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Convergences in Scapula Morphology among Small Cursorial Mammals: An Osteological Correlate for Locomotory Specialization

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Abstract

Small cursorial mammals, such as lagomorphs, elephant shrews, and the more cursorial caviomorph rodents, share both the similar locomotor gait of rapid half-bounding and a similar scapula anatomy of a long, slender, caudally projecting metacromion process. This scapular morphology is also present in some notoungulates (extinct endemic South American ungulates), in rabbit-like taxa such as Propachyruchos. In the rabbit Oryctolagus this elongated metacromion process serves to increase the moment arm of the acromiotrapezius and levator scapulae ventralis muscles, which we propose may aid in scapula stabilization and resisting ground reaction forces during the landing phase onto a single forelimb in half-bounding. A long, slender metacromion process is thus an osteological correlate of locomotor specialization, that of rapid half-bounding in small to medium-sized mammals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Manuel Mendoza for help with statistics, and Judy Chupasko (Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology), Eileen Westwig (American Museum of Natural History), and Richard Thorington (Smithsonian Institution) for access to specimens in their care. Thanks also to members of the Brown University Morphology Group for discussion of this manuscript, especially to Beth Brainerd and Tonia Hsieh for written comments, Tom Roberts for suggestion of references, and useful comments from two reviewers and the journal editor. An earlier version of this paper comprised the Brown University undergraduate honors thesis for the senior author.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Lauren Seckel & Christine Janis

  2. 165 N. Michigan Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106, USA

    Lauren Seckel

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  1. Lauren Seckel
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  2. Christine Janis
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Correspondence to Christine Janis.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 4 Size Adjusted Scapular Measurements (cm). (See Table 1 for measurements)
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Seckel, L., Janis, C. Convergences in Scapula Morphology among Small Cursorial Mammals: An Osteological Correlate for Locomotory Specialization. J Mammal Evol 15, 261–279 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-008-9085-7

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