An orca pod has been spotted for the first time repeatedly targeting and flipping young great white sharks onto their backs to paralyze and dismember them

Hoofed mammal premolars show a range of occlusal crown morphology from molariform to caniniform, and the position of taxa on this spectrum can be described as the relative molarization of the premolars. Molarized premolars function together with the molars in grinding mastication in which these unique premolars appear. The degree of molarization varies across dietary ecologies, which has led to cheek tooth morphology being designated as an important contributor to dietary predictions in extant and extinct taxa. Recent research into mammalian occlusal cheek tooth patterning have found independent patterning mechanisms of the premolars and molars. A research gap exists in understand how molarization of the premolars has occurred so frequently in hoofed mammals if these dental regions are independent in their patterning. In this study, we tested the application of the patterning cascade model to the lower premolar-molar boundary in hoofed mammals using a geometric morphometrics framework. We used 2D geometric morphometrics to study occlusal cuspid covariation at the lower p4-m1 boundaries of 16 artiodactyl and 18 perissodactyl species. Phylogenetically informed modularity analyses were used to test alternate a priori hypotheses originating from evolutionary, developmental, and functional considerations of cheek tooth morphogenesis. Our results showed artiodactyls and perissodactyls differ significantly in their p4-m1 boundary covariation patterns, which we hypothesize could be caused by heterochronic shifts between premolar and molar development. To our knowledge, our study is the first to contribute a comprehensive yet accessible 2D geometric morphometric method to further investigate the evolution of molarized premolars.

This open access handbook assesses the historiography and the future of major themes and approaches within the history of the earth sciences.

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are cosmopolitan, apex predators that sometimes interact with commercial fisheries. These fishery interactions can affect killer...

Morphological diversity of the cetacean mandibular symphysis coincides with novel modes of aquatic feeding

If alive today, these tiny whales would be as iconically Australian as kangaroos.

The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · Episode

In which Max remembers the biggest American geological brouhaha of the nineteenth century

The reconstruction of the evolutionary history of human cognition is a complex, interdisciplinary science. Human evolutionary theorists generally use a wide variety of evidential sources to construct ...

The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · Episode

Studying Philosophy Does Make People Better Thinkers

Behavior in orca population off coast of US and Canada captured by scientists using drone observation

This study conducts the first comprehensive morphological investigation of the mandibular symphysis in whales. Using gross anatomical observation and CT cross-sectional data, we describe diverse join....