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Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals

It has recently been proposed that the caudal curvature (concave caudal side) observed in the radioulna of terrestrial quadrupeds is an adaptation to the habitual action of the triceps muscle which causes cranial bending strains (compression on cranial side). The caudal curvature is proposed to be a...

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Autores principales: Henderson, Keith, Pantinople, Jess, McCabe, Kyle, Richards, Hazel L., Milne, Nick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5408721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28462036
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3229
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author Henderson, Keith
Pantinople, Jess
McCabe, Kyle
Richards, Hazel L.
Milne, Nick
author_facet Henderson, Keith
Pantinople, Jess
McCabe, Kyle
Richards, Hazel L.
Milne, Nick
author_sort Henderson, Keith
collection PubMed
description It has recently been proposed that the caudal curvature (concave caudal side) observed in the radioulna of terrestrial quadrupeds is an adaptation to the habitual action of the triceps muscle which causes cranial bending strains (compression on cranial side). The caudal curvature is proposed to be adaptive because longitudinal loading induces caudal bending strains (increased compression on the caudal side), and these opposing bending strains counteract each other leaving the radioulna less strained. If this is true for terrestrial quadrupeds, where triceps is required for habitual elbow extension, then we might expect that in arboreal species, where brachialis is habitually required to maintain elbow flexion, the radioulna should instead be cranially curved. This study measures sagittal curvature of the ulna in a range of terrestrial and arboreal primates and marsupials, and finds that their ulnae are curved in opposite directions in these two locomotor categories. This study also examines sagittal curvature in the humerus in the same species, and finds differences that can be attributed to similar adaptations: the bone is curved to counter the habitual muscle action required by the animal’s lifestyle, the difference being mainly in the distal part of the humerus, where arboreal animals tend have a cranial concavity, thought to be in response the carpal and digital muscles that pull cranially on the distal humerus.
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spelling pubmed-54087212017-05-01 Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals Henderson, Keith Pantinople, Jess McCabe, Kyle Richards, Hazel L. Milne, Nick PeerJ Animal Behavior It has recently been proposed that the caudal curvature (concave caudal side) observed in the radioulna of terrestrial quadrupeds is an adaptation to the habitual action of the triceps muscle which causes cranial bending strains (compression on cranial side). The caudal curvature is proposed to be adaptive because longitudinal loading induces caudal bending strains (increased compression on the caudal side), and these opposing bending strains counteract each other leaving the radioulna less strained. If this is true for terrestrial quadrupeds, where triceps is required for habitual elbow extension, then we might expect that in arboreal species, where brachialis is habitually required to maintain elbow flexion, the radioulna should instead be cranially curved. This study measures sagittal curvature of the ulna in a range of terrestrial and arboreal primates and marsupials, and finds that their ulnae are curved in opposite directions in these two locomotor categories. This study also examines sagittal curvature in the humerus in the same species, and finds differences that can be attributed to similar adaptations: the bone is curved to counter the habitual muscle action required by the animal’s lifestyle, the difference being mainly in the distal part of the humerus, where arboreal animals tend have a cranial concavity, thought to be in response the carpal and digital muscles that pull cranially on the distal humerus. PeerJ Inc. 2017-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5408721/ /pubmed/28462036 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3229 Text en ©2017 Henderson et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Henderson, Keith
Pantinople, Jess
McCabe, Kyle
Richards, Hazel L.
Milne, Nick
Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title_full Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title_fullStr Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title_full_unstemmed Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title_short Forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
title_sort forelimb bone curvature in terrestrial and arboreal mammals
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5408721/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28462036
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3229
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