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Science 2 August 1996:
Vol. 273. no. 5275, pp. 651 - 654
DOI: 10.1126/science.273.5275.651
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Reports

Coevolution of the Mammalian Middle Ear and Neocortex

Timothy Rowe

Phylogenetic analysis with x-ray computed tomography of fossilized and recent crania implicates differential growth of the neocortex in the evolution and development of the mammalian middle ear. In premammalian tetrapods, the middle ear evolved as a chain of bones attached to the mandible and cranium, but in adult mammals the chain is detached from the mandible and lies behind it. The neocortex evolved concurrently with detachment of the chain. In mammalian development the auditory chain arises connected to the mandible but later detaches, recapitulating the phylogenetic transformation. In modern didelphid development, the auditory chain reaches mature size by the third week after birth and is then separated from the jaw and displaced caudally as the neocortex grows for another 9 weeks.

Department of Geological Sciences and Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The oldest platypus and its bearing on divergence timing of the platypus and echidna clades.
T. Rowe, T. H. Rich, P. Vickers-Rich, M. Springer, and M. O. Woodburne (2008)
PNAS 105, 1238-1242
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Getting the inside story: using computed X-ray tomography to study inclusion trails in garnet porphyroblasts.
C. R. Huddlestone-Holmes and R. A. Ketcham (2005)
American Mineralogist 90, ea1-ea17
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Comment on "Independent Origins of Middle Ear Bones in Monotremes and Therians" (I).
G. S. Bever, T. Rowe, E. G. Ekdale, T. E. Macrini, M. W. Colbert, and A. M. Balanoff (2005)
Science 309, 1492a
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Applications of high-resolution X-ray computed tomography in petrology, meteoritics and palaeontology.
W. D. Carlson, T. Rowe, R. A. Ketcham, and M. W. Colbert (2003)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 215, 7-22
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A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics.
Z.-X. Luo, A. W. Crompton, and A.-L. Sun (2001)
Science 292, 1535-1540
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Comparative Rates of Development in Monodelphis and Didelphis.
K. K. Smith, A. F. H. van Nievelt;, and T. Rowe (1997)
Science 275, 683-684
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