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V. Louise Roth

Professor of Biology
Biology
Duke Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708-0338
241 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications


Different transformations underlie blowhole and nasal passage development in a toothed whale (Odontoceti: Stenella attenuata) and a baleen whale (Mysticeti: Balaenoptera physalus).

Journal Article Journal of anatomy · November 2021 Reorientation of the nasal passage away from the anteroposterior axis has evolved rarely in mammals. Unlike other mammals, cetaceans (e.g., whales, dolphins, and porpoises) have evolved a "blowhole": posteriorly repositioned nares that open dorsad. Accompa ... Full text Cite

Different developmental transformations underly blowhole orientation in a toothed whale (Odontoceti: Stenella attenuata) and a baleen whale (Mysticeti: Balaenoptera physalus)

Conference The FASEB Journal · April 2020 Although the external bony nares have become posteriorly repositioned in the evolution of numerous groups of mammals (e.g. elephants, tapirs), reorientation of the nasal passage away from the anteroposterior axis has evolved rarely. In cetacean (wh ... Full text Cite

Cetacean Skull Telescoping Brings Evolution of Cranial Sutures into Focus.

Journal Article Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · July 2019 Many modifications to the mammalian bauplan associated with the obligate aquatic lives of cetaceans-fusiform bodies, flukes, flippers, and blowholes-are evident at a glance. But among the most strikingly unusual and divergent features of modern cetacean an ... Full text Cite

Biodiversity and Topographic Complexity: Modern and Geohistorical Perspectives.

Journal Article Trends in ecology & evolution · March 2017 Topographically complex regions on land and in the oceans feature hotspots of biodiversity that reflect geological influences on ecological and evolutionary processes. Over geologic time, topographic diversity gradients wax and wane over millions of years, ... Full text Cite

A framework for detecting natural selection on traits above the species level

Journal Article Methods in Ecology and Evolution · March 1, 2016 To what extent can natural selection act on groupings above the species level? Despite extensive theoretical discussion and growing practical concerns over increased rates of global ecological turnover, the question has largely evaded empirical resolution. ... Full text Cite

The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016 Large mammalian terrestrial herbivores, such as elephants, have dramatic effects on the ecosystems they inhabit and at high population densities their environmental impacts can be devastating. Pleistocene terrestrial ecosystems included a much greater dive ... Link to item Cite

Mainland size variation informs predictive models of exceptional insular body size change in rodents

Journal Article Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences · June 17, 2015 The tendency for island populations of mammalian taxa to diverge in body size from their mainland counterparts consistently in particular directions is both impressive for its regularity and, especially among rodents, troublesome for its exceptions. Howeve ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Macroecology of animal body size

Other BioScience (BioOne) · 2014 Cite

Examining factors influencing body size change for insular rodents

Conference INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY · April 2013 Link to item Cite

Noninvasive histological comparison of bone growth patterns among fossil and extant neonatal elephantids using synchrotron radiation X-ray microtomography

Journal Article Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology · July 1, 2012 How is the bone tissue in skeletal supports of a neonatal elephant organized, and how does this histological structure differ among the neonates of modern species, mammoths, and insular dwarfs? We used synchrotron X-ray microtomography (SR-CT) to obtain hi ... Full text Cite

Tempo of trophic evolution and its impact on mammalian diversification.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · May 2012 Mammals are characterized by the complex adaptations of their dentition, which are an indication that diet has played a critical role in their evolutionary history. Although much attention has focused on diet and the adaptations of specific taxa, the role ... Full text Cite

Classification tree methods provide a multifactorial approach to predicting insular body size evolution in rodents.

Journal Article The American naturalist · April 2012 Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain size changes in insular mammals, but no single variable suffices to explain the diversity of responses, particularly within Rodentia. Here in a data set on insular rodents, we observe strong consistency in the ... Full text Cite

Scaling and mechanics of carnivoran footpads reveal the principles of footpad design.

Journal Article Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · August 2010 In most mammals, footpads are what first strike ground with each stride. Their mechanical properties therefore inevitably affect functioning of the legs; yet interspecific studies of the scaling of locomotor mechanics have all but neglected the feet and th ... Full text Cite

RNase 1 genes from the family Sciuridae define a novel rodent ribonuclease cluster.

Journal Article Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · November 2009 The RNase A ribonucleases are a complex group of functionally diverse secretory proteins with conserved enzymatic activity. We have identified novel RNase 1 genes from four species of squirrel (order Rodentia, family Sciuridae). Squirrel RNase 1 genes enco ... Full text Cite

Differing rates of macroevolutionary diversification in arboreal squirrels

Journal Article Current Science · October 10, 2008 Current diversity is the result of macroevolutionary processes of origination and extinction of lineages through time. Here we make use of a fossil-calibrated molecular-clock phylogeny of modern squirrel genera to estimate both rates of 'birth' and 'death' ... Cite

The evolution of sexual size dimorphism in cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus, Leporidae)

Journal Article Biological Journal of the Linnean Society · 2008 In mammals, ‘female-biased’ sexual size dimorphism (SSD), in which females are larger than males, is uncommon. In the present study, we examined Sylvilagus, a purported case of female-biased SSD, for evolutionary correlations among species between SSD, bod ... Cite

