EEB Thesis Defense: Fancy Feet: An Ecomorphological Assessment of the Terminal Phalanx in Order Artiodactyla

About: In the study of artiodactyl paleoecology, the teeth as well as the calcaneus and astragalus in the hind foot are often assessed for insights into diet and locomotion. However, when it comes to assessing the substrate use of an organism, bones directly in contact with the substrate may be more informative than other postcranial elements. Understanding the link between organismal form and function in extant species is an important foundation for making inferences about related fossil organisms. Using 2D geometric morphometric analysis, I measured the shape of the terminal phalanx across seven Artiodactyl families to evaluate the relationship between morphology and habitat use and develop a framework for relating phalanx shape to environmental conditions.
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