Entheseal variation and locomotor behavior during growth
J Anat. 2024 Feb 15. doi: 10.1111/joa.14023. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTEntheses are acknowledged as skeletal markers capable of revealing several biological and behavioral aspects of past individuals and populations. However, entheseal changes (ECs) of juvenile individuals have not yet been studied with a systematic approach. This contribution aims at investigating the morphological changes occurring at the femoral insertion of the gluteus maximus and tibial origin of the soleus muscles to highlight a potential link between the morphological features of those entheses and skeletal maturity in relation to sex, age, and ...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 16, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Davide Mameli Annalisa Pietrobelli Rita Sorrentino Teresa Nicolosi Valentina Mariotti Maria Giovanna Belcastro Source Type: research
Fatty infiltration of gastrocnemius-soleus muscle complex: Considerations for myosteatosis rehabilitation
J Anat. 2024 Feb 16. doi: 10.1111/joa.14025. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAlthough previous studies have reported fatty infiltration of the gastrocnemius-soleus complex, little is known about the volumetric distribution and patterns of fatty infiltration. The purpose of this anatomical study was to document and quantify the frequency, distribution, and pattern of fatty infiltration of the gastrocnemius-soleus complex. One hundred formalin-embalmed specimens (mean age 78.1 ± 12.3 years; 48F/52M) were serially dissected to document the frequency, distribution, and pattern of fatty infiltration in the medial and lateral hea...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 16, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Catherine Hatzantonis Lalith Satkunam Karyne N Rabey Jennifer C Hocking Anne M R Agur Source Type: research
How to make a digital reconstruction of the human ribcage
J Anat. 2024 Feb 5. doi: 10.1111/joa.14022. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTUp to now, there have been no publication standardizing the digital reconstruction of the modern human ribcage from commingled costo-vertebral material. Consequently, we designed a validated protocol based on anatomical features observed in the literature and the CT scanned ribcages of 10 adult European individuals. After quantifying the shape of these ribcages using 3D geometric morphometrics, we split each vertebra and rib within their corresponding (semi)landmarks. Subsequently, individual bones + (semi)landmarks were imported to LhpFusionBox, com...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 6, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Jos é M López-Rey Daniel Garc ía-Martínez Markus Bastir Source Type: research
Springhares, flying and flightless scaly-tailed squirrels (Anomaluromorpha, Rodentia) are the squirrely mouse: comparative anatomy of the masticatory musculature and its implications on the evolution of hystricomorphy in rodents
J Anat. 2024 Feb 6. doi: 10.1111/joa.14013. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAnomaluromorpha is a particularly puzzling suborder of Rodentia. Endemic to Africa, this clade includes the extant genera Idiurus, Anomalurus, Zenkerella, and Pedetes. These rodents present an hystricomorphous condition of the skull, characterized by a large infraorbital foramen, which evolved independently within the mouse-related clade over a span of approximately 57 million years. They exhibit a high disparity in craniomandibular and dental morphology that has kept their phylogenetic affinities disputed for a long time. Given the past significance...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 6, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: L éa Da Cunha Pierre-Henri Fabre Lionel Hautier Source Type: research
Evaluating the muscle attachment hypothesis for sagittal cresting in Gorilla and Pongo
J Anat. 2024 Feb 3. doi: 10.1111/joa.14018. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPrimate mandibular morphology is often associated with jaw functionality of the masticatory complex in the context of variation in diets. Recent research into the disparities between the diet and jaw functionality in male and female hominoids is inconclusive and suggests that sexual dimorphism in the mandible may be influenced by external factors such as temporalis and masseter muscle morphology, which in turn may be influenced by sexual selection. As the muscles associated with mastication (i.e., the type of chewing exhibited by primates and other m...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 3, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Hannah L Barel Hooge Jason S Massey Katharine L Balolia Source Type: research
Deploy the proboscis!: Functional morphology and kinematics of a novel form of extreme jaw protrusion in the hingemouth, Phractolaemus ansorgii (Gonorynchiformes)
J Anat. 2024 Feb 3. doi: 10.1111/joa.14020. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPremaxillary protrusion and the performance advantages it confers are implicated in the success of diverse lineages of teleost fishes, such as Cypriniformes and Acanthomorpha. Although premaxillary protrusion has evolved independently at least five times within bony fishes, much of the functional work investigating this kinesis relates to mechanisms found only in these two clades. Few studies have characterized feeding mechanisms in less-diverse premaxilla-protruding lineages and fewer yet have investigated the distinctive anatomy underlying jaw kine...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 3, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Allyson J Evans Emily R Naylor Nathan K Lujan Sandy M Kawano L Patricia Hernandez Source Type: research
Postnatal changes in thyroid cartilage shape and cartilage matrix composition are not synchronized in Mus musculus
J Anat. 2024 Feb 1. doi: 10.1111/joa.14006. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe study was conducted to quantify laryngeal cartilage matrix composition and to investigate its relationship with cartilage shape in a mouse model. A sample of 30 mice (CD-1 mouse, Mus musculus) from five age groups (postnatal Days 2, 21, 90, 365, and 720) were used. Three-dimensional mouse laryngeal thyroid cartilage reconstructions were generated from contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography (CT) image stacks. Cartilage matrix composition was estimated as Hounsfield units (HU). HU were determined by overlaying 3D reconstructions as masks on mi...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 2, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Megan Coyne Jolien Dellafaille Tobias Riede Source Type: research
Effects of long-term voluntary wheel running and selective breeding for wheel running on femoral nutrient canals
J Anat. 2024 Feb 2. doi: 10.1111/joa.14021. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe nutrient artery provides ~50%-70% of the total blood volume to long bones in mammals. Studying the functional characteristics of this artery in vivo can be difficult and expensive, so most researchers have measured the nutrient foramen, an opening on the outer surface of the bone that served as the entry point for the nutrient artery during development and bone ossification. Others have measured the nutrient canal (i.e., the passage which the nutrient artery once occupied), given that the external dimensions of the foramen do not necessarily rema...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - February 2, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Brandon B Tan Nicole E Schwartz Lynn E Copes Theodore Garland Source Type: research
Maxillary morphology of chimpanzees: Captive versus wild environments
J Anat. 2024 Jan 31. doi: 10.1111/joa.14016. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTMorphological studies typically avoid using osteological samples that derive from captive animals because it is assumed that their morphology is not representative of wild populations. Rearing environments indeed differ between wild and captive individuals. For example, mechanical properties of the diets provided to captive animals can be drastically different from the food present in their natural habitats, which could impact cranial morphology and dental health. Here, we examine morphological differences in the maxillae of wild versus captive chim...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 31, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Hester Hanegraef Fred Spoor Source Type: research
Early spiral arteriole remodeling in the uterine-placental interface: A rat model
J Anat. 2024 Jan 30. doi: 10.1111/joa.14019. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe mammalian placenta's interface with the parent is a richly vascularized tissue whose development relies upon communication between many different cell types within the uterine microenvironment. The uterine blood vessels of the interface are reshaped during pregnancy into wide-bore, flaccid vessels that convey parental blood to the exchange region of the placenta. Invasive trophoblast as well as parental uterine macrophages and Natural Killer cells are involved in the stepwise remodeling of these vessels and their respective contributions to this...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 30, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Sarah J Bacon Yuxi Zhu Priyanjali Ghosh Source Type: research
Variation in the sacrum of phytosaurs: New evidence from a partial skeleton of Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi
In this study, we demonstrate the presence of a sacralized first caudal (i.e., caudosacral) vertebra in a sacrum belonging to Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi. We rule out taphonomic distortion or pathology as explanations for the inclusion of this element in the sacrum, suggesting instead that it occurred through modifications of the same developmental processes that likely produced dorsosacral vertebrae in phytosaurs. Additionally, we show that a dorsosacral vertebra is common in phytosaur specimens from the Chinle Formation and Dockum Group of the southwestern United States and suggest that it may be widespread among phytosau...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 29, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Caleb N LePore Matthew A McLain Source Type: research
Is human height based on a Lucas sequence relationship between the foot height, tibial length, femur length and upper body length?
J Anat. 2024 Jan 29. doi: 10.1111/joa.14002. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThis is a retrospective chart and radiographic review of 145 patients who underwent full-body EOS imaging; 109 males and 36 females. The mean ages of the female and male subsets are 28.8 (SD = 11.6) years and 29.5 (SD = 11.8) years, respectively. The sum of the foot height (Ft) and the tibial length (T) for each subject was compared to their femur length (Fe). Subsequently, the sum of the tibial (T) and femoral lengths (Fe) were compared to their respective upper body lengths (UB), as measured from the tops of the femoral heads. A linear regression ...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 29, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Dror Paley Sahra Sutaria Daelan Pinsky Darin Roberts Craig Robbins Source Type: research
The changing morphology of the ventricular walls of mouse and human with increasing gestation
J Anat. 2024 Jan 29. doi: 10.1111/joa.14017. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThat the highly trabeculated ventricular walls of the developing embryos transform to the arrangement during the fetal stages, when the mural architecture is dominated by the thickness of the compact myocardium, has been explained by the coalescence of trabeculations, often erroneously described as 'compaction'. Recent data, however, support differential rates of growth of the trabecular and compact layers as the major driver of change. Here, these processes were assessed quantitatively and visualized in standardized views. We used a larger dataset ...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 29, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Bjarke Jensen Yun Hee Chang Simon D Bamforth Timothy Mohun David Sedmera Martin Bartos Robert H Anderson Source Type: research
Temporal involvement of phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate 5-kinase γ in differentiation of Z-bands and myofilament bundles as well as intercalated discs in mouse heart at mid-gestation
J Anat. 2024 Jan 26. doi: 10.1111/joa.14008. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTConsidering the occurrence of serious heart failure in a gene knockout mouse of PIP5Kγ and in congenital abnormal cases in humans in which the gene was defective as reported by others, the present study attempted to localize PIP5Kγ in the heart during prenatal stages. It was done on the basis of the supposition that phenotypes caused by gene mutation of a given molecule are owed to the functional deterioration of selective cellular sites normally expressing it at significantly higher levels in wild mice. PIP5Kγ-immunoreactivity was the highest in...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 26, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: A Ratchatasunthorn H Sakagami H Kondo W Hipkaeo S Chomphoo Source Type: research
Comparative analysis of craniofacial shape in two mouse models of Down syndrome: Ts65Dn and TcMAC21
J Anat. 2024 Jan 24. doi: 10.1111/joa.14012. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTMouse models are central to studying and understanding the genotypic-to-phenotypic outcomes of Down syndrome (DS), a complex condition caused by an extra copy of the long arm of human chromosome 21. The recently developed TcMAC21-a transchromosomic mouse strain with comparable gene dosage to human chromosome 21 (Hsa21)-includes more Hsa21 genes than any other model of DS. Recent studies on TcMAC21 have provided valuable insight into the molecular, physiological, and neuroanatomical aspects of the model. However, relatively little is known about the ...
Source: Journal of Anatomy - January 24, 2024 Category: Anatomy Authors: Nandini Singh Joan T Richtsmeier Roger H Reeves Source Type: research
