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Olfaction written in bone: Cribriform plate size parallels olfactory receptor gene repertoires in Mammalia Project ID: 00000C415 Public
68 Media · 25 Specimens · Managed by: Deborah Bird

The evolution of mammalian olfaction is manifested in a remarkable diversity of gene repertoires, neuroanatomy, and skull morphology across living species. Olfactory receptor genes (ORG), which initiate the conversion of odorant molecules into odor perceptions and help an animal resolve the olfactory world, range in number from a mere handful to several thousand genes across species. Within the snout, each of these ORGs is exclusively expressed by a discrete population of olfactory sensory neurons (OSN), suggesting that newly evolved ORGs may be coupled with new OSN populations in the nasal epithelium. Because OSNs axon bundles leave high-fidelity perforations (foramina) in the bone as they traverse the cribriform plate (CP) to reach the brain, we predicted that taxa with larger ORG repertoires would have proportionately expanded footprints in the CP foramina. We report here a striking linear correlation between relative CP area and number of functional ORGs across species from all mammalian superorders. This correlation suggests strong developmental links in the olfactory pathway between genes, neurons, and skull morphology. Furthermore, because ORG number is known to be linked to olfactory discriminatory function, the correlation found here supports relative CP size as a viable metric for inferring olfactory capacity across modern and extinct species.

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Identifier Taxonomy Total Media Date Added Source
UCLA:Mammals:6994 Rattus norvegicus 2 2018-05-17  iDigBio
LACM:Mammals:58376 Erinaceus europaeus 4 2018-05-17  iDigBio
LACM:Mammals:58375 Erinaceus europaeus 2 2018-05-17  iDigBio
LACM:Mammals:52471 Loxodonta africana 5 2018-05-17  iDigBio
LACM:Mammals:46145 Dasypus novemcinctus 4 2018-05-17  iDigBio
LACM:Mammals:8157 Tupaia belangeri 4 2018-05-17  iDigBio
MVZ:Mamm:MVZ:Mamm:179796 Sorex araneus 2 2018-04-16  iDigBio
UCLA:Mammals:9452 Rattus norvegicus 2 2018-04-13  iDigBio
MVZ:Mamm:MVZ:Mamm:116834 Pteropus vampyrus malaccensis 4 2018-04-13  iDigBio
UCLA:Mammals:17230 Ochotona princeps cuppes 4 2018-04-13  iDigBio
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