A test of the lateral semicircular canal correlation to head posture, diet and other biological traits in 'ungulate' mammals
| Autor: | Lucas J. Legendre, A. A. Farke, Bastien Mennecart, James M. Neenan, Julien Benoit, Paul R. Manger, Samuel Merigeaud, Loïc Costeur |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Male Ungulate Databases Factual Posture lcsh:Medicine Biology 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Article Correlation Bony labyrinth 03 medical and health sciences medicine otorhinolaryngologic diseases Photography Animals Inner ear lcsh:Science Perissodactyla Artiodactyla Mammals Head posture Multidisciplinary Palaeontology lcsh:R Body Weight Skull Anatomy Horizontal plane biology.organism_classification Semicircular Canals 030104 developmental biology medicine.anatomical_structure Auditory system lcsh:Q Lateral semicircular canal Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena Female sense organs Head |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-22 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | For over a century, researchers have assumed that the plane of the lateral semicircular canal of the inner ear lies parallel to the horizon when the head is at rest, and used this assumption to reconstruct head posture in extinct species. Although this hypothesis has been repeatedly questioned, it has never been tested on a large sample size and at a broad taxonomic scale in mammals. This study presents a comprehensive test of this hypothesis in over one hundred “ungulate” species. Using CT scanning and manual segmentation, the orientation of the skull was reconstructed as if the lateral semicircular canal of the bony labyrinth was aligned horizontally. This reconstructed cranial orientation was statistically compared to the actual head posture of the corresponding species using a dataset of 10,000 photographs and phylogenetic regression analysis. A statistically significant correlation between the reconstructed cranial orientation and head posture is found, although the plane of the lateral semicircular canal departs significantly from horizontal. We thus caution against the use of the lateral semicircular canal as a proxy to infer precisely the horizontal plane on dry skulls and in extinct species. Diet (browsing or grazing) and head-butting behaviour are significantly correlated to the orientation of the lateral semicircular canal, but not to the actual head posture. Head posture and the orientation of the lateral semicircular canal are both strongly correlated with phylogenetic history. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|