Morphometrics and Functional Morphology of Middle Ears of Extant Pocket Gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae)
| العنوان: | Morphometrics and Functional Morphology of Middle Ears of Extant Pocket Gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) |
|---|---|
| المؤلفون: | Joseph E. Hawkins, Kenneth T. Wilkins, Jeffrey C. Roberts, Craig S. Roorda |
| المصدر: | Journal of Mammalogy. 80:180-198 |
| بيانات النشر: | Oxford University Press (OUP), 1999. |
| سنة النشر: | 1999 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Morphometrics, Ecology, biology, Orthogeomys, Fossorial, Zoology, Anatomy, biology.organism_classification, Geomys, Thomomys bottae, medicine.anatomical_structure, Pappogeomys bulleri, Genetics, Middle ear, medicine, Animal Science and Zoology, Heterochrony, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| الوصف: | The 11 species of pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius, G. personatus, G. pine tis G. texensis, Thomomys bottae, T. bulbivorus, T. talpoides, Pappogeomys bulleri, P. castanops, Crato geomys tylorhinus, Orthogeomys heterodus) that we examined exhibit a distinctive suite of auditory characters: otic capsule of thick trabecular bone, a bone-encased stapedial artery having a very narrow lumen (except in P. bulleri), absence of the stapedius muscle, and most notably a stapes with a highly convex hollow footplate that protrudes into the vestibule of the inner ear. Qualitatively, all species of pocket gophers that we examined were similar. Quantitatively, there was little intraspecific variation in meristic features with regard to sex, but ontogenetic variation was significant with most features increasing in size with increas ing skull dimensions. Interspecifically, measured auditory features scaled positively with condylobasal length. For most functional auditory features (e.g., areal ratios, lever-arm ratios), intraspecific (sex or age) and interspecific variations were insignificant. The peculiar morphology of geomyid ears might serve a protective function in the noisy subterranean setting. Alternatively, novel features of the geomyid ear simply might be the result of heterochrony. Hyrtl's (1845) treatise on auditory mor phology in an array of mammalian species constituted the first report of a stapedial footplate possessing an unusual bullate form. In this configuration, the footplate, rather than being fiat, bulges convexly far into the vestibule of the inner ear. Hyrtl (1845) reported this morphology for the ring-tailed possum Phalangista cookii (= Pseudocheirus peregrinus; Petauridae), a scansorial arboreal marsupial (Nowak and Paradiso, 1983). Subsequent anatomical in vestigations revealed the highly convex sta pedial footplate in only two other families of mammals, Geomyidae and Heteromyi dae. Geomyids are highly fossorial herbiv orous rodents occurring in North and Cen |
| تدمد: | 0022-2372 1545-1542 |
| الوصول الحر: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::45ee230d8fac4cb749e648c14715824aTest https://doi.org/10.2307/1383218Test |
| حقوق: | OPEN |
| رقم الانضمام: | edsair.doi...........45ee230d8fac4cb749e648c14715824a |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
| تدمد: | 00222372 15451542 |
|---|