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Science 16 September 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4616, pp. 1189 - 1191
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4616.1189
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Articles

Allometry and Reorganization in Horse Skull Proportions

LEONARD RADINSKY 1

1 Anatomy Department, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637

Allometric analysis of skull proportions in 25 species of fossil equids indicates that both scaling effects (allometry) and reorganization were factors in the evolutionary transformation of horse skulls. A relatively longer preorbital portion of the skull resulted from the ventral and forward displacement of the tooth row relative to the jaw joint and the orbit when high-crowned teeth evolved. Correlated with the increased distance between jaw joint and tooth row is an increase in the relative size of the attachment areas of masseter and internal pterygoid muscles.

Submitted on November 22, 1982
Revised on May 27, 1983


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Evolution of hypsodonty in equids: testing a hypothesis of adaptation.
C. A. E. Stromberg (2006)
Paleobiology 32, 236-258
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)