Evolutionary adaptation to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths can lead to systemic alteration of bone structure.

Proc Biol Sci

Département Origines et Évolution, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements-CR2P (UMR 7207, CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, Sorbonne Université), 8 rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France.

Published: May 2018

Through phenotypic plasticity, bones can change in structure and morphology, in response to physiological and biomechanical influences over the course of individual life. Changes in bones also occur in evolution as functional adaptations to the environment. In this study, we report on the evolution of bone mass increase (BMI) that occurred in the postcranium and skull of extinct aquatic sloths. Although non-pathological BMI in postcranial skeleton has been known in aquatic mammals, we here document general BMI in the skull for the first time. We present evidence of thickening of the nasal turbinates, nasal septum and cribriform plate, further thickening of the frontals, and infilling of sinus spaces by compact bone in the late and more aquatic species of the extinct sloth Systemic bone mass increase occurred among the successively more aquatic species of , as an evolutionary adaptation to the lineage's changing environment. The newly documented pachyostotic turbinates appear to have conferred little or no functional advantage and are here hypothesized as a correlation with or consequence of the systemic BMI among species. This could, in turn, be consistent with a genetic accommodation of a physiological adjustment to a change of environment.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5966604PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0270DOI Listing

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