Volume 6, Issue 2 (In Press 2024)                   JAD 2024, 6(2): 1-10 | Back to browse issues page


XML Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Tuli J U N, Kibria M M, Beli A K, Kaisar S M, Biswas J K. Morphological profile of the forelimb long bones and ribs in the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista gangetica (Lebeck, 1801) (Mammalia: Cetacea: Platanistidae). JAD 2024; 6 (2) :1-10
URL: http://jad.lu.ac.ir/article-1-428-en.html
1- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chattogram-4331, Bangladesh
2- Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chattogram-4331, Bangladesh , jadabbiswas@yahoo.com
Abstract:   (1258 Views)

We conducted a study on the morphology of the forelimb long bones and ribs in the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista gangetica (Lebeck, 1801) using traditional morphometric methods. A total of 17 morphometric measurements of six specimens of P. gangetica were taken. The humerus was the longest bone in the forelimb morphology, with its length ranging from 41.75 to 52.78 mm (mean: 45.57, SD: ± 5.07) in juveniles/subadults and 60.56 to 90.92 mm (mean: 76.75, SD: ± 22.90) in adults. The length of the scapula was 85.84 to 135.46 mm (mean: 102.18, SD: ± 23.00) in juveniles/subadults and 171.79 to 251.95 mm (mean: 211.87, SD: ± 56.68) in adults. Of 10 ribs, the sixth rib was the longest (mean: 133.55, SD: ± 24.12) in juveniles/subadults and the seventh (mean: 240.62, SD: ± 54.24) in adults. All measurements (except the two variables of the scapula) were significantly correlated (P < 0.05) with specific bone length. The allometric coefficients of all correlated variables of the humerus, radius, ulna, scapula, and the depths of ribs exhibited isometry against the length of the particular bone, respectively. We discussed the morphological patterns of the forelimb long bones and ribs in P. gangetica along with the structural and functional aspects of the aquatic lifestyles.

Full-Text [PDF 1556 kb]   (467 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Species Diversity
Received: 2024/03/10 | Accepted: 2024/06/23 | Published: 2024/06/30

