I'm leaving my research comfort zone (movement ecology) to explore potential braincase changes in mammals. Specifically, I'd like to measure how the shape of a mammal's skull changes throughout it's life post-parturition. As I am quite naive to this topic, I'm asking my peers to suggest papers or other sources for me to familiarize myself with.
Have others quantified size changes in mammalian skulls before? Do mice skulls become 'flatter' with age? Besides sagital crest development, do carnivore skulls become wider with age? These are the sort of questions that I'm looking into.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance!
Hi Scott! In a quick search I've found this paper "Ontogenetic development and sexual dimorphism of franciscana dolphin skull: A 3D geometric morphometric approach" (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmor.20309/abstract), which I think might be useful for you. However, there are several published papers analysing changes in shape, many of them in mammal skulls. Most of them also quantify the allometry (size changes). Good luck!
Dear colleague,
I thank you for an interesting issue on debate.
Craniology is a discipline on its own., When you consult old Anatomical and Anthropological texts, from the laste 19th c. and early 20th century, you'll gather a huge collection of information, that will prove quite usdeful for your present research.
I just checked on my bookshelf, and found a recent text that might prove quite useful:
JEAN-PIERRE GASC,2004 HISTOIRE NATURELLE DE LA TÊTE, Leçon d'Anatomie comparée, Vuibert,, Collection Planète Vivante
www.vuibert.fr
Hope this was useful,
Kind regards, Maria
Hi
articles are related to the development and shape changes of human fetuses, methodology described in these is very much satisfying n accurate, for quantifying changes you wish to study. The methodology might just give you an insight .
Hi Scott,
You're in for a lot of reading! Here you have a recent review paper on morphometrics:
http://theoretical.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/dep_theoretische_biologie/philipp/Mitteroecker_et_al_2013.pdf
And that whole issue of Hystrix is dedicated to morphometrics; you can see there all the big names working in the field:
http://www.italian-journal-of-mammalogy.it/issue/view/405
I suggest you browse also the Stony Brook Mophometrics site:
http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/morph/
And the Morphometrics Library, which has lots of up-to-date literature (although not in mammals, I'm afraid):
http://morpholib.eu.pn/cms/
You can also join the MORPHMET mailing list if you are joining the field:
http://www.morphometrics.org/home/morphmet
If it is specifically mouse papers you're after, I'm not a specialist, but you can perhaps start with this one and work your way through its references:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.12059/abstract
I hope this helps. All the best,
Miguel
Many thanks to Ingrid, Maria, Chandrika, and Miguel! You've all pointed me to very useful references. As is often the case, just knowing what the best key words are for searching new research areas is a really critical first step.
Thanks again!
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