TY - JOUR
T1 - Anguimorpha as a model group for studying the comparative heart morphology among Lepidosauria
T2 - Evolutionary window on the ventricular septation
AU - Gregorovicova, Martina
AU - Bartos, Martin
AU - Jensen, Bjarke
AU - Janacek, Jiri
AU - Minne, Bryan
AU - Moravec, Jiri
AU - Sedmera, David
N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge the BioImaging Facility, Institute of Physiology, supported by the Czech‐BioImaging large RI project (LM2018129 funded by MEYS CR) for their support with obtaining scientific data presented in this paper. The research was financially supported by Cooperatio 207029 Cardiovascular Science (Charles University). We would like to also thank Laura Ruysseveldt and Herpetological Education and Research Project (Belgium), for providing us the photographs of the chosen animals. Last but not least, we would like to thank Lukas Kratochvil and his team for providing us chosen animal species for investigation presented in this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/11/1
Y1 - 2022/11/1
N2 - The group Anguimorpha represents one of the most unified squamate clades in terms of body plan, ecomorphology, ecophysiology and evolution. On the other hand, the anguimorphs vary between different habitats and ecological niches. Therefore, we focused on the group Anguimorpha to test a possible correlation between heart morphology and ecological niche with respect to phylogenetic position in Squamata with Sphenodon, Salvator, and Pogona as the outgroups. The chosen lepidosaurian species were investigated by microCT. Generally, all lepidosaurs had two well-developed atria with complete interatrial septum and one ventricle divided by ventricular septa to three different areas. The ventricles of all lepidosaurians had a compact layer and abundant trabeculae. The compact layer and trabeculae were developed in accordance with particular ecological niche of the species, the trabeculae in nocturnal animals with low metabolism, such as Sphenodon, Heloderma or Lanthanotus were more massive. On the other hand athletic animals, such as varanids or Salvator, had ventricle compartmentalization divided by three incomplete septa. A difference between varanids and Salvator was found in compact layer thickness: thicker in monitor lizards and possibly linked to their mammalian-like high blood pressure, and the level of ventricular septation. In summary: heart morphology varied among clades in connection with the ecological niche of particular species and it reflects the phylogenetic position in model clade Anguimorpha. In the absence of fossil evidence, this is the closest approach how to understand heart evolution and septation in clade with different cardiac compartmentalization levels.
AB - The group Anguimorpha represents one of the most unified squamate clades in terms of body plan, ecomorphology, ecophysiology and evolution. On the other hand, the anguimorphs vary between different habitats and ecological niches. Therefore, we focused on the group Anguimorpha to test a possible correlation between heart morphology and ecological niche with respect to phylogenetic position in Squamata with Sphenodon, Salvator, and Pogona as the outgroups. The chosen lepidosaurian species were investigated by microCT. Generally, all lepidosaurs had two well-developed atria with complete interatrial septum and one ventricle divided by ventricular septa to three different areas. The ventricles of all lepidosaurians had a compact layer and abundant trabeculae. The compact layer and trabeculae were developed in accordance with particular ecological niche of the species, the trabeculae in nocturnal animals with low metabolism, such as Sphenodon, Heloderma or Lanthanotus were more massive. On the other hand athletic animals, such as varanids or Salvator, had ventricle compartmentalization divided by three incomplete septa. A difference between varanids and Salvator was found in compact layer thickness: thicker in monitor lizards and possibly linked to their mammalian-like high blood pressure, and the level of ventricular septation. In summary: heart morphology varied among clades in connection with the ecological niche of particular species and it reflects the phylogenetic position in model clade Anguimorpha. In the absence of fossil evidence, this is the closest approach how to understand heart evolution and septation in clade with different cardiac compartmentalization levels.
KW - Lanthanotus
KW - Salvator
KW - Sphenodon
KW - Varanus
KW - evolutionary traits
KW - septation
KW - ventricle
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142869232&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9476
DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9476
M3 - Article
C2 - 36381397
SN - 2045-7758
VL - 12
JO - Ecology and Evolution
JF - Ecology and Evolution
IS - 11
M1 - e9476
ER -