Systematics and evolutionary dynamics within talpidae (mammalia): phylogeny and functional morphology

Abstract

The systematics and evolutionary history of the family Talpidae have been subject to a long time debate, in fact there is a sharp contrast between data emerged from paleontological, morphological and molecular analyses. In the present work the existing dataset of morphological character has been expanded in order to perform a cladistic analysis. The new morphological characters have been detected for all the extant and extinct species belonging to Talpidae family. Patterns of morphological evolution have been investigated by analysing mandibles, first lower molars and humeri by means of geometric morphometrics techniques. In order to investigate the biomechanical performance of talpids burrowing kinematics will be performed, at generic level, a Finite Elements Analysis on the humerus. Such analysis revealed the adaptive dynamics undergoing the evolution of the fossorial lifestyle among talpids. The Finite Elements Analysis have been extended, in a comparative fashion, also to the extinct family of Proscalopidae whose species present morphologies which do not have homologues among extant ones. The interaction between shape, function and phylogeny have been evaluated, by means of comparative methods, in order to understand which of these feature was the most influential on morphological evolution.