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Related Experiment Video

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Chicken Recombinant Limbs Assay to Understand Morphogenesis, Patterning, and Early Steps in Cell Differentiation

Chicken Recombinant Limbs Assay to Understand Morphogenesis, Patterning, and Early Steps in Cell Differentiation

Published on: January 12, 2022

Development and the evolvability of human limbs.

Nathan M Young¹, Günter P Wagner, Benedikt Hallgrímsson

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. nathan.m.young@gmail.com

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|February 6, 2010

Summary

Human limb proportions evolved through reduced genetic integration between limbs, allowing independent variation. This developmental shift in apes facilitated the evolution of unique human limb lengths, impacting evolutionary change.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Developmental biology
Primate evolution

Background:

Human limb proportions (long legs, short arms) are unique among primates.
Limb evolution is constrained by genetic correlations due to serial homology.
Mosaic limb evolution challenges understanding of development and evolvability.

Purpose of the Study:

To test a developmental model of limb covariation in anthropoid primates.
To investigate the evolution of limb integration and its impact on primate evolution.

Main Methods:

Comparative analysis of limb covariation in humans, apes, and monkeys.
Developmental modeling of genetic pleiotropy and limb integration.

Main Results:

Humans and apes show significantly reduced limb integration compared to quadrupedal monkeys.
Reduced genetic pleiotropy in the ape-like last common ancestor (LCA) likely enabled independent limb variation.
Macroevolutionary differences in limb length disparity reflect this change in integration.

Conclusions:

Reduced developmental integration facilitated the evolution of modern human limb proportions.
Developmental mechanisms play a crucial role in shaping macroevolutionary patterns.
The evolution of limb proportions in hominoids was influenced by changes in genetic correlations.