Editorial: Tetrapod water-land transition: Reconstructing soft tissue anatomy and function

Molnar J.L., Diogo R., Boisvert C.A., Werneburg I.

Editorial: Tetrapod water-land transition: Reconstructing soft tissue anatomy and function

2022

Frontiers Media SA

Ecology
Evolution
Amniote
Fin-limb transition
Soft tissue reconstruction
Terrestriality
Tetrapod

English

Thanks to new methods of modeling and analysis, we are discovering much more about movement, sensation, and feeding in animals that span the tetrapod water-land transition and the origin of amniotes. As investigations of function in extinct animals become more complex and rigorous, the need to take soft tissues into account becomes more pressing. For example, biomechanical simulations of locomotion in early tetrapods rely on assumptions about their muscles and cartilages that come from living animals. Thus, the drive to learn more about our ancient relatives leads us to ask new questions about the relationships between hard and soft tissues over development and evolution. How did early land vertebrates transition from aquatic to terrestrial feeding? How did muscle anatomy and development change during the transformation from fins to limbs in tetrapods and with the loss of metamorphosis in amniotes? In this Research Topic, researchers approach these questions using fossils, biomechanical models, observation of living animals, and new imaging modalities that allow us to view embryonic development and adult anatomy in unprecedented detail.

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