Morphological diversity of the humerus of the South American subterranean rodent Ctenomys (Rodentia, Ctenomyidae)

Humeral variation associated with digging ability in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys was analyzed through 6 functionally significant indexes. The humerus of some extinct and living species was slightly more specialized than that of fossorial octodontoids †Actenomys and Octodon, whereas it was highl...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Morgan, Cecilia Clara, Verzi, Diego Héctor
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2007
País:Argentina
Recursos:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositório:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/83136
Acesso em linha:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/83136
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Zoología
Ctenomyidae
Morphofunctional humeral diversity
Rodents
Scratch-digging adaptations
Descrição
Resumo:Humeral variation associated with digging ability in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys was analyzed through 6 functionally significant indexes. The humerus of some extinct and living species was slightly more specialized than that of fossorial octodontoids †Actenomys and Octodon, whereas it was highly specialized in some living species. The constant occurrence of greater epicondyles suggests a hierarchical pattern in the acquisition of scratch-digging specializations. A possible relationship between humeral morphological diversity and environments is preliminarily discussed.