Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Facial expressions, or facial displays, of social or emotional intent are produced by many mammalian taxa as a means of visually communicating with conspecifics at a close range. These displays are achieved by contraction of the mimetic muscles, which are skeletal muscle attached to the dermis of the face. Reverse dissection, removing the full facial mask from the skull and approaching mimetic muscles in reverse, is an effective but destructive way of revealing the morphology of mimetic muscles but it is destructive. DiceCT is a novel mechanism for visualizing skeletal muscles, including mimetic muscles, and isolating individual muscle fascicles for quantitative measurement. Additionally, DiceCT provides a non-destructive mechanism for visualizing muscles. The combined techniques of reverse dissection and DiceCT can be used to assess the evolutionary morphology of mimetic musculature as well as potential contraction strength and velocity in these muscles. This study further demonstrates that DiceCT can be used to accurately and reliably visualize mimetic muscles as well as reverse dissection and provide a non-destructive method for sampling mimetic muscles.