@article{martens_piersanti_berger_kida_deutsch_bertok_humphries_lassiter_hartstone-rose_2023, title={The Effects of Onychectomy (Declawing) on Antebrachial Myology across the Full Body Size Range of Exotic Species of Felidae}, volume={13}, ISSN={["2076-2615"]}, DOI={10.3390/ani13152462}, abstractNote={While people are familiar with the practice of declawing domestic cats, “onychectomy”, as it is also known, is also performed on non-domesticated species, including pantherines, to prolong their use for entertainment purposes. Although the surgery (the partial or complete removal of the distal phalanx) has clear osteological implications, its myological effects have never been studied. As the mass of an animal increases cubically as a product of its volume, while the areas of its paws only increase as a square, larger felids have higher foot pressures and, therefore, the surgery may have particularly substantial functional effects on larger cats. In this study, we evaluate the forearms of clawed and declawed non-domestic felid specimens that spanned the body size range of the whole family to evaluate the effects of onychectomy on muscle fiber architecture. We found that the deep digital flexors (the muscles most directly affected by onychectomy) of declawed felids are significantly lighter (~73%) and less powerful (46–66%) than those of non-declawed felids, while other muscles do not make up for these reductions. Thus, onychectomy has a substantial effect on the myological capabilities of cats, and because these deficiencies are not compensated for in biomechanically disadvantaged larger felids, it probably has even more functionally devastating consequences for these species.}, number={15}, journal={ANIMALS}, author={Martens, Lara L. and Piersanti, Sarah Jessica and Berger, Arin and Kida, Nicole A. and Deutsch, Ashley R. and Bertok, Kathryn and Humphries, Lauren and Lassiter, Angela and Hartstone-Rose, Adam}, year={2023}, month={Aug} }
 @article{deutsch_langerhans_flores_hartstone-rose_2023, title={The roar of Rancho La Brea? Comparative anatomy of modern and fossil felid hyoid bones}, volume={284}, ISSN={["1097-4687"]}, DOI={10.1002/jmor.21627}, abstractNote={Abstract Animal vocalization is broadly recognized as ecologically and evolutionarily important. In mammals, hyoid elements may influence vocalization repertoires because the hyoid apparatus anchors vocal tissues, and its morphology can be associated with variation in surrounding soft‐tissue vocal anatomy. Thus, fossil hyoid morphology has the potential to shed light on vocalizations in extinct taxa. Yet, we know little about the hyoid morphology of extinct species because hyoid elements are rare in the fossil record. An exception is found in the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, where enough hyoids have been preserved to allow for quantitative analyses. The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum houses one of the largest and most diverse collections of carnivore fossils, including hyoid elements from the extinct felids Smilodon fatalis and Panthera atrox . Here, we found that extant members of Felinae (purring cats) and Panthera (roaring cats) showed characteristic differences in hyoid size and shape that suggest possible functional relationships with vocalization. The two extinct taxa had larger and more robust hyoids than extant felids, potentially reflecting the ability to produce lower frequency vocalizations as well as more substantial muscles associated with swallowing and respiration. Based on the shape of the hyoid elements, Panthera atrox resembled roaring cats, while Smilodon fatalis was quite variable and, contrary to suggestions from previous research, more similar overall to purring felids. Thus P. atrox may have roared and S. fatalis may have produced vocalizations similar to extant purring cats but at a lower frequency. Due to the confounding of vocalization repertoire and phylogenetic history in extant Felidae, we cannot distinguish between morphological signals related to vocalization behavior and those related to shared evolutionary history unrelated to vocalization.}, number={10}, journal={JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY}, author={Deutsch, Ashley. R. R. and Langerhans, R. Brian and Flores, Deanna and Hartstone-Rose, Adam}, year={2023}, month={Oct} }
 @article{dickinson_davis_deutsch_patel_nijhawan_patel_blume_gannon_turcotte_walker_et al._2021, title={Evaluating bony predictors of bite force across the order Carnivora}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1097-4687"]}, DOI={10.1002/jmor.21400}, abstractNote={In carnivorans, bite force is a critical and ecologically informative variable that has been correlated with multiple morphological, behavioral, and environmental attributes. Whereas in vivo measures of biting performance are difficult to obtain in many taxa-and impossible in extinct species-numerous osteological proxies exist for estimating masticatory muscle size and force. These proxies include both volumetric approximations of muscle dimensions and direct measurements of muscular attachment sites. In this study, we compare three cranial osteological techniques for estimating muscle size (including 2D-photographic and 3D-surface data approaches) against dissection-derived muscle weights and physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) within the jaw adductor musculature of 40 carnivoran taxa spanning eight families, four orders of magnitude in body size, and the full dietary spectrum of the order. Our results indicate that 3D-approaches provide more accurate estimates of muscle size than do surfaces measured from 2D-lateral photographs. However, estimates of a muscle's maximum cross-sectional area are more closely correlated with muscle mass and PCSA than any estimates derived from muscle attachment areas. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for muscle thickness in osteological estimations of the masticatory musculature; as muscles become volumetrically larger, their larger cross-sectional area does not appear to be associated with a proportional increase in the attachment site area. Though volumetric approaches approximate muscle dimensions well across the order as a whole, caution should be exercised when applying any single method as a predictor across diverse phylogenies.}, journal={JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY}, author={Dickinson, Edwin and Davis, Jillian S. and Deutsch, Ashley R. and Patel, Dhuru and Nijhawan, Akash and Patel, Meet and Blume, Abby and Gannon, Jordan L. and Turcotte, Cassandra M. and Walker, Christopher S. and et al.}, year={2021}, month={Aug} }
 @article{hartstone-rose_dickinson_deutsch_worden_hirschkorn_2021, title={Masticatory muscle architectural correlates of dietary diversity in Canidae, Ursidae, and across the order Carnivora}, volume={9}, ISSN={["1932-8494"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24748}, DOI={10.1002/ar.24748}, abstractNote={Carnivorans represent extreme ecomorphological diversity, encompassing remarkable variation in form, habitat, and diet. The relationship between the masticatory musculature and dietary ecology has been explored in a number of carnivoran lineages, including felids and the superfamily Musteloidea. In this study, we present novel architectural data on two additional carnivoran families-Ursidae and Canidae-and supplement these previous studies with additional felid, musteloid, herpestid, hyaenid, and viverrid taxa (a total of 53 species across 10 families). Gross dissection data were collected following a standardized protocol-sharp dissection followed by chemical digestion. Summed jaw adductor forces were also transformed into bite force estimates (BF) using osteologically calculated leverages. All data were linearized, log-transformed, and size-adjusted using two proxies for each taxon-body mass (BM) and cranial geometric mean-to assess relative scaling trends. These architectural data were then analyzed in the context of dietary ecology to examine the impact of dietary size (DS) and dietary mechanical properties (DMP). Muscle mass, physiological cross-sectional area, and BF scaled with isometry or positive allometry in all cases, whereas fascicle lengths (FLs) scaled with isometry or negative allometry. With respect to diet, BM-adjusted FLs were strongly correlated with DS in musteloids, but not in any other lineage. The relationship between size-adjusted BF and DMP was also significant within musteloids, and across the sample as a whole, but not within other individual lineages. This interfamilial trend may reflect the increased morphological and dietary diversity of musteloids relative to other carnivoran groups.}, journal={ANATOMICAL RECORD-ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY}, publisher={Wiley}, author={Hartstone-Rose, Adam and Dickinson, Edwin and Deutsch, Ashley R. and Worden, Nikole and Hirschkorn, Gabrielle A.}, year={2021}, month={Sep} }