For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
15
views
58
references
 Top references
cited by
32
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      60
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      A multivariate approach to infer locomotor modes in Mesozoic mammals

      Author(s): ,
      Publication date (Print):
      Journal: Paleobiology
      Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisher
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Ecomorphological diversity of Mesozoic mammals was presumably constrained by selective pressures imposed by contemporary vertebrates. In accordance, Mesozoic mammals for a long time had been viewed as generalized, terrestrial, small-bodied forms with limited locomotor specializations. Recent discoveries of Mesozoic mammal skeletons with distinctive postcranial morphologies have challenged this hypothesis. However, ecomorphological analyses of these new postcrania have focused on a single taxon, a limited region of the skeleton, or have been largely qualitative.

          Related collections

          Most cited references58

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Biomechanics of mammalian terrestrial locomotion.

          A A Biewener (1990)
          Mammalian skeletons experience peak locomotor stresses (force per area) that are 25 to 50% of their failure strength, indicating a safety factor of between two and four. The mechanism by which animals achieve a constant safety factor varies depending on the size of the animal. Over much of their size (0.1 to 300 kilograms), larger mammals maintain uniform skeletal stress primarily by having a more upright posture, which decreases mass-specific muscle force by increasing muscle mechanical advantage. At greater sizes, increased skeletal allometry and decreased locomotor performance likely maintain stresses constant. At smaller sizes, skeletal stiffness may be more critical than strength. The decrease in mass-specific muscle force in mammals weighing 0.1 to 300 kilogram indicates that peak muscle stresses are also constant and correlates with a decrease in mass-specific energy cost of locomotion. The consistent pattern of locomotor stresses developed in long bones at different speeds and gaits within a species may have important implications for how bones adaptively remodel to changes in stress.
          Article 0 comments Cited 136 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            The earliest known eutherian mammal.

            Ping Zhang, Zhe Luo, A Georgi … (2002)
            The skeleton of a eutherian (placental) mammal has been discovered from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of northeastern China. We estimate its age to be about 125 million years (Myr), extending the date of the oldest eutherian records with skull and skeleton by about 40 50 Myr. Our analyses place the new fossil at the root of the eutherian tree and among the four other known Early Cretaceous eutherians, and suggest an earlier and greater diversification of stem eutherians that occurred well before the molecular estimate for the diversification of extant placental superorders (104 64 Myr). The new eutherian has limb and foot features that are known only from scansorial (climbing) and arboreal (tree-living) extant mammals, in contrast to the terrestrial or cursorial (running) features of other Cretaceous eutherians. This suggests that the earliest eutherian lineages developed different locomotory adaptations, facilitating their spread to diverse niches in the Cretaceous.
            Article 0 comments Cited 130 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              An Early Cretaceous tribosphenic mammal and metatherian evolution.

              Xi Yuan, Zhe Luo, Qiang Ji … (2003)
              Derived features of a new boreosphenidan mammal from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China suggest that it has a closer relationship to metatherians (including extant marsupials) than to eutherians (including extant placentals). This fossil dates to 125 million years ago and extends the record of marsupial relatives with skeletal remains by 50 million years. It also has many foot structures known only from climbing and tree-living extant mammals, suggesting that early crown therians exploited diverse niches. New data from this fossil support the view that Asia was likely the center for the diversification of the earliest metatherians and eutherians during the Early Cretaceous.
              Article 0 comments Cited 128 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (publisher-id): applab
                Title: Paleobiology
                Abbreviated Title: Paleobiology
                Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
                ISSN (Print): 0094-8373
                ISSN (Electronic): 1938-5331
                Publication date Created: March 2015
                Publication date (Print): February 2015
                Volume: 41
                Issue: 02
                Pages: 280-312
                Article
                DOI: 10.1017/pab.2014.14
                SO-VID: 1690e239-8811-4a42-96b7-5882712278cc
                Copyright © © 2015
                History

                Data availability:

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content60

                See all similar

                Cited by32

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors274

                See all reference authors