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Robert Brocklehurst

@docrobbrock.bsky.social

298 followers 307 following 9 posts

Postdoctoral researcher at UML | Vertebrate evolution | Form and function | he/ him

Robert Brocklehurst @docrobbrock.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Contrary to older ideas that posture evolved in a stepwise manner, we found that the ancestors of mammals navigated a complex evolutionary adaptive landscape, evolving, radiating and diversifying in their own unique ways.

An artistic rendering of the theoretical "adaptive landscape" of posture evolution in mammals. Different taxa occupy distinct adaptive peaks associated with different postures (green - yellow = sprawling, orange = upright). Image credit to Magdalen Mercado.

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Robert Brocklehurst @docrobbrock.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

We compiled a huge dataset of limb bones from living and extinct animals (>200 species) and analysed what they look like, how they functioned and how this all changed through 300 million years of evolutionary time.

A phylogeny of living and extinct tetrapods, showing the inferred evolution of forelimb posture in reptiles, salamanders, and mammals and their ancestors (green to yellow = sprawling, orange = upright). Illustrated with representative humeri (upper arm bones) from the study. Full figure and caption in the paper https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003188

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