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In vivo cranial bone strain and bite force in the agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri

Porro, LB; Ross, CF; Iriarte-Diaz, J; O'Reilly, JC; Evans, SE; Fagan, MJ; (2014) In vivo cranial bone strain and bite force in the agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri. Journal of Experimental Biology , 217 (11) pp. 1983-1992. 10.1242/jeb.096362. Green open access

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Abstract

In vivo bone strain data are the most direct evidence of deformation and strain regimes in the vertebrate cranium during feeding and can provide important insights into skull morphology. Strain data have been collected during feeding across a wide range of mammals; in contrast, in vivo cranial bone strain data have been collected from few sauropsid taxa. Here we present bone strain data recorded from the jugal of the herbivorous agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri along with simultaneously recorded bite force. Principal and shear strain magnitudes in Uromastyx geyri were lower than cranial bone strains recorded in Alligator mississippiensis, but higher than those reported from herbivorous mammals. Our results suggest that variations in principal strain orientations in the facial skeleton are largely due to differences in feeding behavior and bite location, whereas food type has little impact on strain orientations. Furthermore, mean principal strain orientations differ between male and female Uromastyx during feeding, potentially because of sexual dimorphism in skull morphology.

Type: Article
Title: In vivo cranial bone strain and bite force in the agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.096362
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.096362
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.
Keywords: Biomechanics, Feeding, Skull, Squamates, Animals, Biomechanical Phenomena, Bite Force, Feeding Behavior, Female, Lizards, Male, Mastication, Sex Factors, Skull, Stress, Mechanical
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1489620
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