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Homeotic transformations reflect departure from the mammalian ‘rule of seven’ cervical vertebrae in sloths: Inferences on the Hox code and morphological modularity of the mammalian neck

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Arnold,  Patrick       
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Böhmer, C., Amson, E., Arnold, P., van Heteren, A. H., & Nyakatura, J. A. (2018). Homeotic transformations reflect departure from the mammalian ‘rule of seven’ cervical vertebrae in sloths: Inferences on the Hox code and morphological modularity of the mammalian neck. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 18: 84. doi:10.1186/s12862-018-1202-5.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0001-A471-6
Abstract
Sloths are one of only two exceptions to the mammalian ‘rule of seven’ vertebrae in the neck. As a striking case of breaking the evolutionary constraint, the explanation for the exceptional number of cervical vertebrae in sloths is still under debate. Two diverging hypotheses, both ultimately linked to the low metabolic rate of sloths, have been proposed: hypothesis 1 involves morphological transformation of vertebrae due to changes in the Hox gene expression pattern and hypothesis 2 assumes that the Hox gene expression pattern is not altered and the identity of the vertebrae is not changed. Direct evidence supporting either hypothesis would involve knowledge of the vertebral Hox code in sloths, but the realization of such studies is extremely limited. Here, on the basis of the previously established correlation between anterior Hox gene expression and the quantifiable vertebral shape, we present the morphological regionalization of the neck in three different species of sloths with aberrant cervical count providing indirect insight into the vertebral Hox code.