Theropod dinosaurs underwent some of the most remarkable dietary changes in vertebrate
evolutionary history, shifting from ancestral carnivory 1–3 to hypercarnivory 4, 5 and …

Because the ulna supports and transmits forces during movement, its morphology can signal
aspects of functional adaptation. To test whether, like extant apes, some hominins habitually …

Bones adapt to mechanical forces according to strict principles predicting straight shape.
Most bones are, however, paradoxically curved. To solve this paradox, we used computed …

Second moment of area is a measure of how well the cross-section of a beam will resist
bending because of its shape. Many have used second moment of area to investigate the …

In terrestrial quadrupeds where the forelimbs are habitually used to push against the
substrate, the ulna is subjected to cranial bending and develops a caudal curvature. During …

Background Hybridization has been widely practiced in plant and animal breeding as a
means to enhance the quality and fitness of the organisms. In domestic equids, this hybrid …

The artiodactyl (deer and sheep) calcaneus is a model that helps in understanding how
many bones achieve anatomical optimization and functional adaptation. We consider how …

It has recently been proposed that the caudal curvature (concave caudal side) observed in
the radioulna of terrestrial quadrupeds is an adaptation to the habitual action of the triceps …

Various terrestrial tetrapods convergently evolved to gigantism (large body sizes and
masses), the most extreme case being sauropod dinosaurs. Heavy weight‐bearing taxa …

Rodents are characterised by a distinctive masticatory apparatus which includes a single
pair of enlarged and continually growing incisors. This morphology, termed diprotodonty …