Opposites Attract

The study for this week looked at the distal forelimb musculature of the genus of lizards Liolaemus, which includes a particular species of sand lizard Liolaemus wiegmannii (Abdala and Moro 2006). I thought it would be interesting to compare their analysis with my own of the iguana considering their two very different forms of locomotion -- digging and walking in the sand vs. climb trees and swimming. The study went through all of the muscles in what we would call the forearm -- extensor carpi radialis, extensor digitorum, extensor carpi ulnaris, flexor carpi ulnaris, flexor digitorum (palmaris longus), flexor carpi radialis, as well as the muscles of the manus, which I did not analyze in the iguana. 

The article went through and wrote up muscle descriptions similar to how I wrote up muscle descriptions, commenting on the origin, insertion, and any other features of note. As I went through, I noticed there were slight differences between the two species, but nothing of particular note. I found this a little odd, considering the differences between iguanas and sand lizards, until I got to the conclusion of the article. It basically said that the general morphology of the forelimbs in lizards remains consistent across species. That because the set up is so general, it is easily used for many different forms of locomotion, and nothing is required to specialize over much. This is interesting because often times people study the specialization of species, why their musculature is different from everyone else and why this matters. But in this case, it's really the opposite. 


AA
Abdala, Virginia and Silvia Moro. "Comparative Myology of the Forelimb of Liolaemus Sand Lizards (Liolaemidae)." Acta Zoologica(2006) 87.1: 1-12. Web. 19 Apr 2012.