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Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis

Encapsulated within the temporal bone and comprising the smallest elements of the vertebrate skeleton, the ear is key to multiple senses: balance, posture control, gaze stabilization, and hearing. The transformation of the primary jaw joint into the mammalian ear ossicles is one of the most iconic t...

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Autores principales: Le Maître, Anne, Grunstra, Nicole D. S., Pfaff, Cathrin, Mitteroecker, Philipp
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7399675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32801400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11692-020-09502-0
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author Le Maître, Anne
Grunstra, Nicole D. S.
Pfaff, Cathrin
Mitteroecker, Philipp
author_facet Le Maître, Anne
Grunstra, Nicole D. S.
Pfaff, Cathrin
Mitteroecker, Philipp
author_sort Le Maître, Anne
collection PubMed
description Encapsulated within the temporal bone and comprising the smallest elements of the vertebrate skeleton, the ear is key to multiple senses: balance, posture control, gaze stabilization, and hearing. The transformation of the primary jaw joint into the mammalian ear ossicles is one of the most iconic transitions in vertebrate evolution, but the drivers of this complex evolutionary trajectory are not fully understood. We propose a novel hypothesis: The incorporation of the bones of the primary jaw joint into the middle ear has considerably increased the genetic, regulatory, and developmental complexity of the mammalian ear. This increase in the number of genetic and developmental factors may, in turn, have increased the evolutionary degrees of freedom for independent adaptations of the different functional ear units. The simpler ear anatomy in birds and reptiles may be less susceptible to developmental instabilities and disorders than in mammals but also more constrained in its evolution. Despite the tight spatial entanglement of functional ear components, the increased “evolvability” of the mammalian ear may have contributed to the evolutionary success and adaptive diversification of mammals in the vast diversity of ecological and behavioral niches observable today. A brief literature review revealed supporting evidence for this hypothesis.
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spelling pubmed-73996752020-08-13 Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis Le Maître, Anne Grunstra, Nicole D. S. Pfaff, Cathrin Mitteroecker, Philipp Evol Biol Essay Encapsulated within the temporal bone and comprising the smallest elements of the vertebrate skeleton, the ear is key to multiple senses: balance, posture control, gaze stabilization, and hearing. The transformation of the primary jaw joint into the mammalian ear ossicles is one of the most iconic transitions in vertebrate evolution, but the drivers of this complex evolutionary trajectory are not fully understood. We propose a novel hypothesis: The incorporation of the bones of the primary jaw joint into the middle ear has considerably increased the genetic, regulatory, and developmental complexity of the mammalian ear. This increase in the number of genetic and developmental factors may, in turn, have increased the evolutionary degrees of freedom for independent adaptations of the different functional ear units. The simpler ear anatomy in birds and reptiles may be less susceptible to developmental instabilities and disorders than in mammals but also more constrained in its evolution. Despite the tight spatial entanglement of functional ear components, the increased “evolvability” of the mammalian ear may have contributed to the evolutionary success and adaptive diversification of mammals in the vast diversity of ecological and behavioral niches observable today. A brief literature review revealed supporting evidence for this hypothesis. Springer US 2020-05-27 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7399675/ /pubmed/32801400 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11692-020-09502-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Essay
Le Maître, Anne
Grunstra, Nicole D. S.
Pfaff, Cathrin
Mitteroecker, Philipp
Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title_full Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title_fullStr Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title_full_unstemmed Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title_short Evolution of the Mammalian Ear: An Evolvability Hypothesis
title_sort evolution of the mammalian ear: an evolvability hypothesis
topic Essay
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7399675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32801400
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11692-020-09502-0
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