentine junction (EDJ) correlates with accessory cusp presence.
RESULTS: We find that accessory cusp patterning in macaque M2s is broadly consistent with the PCM. Molars with accessory cusps were larger in size and possessed shorter relative cusp heights compared to molars without accessory cusps. Peripheral cusp formation was also associated with more centrally positioned primary cusps, as predicted by the PCM.
CONCLUSIONS: While these results demonstrate that a patterning cascade model is broadly appropriate for interpreting cusp variation in
Macaca fascicularis molars, it does not explain all manifestations of accessory cusp expression in this sample.