we had the opportunity to examine the cranium of a young woman found at the well-known neolithic site of ali koshon the deh luran plain in southwestern iran. it has previously been claimed that her head shows traces of modification,a practice which can be termed as either cultural or artificial cranial modification. here, we describe several macroscopiccharacteristics of the modified crania and...

The association between cranial base morphology and Class III malocclusion is poorly understood. This study analyses local shape- and size differences in cranial base configurations of Class I and Class III subjects, employing finite element (FEM) analysis. Seventy-three prepubertal European-American children with Class III malocclusion were compared to their counterparts with a normal, Class I...

Adaptive radiations, bouts of morphological divergence coupled with taxonomic proliferation, underpin biodiversity. The most widespread model of radiations assumes a single round, or 'early burst', of elevated phenotypic divergence followed by a decline in rates of change or even stasis. A vertebrate-specific model proposes separate stages: initial divergence in postcranial traits related to ha...

We had the opportunity to examine the cranium of a young woman found at the well-known Neolithic site of Ali Koshon the Deh Luran plain in southwestern Iran. It has previously been claimed that her head shows traces of modification,a practice which can be termed as either cultural or artificial cranial modification. Here, we describe several macroscopiccharacteristics of the modified crania and...

Pitheciids, one of the major radiations of New World monkeys endemic to South and Central America, are distributed in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, and include Callicebus, Cacajao, Chiropotes, and Pithecia. Molecular phylogenetics strongly support pitheciid monophyly, whereas morphological analyses infer a range of phylogenies including a sister relationship between Aotus and Callicebus. We co...

BACKGROUND Extended neoteny and late stage allometric growth increase morphological disparity between growth stages in at least some dinosaurs. Coupled with relatively low dinosaur density in the Upper Cretaceous of North America, ontogenetic transformational representatives are often difficult to distinguish. For example, many hadrosaurids previously reported to represent relatively small lamb...

The diversity of fishes on coral reefs is influenced by the evolution of feeding innovations. For instance, the evolution of an intramandibular jaw joint has aided shifts to corallivory in Chaetodon butterflyfishes following their Miocene colonization of coral reefs. Today, over half of all Chaetodon species consume coral, easily the largest concentration of corallivores in any reef fish family...

We tested the usefulness of silicone casts for gathering morphological data from freeranging wildlife by documenting the tracheobronchial anatomy of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). The silicone compound accurately reproduced the main aspects of the tracheobronchial branching but the demonstration of smaller airways was less accurate. Evaluation of air-inflated specimens and tracheobronchial cast...