References
1. Amson, E., Muizon, C. D., Laurin, M., Argot, C. and Buffrénil V. D. (2014). Gradual adaptation of bone structure to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths from Peru. The Royal Society publishing, 281 (1782): 20140192. [DOI:10.1098/rspb.2014.0192]
2. Ando, K. and Fujiwara, S. (2016). Farewell to life on land - thoracic strength as a new indicator to determine paleoecology in secondary aquatic mammals. Journal of Anatomy, 229 (6): 768-777. [DOI:10.1111/joa.12518]
3. Biswas, J. K. and Motokawa, M. (2019). Morphological analysis of static skull variation in the large Japanese field mouse, Apodemus speciosus (Rodentia: Muridae). Mammal Study, 44 (1): 51-63. [DOI:10.3106/ms2018-0033]
4. Bordoloi, B. and Saharia, S. (2021). Current status of the endangered Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica), the aquatic megafauna in the Brahmaputra River system. Current World Environment, 16 (2): 600-606. [DOI:10.12944/CWE.16.2.24]
5. Botton-Divet, L., Cornette, R., Houssaye, A., Fabre, A. and Herrel, A. (2016). Morphological analysis of long bones in semi-aquatic mustelids and their terrestrial relatives. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 56 (6): 1298-1309. [DOI:10.1093/icb/icw124]
6. Botton-Divet, L., Cornette, R., Houssaye, A., Fabre, A. and Herrel, A. (2017). Swimming and running: a study of the convergence in long bone morphology among semi-aquatic mustelids (Carnivora: Mustelidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 121 (1): 38-49. [DOI:10.1093/biolinnean/blw027]
7. Braulik, G. T. and Smith, B. D. (2017). Platanista gangetica. The IUCN red list of threatened species 2017: e.T41758A50383612.
8. Carwardine, M. (1996). The book of dolphins. The Nature Company. ISBN-10:1850284067
9. Casteleyn, C. and Bakker, J. (2019). The anatomy of the common marmoset, In: Marini, R. P., Watchman, L. M., Tardif, S. D., Mansfield, K. and Fox, J. G. (Eds.), The Common Marmoset in Captivity and Biomedical Research. American College of Laboratory, Animal Medicine Series. Academic Press. pp.17-41. [DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-811829-0.00002-9]
10. Castillo, D. L. D., Panebianco, M. V., Nergi, M. F. and Cappozzo, H. L. (2014). Morphological analysis of the flippers in the Franciscana dolphin, Pontoporia blainvillei, applying x-ray technique. The Anatomical Record, 297 (7): 1181-1188. [DOI:10.1002/ar.22908]
11. Choudhury, S. K., Smith, B. D., Dey, S., Dey, S. and Prakash, S. (2006). Conservation and biomonitoring in the Vikramshila Gangetic dolphin sanctuary, Bihar, India. Oryx, 40 (2): 189-197. [DOI:10.1017/S0030605306000664]
12. Connolly, J. F., Hahn, H. and Davy, D. T. (1978). Fracture healing in weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing bones. The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care, 18 (11): 766-770. [DOI:10.1097/00005373-197811000-00002]
13. Cooper, L. N. (2009). Forelimb anatomy, In: Perrin, W. F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J. G. M. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of marine mammals (2nd ed). Burlington, MA: Academic Press. pp. 449-452. [DOI:10.1016/B978-0-12-373553-9.00107-3]
14. Cooper, L. N., Berta, A., Dawson, S. D. and Reidenberg, J. S. (2007). Evolution of hyperphalangy and digit reduction in the cetacean manus. The Anatomical Record, 290: 654-672. [DOI:10.1002/ar.20532]
15. Cooper, L. N., Sears, K. E., Armfield, B., Kala, B., Hubler, M. and Thewissen, J. G. M. (2017). Review and experimental evaluation of the embryonic development and evolutionary history of flipper development and hyperphalangy in dolphins (Cetacea: Mammalia). Genesis, 56 (1): e23076. [DOI:10.1002/dvg.23076]
16. Das, A., Roy, P. and Biswas, J. K. (2023). Morphological patterns of the long limb bones in the lesser bandicoot rat, Bandicota bengalensis (Rodentia: Muridae). Bangladesh Journal of Zoology, 51: 191-203. [DOI:10.3329/bjz.v51i2.70778]
17. Dewhurst‐Richman, N. I., Jones., J. P. G., Northridge., S., Ahmed, B., Brook, S., Freeman, R., Jepson, P., Mahood, S. P. and Turvey, S. T. (2020). Fishing for the facts: river dolphin bycatch in a small-scale freshwater fishery in Bangladesh. Animal Conservation, 23 (2): 160-170. [DOI:10.1111/acv.12523]
18. Doube, M., Conroy, A. W., Christiansen, P., Hutchinson, J. R. and Shefelbine, S. (2009). Three- dimensional geometric analysis of felid limb bone allometry. PLoS ONE, 4 (3): e4742. [DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0004742]
19. Elbroch, M. (2006). Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species. Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. 727 pp.
20. Endo, H., Yamagiwa, D., Arishima, K., Yamamoto, M., Sasaki, M., Hayashi, Y. and Kamiya, T. (1999). MRI examination of trachea and bronchi in the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica). The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science, 61 (10): 1137-1141. [DOI:10.1292/jvms.61.1137]
21. Hammer, O., Harper, D. A. T. and Ryan, P. D. (2001). PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica, 4 (1): 1-9.
22. Hocking, D. P., Marx, F. G., Sattler, R., Harris, R. N., Pollock, T. I., Sorrell, K. J., Fitzgerald, E. M. G., McCurry, M. R. and Evans, A. R. (2018). Clawed forelimbs allow northern seals to eat like their ancient ancestors. Royal Society Open Science, 5: 172393. [DOI:10.1098/rsos.172393]
23. Kallal, R. J., Godfrey, S. J. and Ortner, D. J. (2012). Bone reactions on a pliocene cetacean rib indicate short‐term survival of predation event. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 22 (3): 253-260. [DOI:10.1002/oa.1199]
24. Kelkar, N., Smith, B. D., Alom, M. Z., Dey, S., Paudel, S. and Braulik, G. T. (2022). Platanista gangetica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T41756A50383346.
25. Khan, M. M. H. (2019). Management plan for the Ganges River dolphin in Halda river of Bangladesh. Expanding the protected areas system to incorporate important aquatic ecosystems project. 39 pp.
