Hypothesis: hemimelia and the maintenance of pentadactyly?
The limbs of extant terrestrial vertebrates possess five or fewer digits, yet, polydactyly is accepted as being the ancestral state. Therefore, I propose a hypothesis to account for the maintenance of digital number at five or fewer digits, based on a selective disadvantage associated with polydactylous states in terrestrial vertebrates. This disadvantage is not associated with the polydactyly per se, but rather with the hemimelia which is a common feature of polydactylies in mammals. Hemimelia causes a twisting, or luxation, of the distal segment of the limb, which is due to a malformation of the radius/tibia of the limb. This defect results in the limb being held in an abnormal gait, which causes problems in the locomotion of the animal which would compromise their ability to flourish. Therefore, the abnormal gait and torsion of the limb caused by the hemimelia is acting as a stabilizing force to maintain the dactyly of the tetrapod limb with five or fewer digits.
Hayes
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MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit and UK Mouse Genome Centre, Harwell, Didcot, Oxon., OX11 0RD, UK. c.hayes@har.mrc.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004480:Ectromelia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005121:Extremities / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D017689:Polydactyly / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014714:Vertebrates