Extraordinary incidence of cervical ribs indicates vulnerable condition in Late Pleistocene mammoths

The number of cervical vertebrae in mammals is highly conserved at seven. We have shown that changes of this number are selected against due to a coupling with major congenital abnormalities (pleiotropic effects). Here we show that the incidence of abnormal cervical vertebral numbers in Late Pleisto...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jelle W.F. Reumer, Clara M.A. ten Broek, Frietson Galis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2014-03-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/318.pdf