26. Kipps, E. K., Mclellan, W. A., Rommel, S. and Pabst, D. A. (2002). Skin density and its influence on buoyancy in the manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Marine Mammal Science, 18 (3): 765-778. [DOI:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2002.tb01072.x]
27. Klima, M., Oelschläger, H. A. and Wünsch, D. (1979). Morphology of the pectoral girdle in the Amazon dolphin Inia geoffrensis with special reference to the shoulder joint and the movements of the flippers. Zeitschrift-Saeugetierkunde, 45: 288-309.
28. Lebeck, H. J. (1801). Delphinus gangeticus beschrieben vom Herrn Heinrich Julius Lebeck zu Trankenbar. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, 3: 280-282.
29. Lungmus, J. K., and Angielczyk, K. D. (2019). Antiquity of forelimb ecomorphological diversity in the mammalian stem lineage (Synapsida). Proceedings of National Academy of Science of United States of America, 116 (14): 6903-6907. [DOI:10.1073/pnas.1802543116]
30. Marchesi, M. C., Pimper, L. E., Mora, M. S., and Goodall, R. N. P. D. (2016). The vertebral column of the hourglass dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger, Quoy and Gaimard, 1824), with notes on its functional properties in relation to its habitat. Aquatic Mammals, 42 (3): 306-316. [DOI:10.1578/AM.42.3.2016.306]
31. Meiri, S. and Liang, T. (2021). Rensch's rule-Definitions and statistics. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 30 (3): 573-577. [DOI:10.1111/geb.13255]
32. Mohan, R. S. L., Dey, S. C., Bairagi, S. P. and Roy, S. (1997). On a survey of the Ganges River dolphin Platanista gangetica of Brahmaputra River, Assam. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 94: 483-495.
33. Muller, M. K. (2021). Comparative anatomy and functional morphology of the forelimb in cetaceans from New Zealand. Ph.D. thesis. University of Otago, New Zealand.
34. Noble, S. and Sooraj, V. S. (2023). Bio-inspired skeletal model and kinematics of humanoid spine and ribs. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 238 (1): 94-107. [DOI:10.1177/09544062231166813]
35. Peleg, S., Kallevag, R., Dar, G., Steinberg, N., Masharawi, Y. and May, H. (2020). New methods for sex estimation using sternum and rib morphology. International Journal of Legal Medicine, 134 (4): 1519-1530. [DOI:10.1007/s00414-020-02266-4]
36. Perrin, W. F. (1975). Variation of spotted and spinner porpoise (genus Stenella) in the eastern pacific Hawaii. Bulletin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 21: 1-206.
37. Pilleri, G. and Gihr, M. 1976. The function and osteology of the manus of Platanista gangetica and Platanista indi. Investigations on Cetacea, 7: 109-118.
38. Polly, P. D. (1998). Variability in mammalian dentitions: size related bias in the coefficient of variation. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 64: 83-99. [DOI:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1998.tb01535.x]
39. Reidenberg, J. S. (2007). Anatomical adaptations of aquatic mammals. The Anatomical Record, 290 (6): 507-513. [DOI:10.1002/ar.20541]
40. Sanchez, J. A. and Berta, A. (2010). Comparative anatomy and evolution of the odontocete forelimb. Marine Mammal Science, 26 (1): 140-160. [DOI:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00311.x]
41. Shil, S. K., Zahangir, M. M., Das, B. C., Rahman, M. M., Yadav, S. K., Kibria, M. M. and Siddiki, A. Z. (2022). Macro and microanatomy of some organs of a juvenile male Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica spp. gangetica). Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia, 52 (2): 180-189. [DOI:10.1111/ahe.12869]
42. Smith, B. D., Ahmed, B., Ali, M. E. and Braulik, G. (2001). Status of the ganges river dolphin or shushuk Platanista gangetica in Kaptai Lake and the southern rivers of Bangladesh. Oryx, 35: 61-72. [DOI:10.1046/j.1365-3008.2001.00153.x]
43. Smith, B. D., Braulik, G., Strindberg, S., Ahmed, B., and Mansur, R. (2006). Abundance of irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) and ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) estimated using concurrent counts made by independent teams in waterways of the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh. Marine Mammal Science, 22 (2): 527-547. [DOI:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2006.00041.x]
44. Sun, L., Rong, X., Liu, X., Yu, Z., Zhang, Q., Ren, W., Yang, G. and Xu, S. (2022). Evolutionary genetics of flipper forelimb and hindlimb loss from limb development-related genes in cetaceans. BMC Genomics, 23: 797. [DOI:10.1186/s12864-022-09024-3]
45. Turner, W. (1910). The morphology of the manus in Platanista gangetica, the Dolphin of the Ganges. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 30: 508-514. [DOI:10.1017/S0370164600030947]
46. Villanueva, M., Colin, R. M. and Fabila, G. S. (2015). Anatomy description of the five internal organs of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) through Plastinated Technique. International Journal of Morphology, 33 (2): 571-579. [DOI:10.4067/S0717-95022015000200026]
47. William, T. M. (1983). Locomotion in the North American mink, a semi-aquatic mammal: I. Swimming energetics and body drag. Journal of Experimental Biology, 103 (1): 155-168. [DOI:10.1242/jeb.103.1.155]
48. Zadravec, M., Maltar-Strmečki, N., Kužir, S., Mitak, M. and Duras, M. (2020). Aging-related histomorphometric changes in cortical bone tissue of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Zoomorphology, 139: 407-420. [DOI:10.1007/s00435-020-00487-0]
49. Zaniqueli, D., Alvim, R. de O., Baldo, M. P., Morra, E. A. and Mill, J. G. (2020). Muscle mass is the main somatic growth indicator associated with increasing blood pressure with age in children and adolescents. The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 22 (10): 1908-1914. [DOI:10.1111/jch.14007]
50. Zhang, Z. G. and Ge, D. Y. (2014). Postnatal ontogenetic size and shape changes in the craniums of plateau pika and woolly hare (Mammalia: Lagomorpha). Zoological Research, 35: 287-293.

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

  | Journal of Animal Diversity

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb