The reptile-mammal jaw transition as revealed by 3D imaging, embryology, and computational biomechanics: new approaches to some age old questions.

通过对爬行动物祖先颌关节的生物力学“重新加工”，哺乳动物中耳发生了非凡的转变，这在哺乳动物的发育过程中也得到了再现，极大地提高了哺乳动物的进食和听力效率，这是哺乳动物成功故事的关键。基于最近的方法进步，该项目将采用尖端的二维协议来解释这种转变的机械细节。这包括整合第一个未扭曲的胚胎软组织证据，证明过渡颚的肌肉排列。通过大大改进传统的二维方法，该项目将保持澳大利亚在快速发展的虚拟生物力学领域的领先地位。

The extraordinary transformation of the mammalian middle ear through biomechanical 're-tooling' of the ancestral reptilian jaw joint, also recapitulated in mammalian development, yielded the greatly improved feeding and hearing efficiency that are key to the mammalian success story. Building on recent methodological advances, this project will employ cutting-edge two-dimensional protocols to explain these mechanical details of this transition. This includes integration of the first undistorted embryological soft-tissue evidence for muscular arrangements in the transitioning jaw. Through vastly improving on conventional two-dimensional approaches, the project will maintain Australia's leading position in the fast developing field of virtual biomechanics.