3/16/13 The History Of Mammals | Zafirov Biology

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The History Of Mammals
All the animals you see on this evogram are synapsids, the
group that gave rise to the mammals . Sometimes synapsids
are called mammal-like reptiles ; however, that is
misleading because synapsids are not reptiles . Synapsids
and reptiles are two distinct groups of amniotes, animals
that produce young that are enveloped with a membrane
called an amnion that prevents desiccation. All reptiles
(including birds) have eggs with amniotic membranes
(which some lay and others retain inside their bodies until
hatching). And of course all mammals (the clade of
synapsids still alive today) reproduce using an amnion, and
those that lay eggs (e.g., the platypus and echidna) produce
amniotic eggs.
Like birds, crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, amphibians,
and most fishes, the earliest synapsids had a bone in the
back of the skull on either side called the quadrate that
made the connection with the lower jaw via a bone called
the articular . But mammals today, including humans, use
two different bones, called the squamosal and the dentary,
to make this connection. How did this new jawbone
configuration evolve?

Skull of Probainognathus, an early synapsid.
For reasons we dont fully understand, several lineages of
synapsids including the one that would eventually give
rise to the mammals began to evolve changes in the jaw
joint. Originally the quadrate and articular bones formed
the jaw joint, but these synapsids (e.g., Probainognathus )
evolved a second pair of bones involved in the jaw
articulation . The squamosal bone was positioned alongside
the quadrate in the upper jaw, and the dentary was positioned alongside the articular in the lower jaw.
This unusual paired condition did not last long, though. Soon, the quadrate and articular lost their function in
jaw articulation and even their position in the jaw as they evolved. They became increasingly smaller and
eventually migrated into the ear region, where they became the hammer and anvil of the ear. So, over time,
the synapsids quadrate-articular jaw joint (which the rest of the tetrapods possess) was replaced by a dentary-
squamosal joint (which all living mammals possess), while the quadrate and articular migrated, shrank, and
became part of the complex of middle ear bones.
Evolution of the jaw joint in synapsids. Abbreviations used: a-articular, d-dentary, q-quadrate, s-squamosal.
Only in recent years has it become apparent that several lineages of synapsids, including mammals, replaced
their quadrate-articular jaw joint with a dentary-squamosal joint. We dont fully understand why these changes
happened. Some evidence suggests that the change in the quadrate-articular complex improved hearing. Other
evidence suggests that these changes were a byproduct of early mammals increasing brain size. These ideas are
3/16/13 The History Of Mammals | Zafirov Biology
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not mutually exclusive, of course, and more research
is needed. Whatever the functional advantages may
have been, the pattern of evolution in these features
clearly shows another example of exaptation: the
incorporation of the dentary and squamosal bones
into the jaw joint, originally alongside the quadrate
and articular, eventually allowed the latter two bones
to acquire a completely different function and to
leave the jaw articulation altogether.
Skull of Synapsida j : jugal p : parietal po :
postorbital q : quadrate qj : quadratojugal sq :
squamosal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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