The impact of the land-to-sea transition on evolutionary integration and modularity of the pinniped backbone

Abstract In this study, we investigate how the terrestrial-aquatic transition influenced patterns of axial integration and modularity in response to the secondary adaptation to a marine lifestyle. We use 3D geometric morphometrics to quantify shape covariation among presacral vertebrae in pinnipeds...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Juan Miguel Esteban, Alberto Martín-Serra, Alejandro Pérez-Ramos, Baptiste Mulot, Katrina Jones, Borja Figueirido
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2023-11-01
Series:Communications Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05512-8