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The scratch-digging lifestyle of the Permian “microsaur” Batropetes as a model for the exaptative origin of jumping locomotion in frogs

View ORCID ProfileMaren Jansen, View ORCID ProfileDavid Marjanović
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.460658
Maren Jansen
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115 Berlin
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  • For correspondence: maren.a.jansen@gmail.com
David Marjanović
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115 Berlin
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Abstract

Recent studies have shown that the Triassic stem-frog Triadobatrachus lacked the ability to jump off, but nonetheless had the forelimb strength to withstand the impact of landing from a jump. We propose a hypothesis to resolve this pseudoparadox: the strengthened forelimbs are former adaptations to forelimb-based digging that later made jumping possible by exaptation.

Micro-CT data from a skeleton of Batropetes palatinus reveal thin cortical bone, confirming Batropetes as terrestrial. Combining adaptations to walking and digging, confirmed by statistical analyses, Batropetes is thought to have searched for food in leaf litter or topsoil. We interpret Batropetes as having used one forelimb at a time to shove leaf litter aside. Batropetes may thus represent an analog or possibly a homolog of the digging stage that preceded the origin of Salientia.

We discuss the possibility of homology with the digging lifestyles of other “microsaurs” and other amphibians.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • david.marjanovic{at}gmx.at

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted September 27, 2021.
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The scratch-digging lifestyle of the Permian “microsaur” Batropetes as a model for the exaptative origin of jumping locomotion in frogs
Maren Jansen, David Marjanović
bioRxiv 2021.09.27.460658; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.460658
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The scratch-digging lifestyle of the Permian “microsaur” Batropetes as a model for the exaptative origin of jumping locomotion in frogs
Maren Jansen, David Marjanović
bioRxiv 2021.09.27.460658; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.460658

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