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LACM Mammals - Dipodomys deserti limbs Project ID: 000435986 Public
0 Media · Creator: Shannen Robson · Managed by: Trina Roberts, Shannen Robson, Kayce Bell, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

This research focuses on understanding patterns of limb asymmetry in vertebrates, particularly in the context of locomotion, based on a morpho-functional hypothesis of symmetry, the idea that within an individual, more functionally important structures should be more symmetric when that function could impact fitness. The functional connection that I make is between limb symmetry and locomotor performance. Specifically, I’ve been conducting a series of studies that predict that in four-limbed vertebrates, the more important limb set (with respect to locomotion) should display higher levels of symmetry. I have previously found that hindlimbs in frogs (Didde and Rivera, 2019) and turtles (Rivera and Neely, 2020) are more symmetrical than forelimbs, both studies thus supporting this idea.

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