TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of thumbnails across Rodentia
AU - Missagia, Rafaela V.
AU - Feijó, Anderson
AU - Johnson, Lauren
AU - Allen, Maximilian L.
AU - Patterson, Bruce D.
AU - Jenkins, Paulina D.
AU - Shepherd, Gordon M.G.
N1 - We thank J. Barrett, A. Ferguson, S. Goodman, L. Heaney, and J. Kerbis for valuable suggestions and discussions; O. Bertrand, L. Weaver, and an anonymous reviewer for comments and critiques on the manuscript; L. Revell for helpful insights and technical advice on the phytools package; D. Lunde and T. Hsu at NMNH and M. Surovy, E. Hoeger, and L. Caspers at AMNH for assistance with museum collections; K. Swagel and A. Shinya at FMNH for advice and assistance with radiography; A. Matsukawa, K. Rogovin, and G. Shenbrot for expert advice and sharing of unpublished observations; R. de Vries, D. Drukker, S. Musila, J. Philbois, T. Salah, K. Sarre, and M. Vedder for comments and discussions about iNaturalist observations; and D. Casali, G. Garbino, and C. Dias for valuable insights into discrete character evolution models. This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq grant 200897/2022-5 to R.V.M.); the National Institutes of Health (grants R37NS061963 and R34DA059723 to G.M.G.S.); and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 3231101307 to A.F.).
PY - 2025/9/4
Y1 - 2025/9/4
N2 - the unguis (hoof, claw, or nail) of the first digit (D1, also known as the thumb or pollex) of the tetrapod hand exhibits numerous functional adaptations, but its macroevolutionary association with ecological diversity is unknown. Across rodentia, we find that most extant genera and ancestral lineages bear D1 nails. exceptions follow structure-function associations that arose independently multiple times, specifically, the gain of D1 claws with subterranean habits and the loss of D1 ungues with oral-only feeding behavior. We hypothesize that early acquisition of D1 nails and manually dexterous food handling was crucial for rodents to adaptively leverage cranial specializations for efficient gnawing and thereby exploit hard seeds and nuts, a niche that they dominated after the extinction of multituberculates. Our study recasts ideas about rodent evolution and uncovers a previously unrecognized contributor to their successful radiation.
AB - the unguis (hoof, claw, or nail) of the first digit (D1, also known as the thumb or pollex) of the tetrapod hand exhibits numerous functional adaptations, but its macroevolutionary association with ecological diversity is unknown. Across rodentia, we find that most extant genera and ancestral lineages bear D1 nails. exceptions follow structure-function associations that arose independently multiple times, specifically, the gain of D1 claws with subterranean habits and the loss of D1 ungues with oral-only feeding behavior. We hypothesize that early acquisition of D1 nails and manually dexterous food handling was crucial for rodents to adaptively leverage cranial specializations for efficient gnawing and thereby exploit hard seeds and nuts, a niche that they dominated after the extinction of multituberculates. Our study recasts ideas about rodent evolution and uncovers a previously unrecognized contributor to their successful radiation.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105015147010
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105015147010#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1126/science.ads7926
DO - 10.1126/science.ads7926
M3 - Article
C2 - 40906837
AN - SCOPUS:105015147010
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 389
SP - 1049
EP - 1053
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6764
ER -