Pectoral girdle and forelimb variation in extant Crocodylia: the coracoid-humerus pair as an evolutionary module

Evolution of the Pectoral Girdle and Forelimb in Sauropodomorpha (dinosauria, Saurischia): Osteology, Myology and Function

pectoral girdle bones in eurypterygian fishes

bones of the pectoral girdle skeleton in representatives of 48 genera in 41 families of eurypterygian fishes were studied. the structure and position of the pectoral girdle is relatively stable in eurypterygians. it consists of the extrascapula, posttemporal, supracleithrum, cleithrum, postcleithrum, scapula, coracoid, actinosts, and fin rays. an ectocoracoid is present in some gasterosteiforme...

Geometric morphometrics of the shoulder girdle in extant turtles (Chelonii).

The aim of this study was to identify shape patterns of the shoulder girdle in relation to different functional and environmental behaviours in turtles. The Procrustes method was used to compare the shoulder girdles (scapula and coracoid) of 88 adult extant turtles. The results indicate that four shape patterns can be distinguished. The shoulder girdles of (1) terrestrial (Testudinidae), (2) hi...

Flight capability and the pectoral girdle of Archaeopteryx

As the earliest birds known, the late Jurassic specimens of Archaeopteryx have been the object of great speculative interest. Ostrom'"' has argued that Archaeopteryx was a terrestrial, cursorial predator that represents a preflight stage in the origin of birds in which the forelimbs were used as nets to trap insects. So far, this has been challenged mainly on the grounds that such activity woul...

Ancestry of motor innervation to pectoral fin and forelimb

Motor innervation to the tetrapod forelimb and fish pectoral fin is assumed to share a conserved spinal cord origin, despite major structural and functional innovations of the appendage during the vertebrate water-to-land transition. In this paper, we present anatomical and embryological evidence showing that pectoral motoneurons also originate in the hindbrain among ray-finned fish. New and pr...