Hominoid remains from Miocene deposits in India and Pakistan have played a pivotal role in understanding the evolution of great apes and humans since they were first described in the 19th Century. We describe here a hominoid maxillary fragment…
The reticular formation of mammals contains numerous nuclei which can be recognized by their projection patterns, cytoarchitectonics, and neuropeptide/neurotransmitter content. We have identified reticular nuclei in representatives from numerous…
BACKGROUND: Among living fliers (birds, bats, and insects), birds display relatively high aspect ratios, a dimensionless shape variable that distinguishes long and narrow vs. short and broad wings. Increasing aspect ratio results in a functional…
The establishment of a publicly-accessible repository of physiological data on feeding in mammals, the Feeding Experiments End-user Database (FEED), along with improvements in reconstruction of mammalian phylogeny, significantly improves our ability…
Recently proposed ancestral locomotor and morphological 'stages' leading to the evolution of primates have emphasized small body size, and a transition from a clawed non-grasping stage, to a clawed, grasping stage with clawless opposable hallux, to a…
New World monkeys display a wide range of masticatory apparatus morphologies related to their diverse diets and feeding strategies. While primatologists have completed many studies of the platyrrhine masticatory apparatus, particularly morphometric…
The whale ear, initially designed for hearing in air, became adapted for hearing underwater in less than ten million years of evolution. This study describes the evolution of underwater hearing in cetaceans, focusing on changes in sound transmission…
The proximal and distal growth plates of the principal long bones do not contribute equally to longitudinal growth. Most forelimb elongation occurs at the shoulder and wrist, while most hindlimb growth occurs at the knee. This study examined whether…
At least 29 species of fossil primates have been referred to fruit, nectar, and/or exudate feeding dietary niches. Many studies have detailed the morphological correlates of fruit feeding in comparison to insectivory and folivory. In contrast, few…