Variation and versatility in macroevolution

Chapter · 2005 Studies of macroevolutionary change are uniquely focused on events and processes that require time, including events that occur infrequently (or just once), or processes that are long in duration. With respect to phenotypic variation, macroevolution is typ ... Full text Cite

The effects of Cenozoic global change on squirrel phylogeny.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · March 2003 By modifying habitats and creating bridges and barriers between landmasses, climate change and tectonic events are believed to have important consequences for diversification of terrestrial organisms. Such consequences should be most evident in phylogeneti ... Full text Cite

Character replication

Chapter · 2001 Cite

Morphometrics in development and evolution

Journal Article American Zoologist · January 1, 2000 SYNOPSIS. Morphometric approaches facilitate the analysis of quantitative variation in form, typically becoming most useful for the study of organisms that have completed morphogenesis and arc at differing stages of growth. Recent conceptual and technical ... Full text Cite

Pygmy mammoths Mammuthus exilis from Channel Islands National Park, California (USA)

Journal Article Deinsea: Annual of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam · 1999 Cite

Homology

Other Novartis Foundation Symposium #222 · 1999 Cite

Morphometrics in development and evolution.

Conference AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST · January 1, 1999 Link to item Cite

Homoplasy: the recurrence of similarity in evolution

Other American Scientist: the Magazine of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society · 1998 Cite

Homology and developmental genes.

Journal Article Trends in genetics : TIG · November 1997 Full text Cite

Scaling of the mandible in squirrels.

Journal Article Journal of morphology · May 1997 We compared the shape of the mandible among New World tree squirrels and selected outgroup taxa using linear measurements and areas defined by the median axis and conventional anatomical landmarks. We modified the median axis technique to define novel meas ... Full text Cite

Coat color genetics of Peromyscus: V. California blonde, a new recessive mutation in the deer mouse.

Journal Article The Journal of heredity · September 1996 California blonde is a coat color mutation in the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) discovered among descendants of wild-type animals collected on Santa Cruz Island, California. The phenotype is produced by the presence of brown, rather than black, eumel ... Full text Cite

Cranial integration in the sciuridae

Journal Article American Zoologist · January 1, 1996 SYNOPSIS. High correlations among measurements of the cranium in the fox squirrel suggested to Olson and Miller (1958) that the skull in this species is highly integrated: that is, it tends to vary as a unit, and without clear subdivision into discrete ind ... Full text Cite

Jaw muscles of New World squirrels.

Journal Article Journal of morphology · June 1995 The jaw, suprahyoid, and extrinsic tongue muscles are described for eight species of New World squirrels, spanning more than an order of magnitude in body mass. Anatomical differences are discussed in the light of body size, natural history, and phylogeny. ... Full text Cite

Quantitative variation in elephant dentitions: Implications for the delimitation of fossil species

Journal Article Paleobiology · January 1, 1992 Dental measurements are commonly used in the diagnosis of fossil elephant species, yet elephant teeth develop slowly, within a highly dynamic context that enhances opportunities for physical deformation (or its subtler manifestation, quantitative phenotypi ... Full text Cite

Inferences from allometry and fossils: dwarfing of elephants on islands

Journal Article Oxford surveys in evolutionary biology. Vol. 8 · January 1, 1992 Introduces the "island rule' for mammalian body size: the tendency of small mammals to enlarge and carnivores and ungulates to dwarf. For large mammals, resource limitation favours smaller body size; the genetic background to this is reviewed. Occurrence o ... Cite

Homology and hierarchies: Problems solved and unresolved

Journal Article Journal of Evolutionary Biology · January 1, 1991 Homology as a topic in phylogenetic analysis has to do with what is conserved in evolution. The problem of homology in systematics — to find homologues, and in so doing, to identify taxa — is distinct from the problem of identifying what kinds of features ... Full text Cite

On evolution and fossil mammals

Other American Scientist: the Magazine of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society · 1989 Cite

Fabricational noise in elephant dentitions

Journal Article Paleobiology · January 1, 1989 A marked retardation of dental ontogeny characterizes the family Elephantidae. As a consequence of this retardation, elephant teeth are subject to the forces of mastication, eruption, and progression while still in a developing and pliant stage. As specime ... Full text Cite

Fossil mammoths from Santa Cruz Island, California

Journal Article Quaternary Research · January 1, 1984 Mammoth remains on Santa Cruz Island, one of the four Northern Channel Islands of California, are very sparse, in marked contrast to those reported from Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands of the same island group. A probable major reason for this scarcity i ... Full text Cite

On homology

Journal Article Biological Journal of the Linnean Society · January 1, 1984 The currently most widely used definitions of homology, which concentrate exclusively on what I call phylogenetic homology, involve comparisons between taxa. Although they share important conceptual relationships with phylogenetic homology and their role i ... Full text Cite

Relative brain size among African squirrels.

Journal Article Journal of Mammalogy · 1982 Cite

Constancy in the size ratios of sympatric species.

Journal Article American Naturalist · 1981 Cite