Here, we test whether we could find evidence for a globularization phase in the ontogenetic trajectory of Neanderthals, and thus whether the adult endocranial differences are already established at the time of birth, or develop later. We statistically compared shapes of virtual endocasts extracted from computed-tomographic scans of crania of 58 modern humans [7] and virtual reconstructions of 1...

Despite the fact that sex assessment using craniofacial characteristics is commonly made worldwide, a lack of such investigation is noted in the Balkan area and in Greece in particular. The aim of this study is to develop a sex determination technique using osteometric data from skeletal remains of a contemporary Cretan cemetery population. A total of 90 males and 88 females are measured accord...

Based on a longitudinal study of radiographs of the Denver Growth Study, we investigated the morphological development of individual and gender differences in the anterior neurocranium, face, and basicranium. In total, 500 X-rays of 14 males and 14 females, each with 18 landmarks and semilandmarks, were digitized and analyzed using geometric morphometric methods. Sexual dimorphism in shape and ...

Convergent evolution is widely viewed as strong evidence for the influence of natural selection on the origin of phenotypic design. However, the emerging evo-devo synthesis has highlighted other processes that may bias and direct phenotypic evolution in the presence of environmental and genetic variation. Developmental biases on the production of phenotypic variation may channel the evolution o...

Acipenseriformes (sturgeon and paddlefish) are basal actinopterygians with a highly derived cranial morphology that is characterized by an anatomical independence of the jaws from the neurocranium. We examined the morphological and kinematic basis of prey capture in the Acipenseriform fish Scaphirhynchus albus, the pallid sturgeon. Feeding pallid sturgeon were filmed in lateral and ventral view...

Abstract: The variation among domestic dog breeds offers a unique opportunity to study large-scale diversification by microevolutionary mechanisms. We use geometric morphometrics to quantify the diversity of skull shape in 106 breeds of domestic dog, in three wild canid species, and across the order Carnivora. The amount of shape variation among domestic dogs far exceeds that in wild species, a...

East African cichlid fishes have evolved a stunning array of oral jaw morphologies. To better understand the adaptive evolution of this trait, we performed a morphological analysis of the jaws of two closely related species from Lake Malawi that have very different modes of feeding. Labeotropheus fuelleborni forages along the substrate with a "biting" mode of feeding, while Metriaclima zebra fe...

Several flatfish species exhibit the unusual feature of bilateral asymmetry in prey capture kinematics. One species, Pleuronichthys verticalis, produces lateral flexion of the jaws during prey capture. This raises two questions: 1) How are asymmetrical movements generated, and 2) How could this unusual jaw mechanism have evolved? In this study, specimens were dissected to determine which cephal...

Background: A variety of abnormalities have been described for sharks, rays and skates across different ecoregions. Morphological and functional anomalies in these species, however, were not yet documented in distributions from the Canary Islands, the spiny butterfly ray Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758) and from in situ observations. The aim of the present study is to fill these knowledge gaps...

Ontogenetic changes in skull shape and size are ubiquitous in altricial vertebrates, but typically unidirectional and minimal in full-grown animals. Red-toothed shrews exhibit a rare exception, where the shape, mass and size of the skull, brain, and several major organs, show significant bidirectional seasonal changes. We now show a similar but male-biased shrinking (16%) and regrowth (8%) in t...