- Universität Zürich > Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät > Anthropologisches Institut und Museum > Dr. Alexandra Müller (ausgetreten)
- Tueckmantel Soligo Mueller
Completed Research Project
- Title / Titel
- Evolution and Function of Frontal Sinuses in Strepsirrhine Primates
- Summary / Zusammenfassung
- Despite intensive research efforts in the past, hypotheses seeking to explain the function of the paranasal sinuses found in some but not all species of primates have remained largely speculative. The goal of this study was to produce a comprehensive summary of frontal sinus occurrence across primate taxa and to test current hypotheses of frontal sinus function within the strepsirrhines. For that purpose, a comprehensive range of strepsirrhine as well as several haplorrhine skulls were radiographed and literature data was collected on primate frontal pneumatisation.
Results of the descriptive analysis show that frontal sinuses are widely distributed across the primate order but are also completely absent from several groups. A parsimony analysis reconstructs the last common ancestor of living primates as having lacked a frontal sinus. Frontal pneumatisations are reconstructed to have evolved in the lineage leading to the Malagasy lemurs and in the haplorrhines either once, in the anthropoid stem lineage or twice later during the evolution of the clade.
Presence and relative size of frontal sinuses in strepsirrhines were analysed within both a traditional and a phylogenetic comparative framework in order to test a range of hypotheses derived from the literature. Strepsirrhines were used as a model to test whether the presence of a frontal sinus is associated with ecological, morphological or behavioural determinants that could support one of the formulated hypotheses. The variables I have tested belonged to four main categories of hypotheses: 1) hypotheses relating to an external mechanical function (different architectural factors); 2) hypotheses relating to an internal mechanical (related to a phonetic or an olfactory) function; 3) hypotheses relating to a physiological function (in relation with the production of nitric oxide); 4) to the hypothesis that frontal sinus represent simple evolutionary remains and serve no particular function in strepsirrhines.
In a number of cases, traditional and phylogenetic methods of analysis gave different results. The most obvious result from the traditional regression analyses is that larger species are more likely to develop a frontal sinus than smaller ones and that in those species that develop frontal sinuses sinus volume is body size dependent. In terms of function, frontal sinus occurrence and volume cannot be related to a single factor. Among the hypotheses relating to an external mechanical function, a relationship between skull architecture in relation to diet and body size emerged as the most likely determinant of frontal sinus development. In terms of internal mechanical functions, the hypothesis that frontal sinuses may be involved in optimising low frequency emission during vocalisation found some intriguing support. Although the phylogenetic analyses revealed that frontal pneumatisation is strongly correlated with phylogeny within strepsirrhines, its apparent phylogenetic plasticity, as seen in the degree of homoplasy within the whole of primates, suggests that, overall, frontal sinus occurrence and volume can in most species more reasonably be attributed to stabilizing selection than to some unspecified phylogenetic constraint. Whether the functions postulated for the frontal sinuses in strepsirrhines can be extrapolated to all primates remains unclear but it seems quite evident that frontal pneumatisation serves a function in at least some of the primate taxa.
- Publications / Publikationen
- Tueckmantel S (2004): Evolution and function of frontal sinuses in strepsirrhine primates. Diploma thesis, University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Tueckmantel S (2005): Evolution und Funktion der Stirnhöhlen bei Feuchtnasenprimaten. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 10: 75-76.
Tueckmantel S, Mueller AE, Soligo C (2005): Correlates of frontal sinus evolution in strepsirrhines. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Supplement 40: 208.
- Keywords / Suchbegriffe
- paranasal sinus, evolution, strepsirrhine primates
- Project Leadership and Contacts /
Projektleitung und Kontakte Sandra Tueckmantel (Project Leader) stuckmantel@hotmail.com Dr. Christophe Soligo (Project Leader) C.Soligo@nhm.ac.uk Dr. Alexandra Mueller (Project Leader) amueller@wb.uzh.ch Adrian Roellin
- Other Links to external Webpages
- http://www.aim.uzh.ch
- Funding Source(s) /
Unterstützt durch - EU
- In Collaboration with /
In Zusammenarbeit mit Department of Palaeontology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 5BD
http://www.nhm.ac.ukUnited Kingdom Institute of Mathematics
University of Zurich
Winterthurerstrasse 190
8057 Zurich
http://www.math.unizh.ch/baps/Switzerland Ms. M. Mueller
Institute of Anatomy
University of Zurich
Winterthurerstrasse 190
8057 Zurich
http://www.unizh.ch/anatom/Switzerland
- Duration of Project / Projektdauer
- Mar 2003 to Aug 2005