#hyoid

Neat little wolf-themed vial - wolf hyoid bone and brown-eyed wolf lichen! Available for $20 shipped to legal states.

The lower jaws, atlas bone (middle), and hyoid bones of a large whitetail buck found in the Hudson River.

They’re fresh out of maceration (letting them sit in water so bacteria can eat away any flesh still on them). The dark color is likely bacteria, maybe some kind of algae, I’m not sure. It should come out after I put them in hydrogen peroxide for a while.

Millions of years ago, an early relative of modern mammals had a tiny, saddle-shaped bony structure connected to the jaw. Today, that set of bones, called the hyoid, help all mammals to chew and swallow. Now scientists say the mammal hyoid may be one secret to our eventual success. It enabled mammals to spread into all the different ecological niches they occupy today.

Scientists Say: Niche

Microdocodon gracilis was a shrew-sized animal. It lived about 165 million years ago in east Asia. Chang-Fu Zhou led the team that examined an M. gracilis fossil. He’s a vertebrate paleontologist. He works at the Paleontological Museum of Liaoning in Shenyang, China. The team discovered that the fossil included a beautifully preserved hyoid. That structure bears a striking resemblance to the hyoids of modern mammals. The researchers reported their findings July 19 in Science.

Microdocodon gracilis, shown in this artist’s rendition, was likely an agile tree-dweller. Its teeth were ideal for chewing insects. The ability to chew different kinds of foods helped mammals survive in diverse ecological niches and may have been one secret to their eventual success. CREDIT: April I. Neander/Univ. of Chicago

When it comes to food, mammals have found ways to survive in many types of environments. Modern species have teeth specially adapted for their differing diets. Large carnivores like lions and tigers have sharp, cutting blades. Some small mammals have high cusps on their teeth to help crunch insects. Other species have ridge-packed teeth to help grind down plants.

But one thing all mammals have in common is that we chew. That breaks food into tiny pieces before swallowing. That’s unlike, say, reptiles. Those animals swallow food whole, says Zhe-Xi Luo. He’s a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Also, mammals’ mouths, throats and tongues are designed to be flexible and strong enough to suckle milk. This is a defining trait of mammals.

“The food transport and the swallowing of the chewed-up food is all controlled by muscle related to this highly mobile bone” called the hyoid, Luo says.

This Week in Dinosaur News: Researchers determine which dinosaurs could stick out their tongues, new dinosaur exhibits, and more

“Convergent evolution of a mobile bony tongue in flighted dinosaurs and pterosaurs” By Zhiheng Li, Zhonghe Zhou, Julia A. Clarke, PLOS One, Retrieved 7/4/2018

  Here’s what came out this week in dinosaur news:

Researchers looked at dinosaur hyoid bones to guess what their tongues may have been like

When The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History dinosaur hall reopens it will allow…

Millions of years ago, an early relative of modern mammals had a tiny, saddle-shaped bony structure connected to the jaw. Today, that set of bones, called the hyoid, help all mammals to chew and swallow. Now scientists say the mammal hyoid may be one secret to our eventual success. It enabled mammals to spread into all the different ecological niches they occupy today.

Scientists Say: Niche

Microdocodon gracilis was a shrew-sized animal. It lived about 165 million years ago in east Asia. Chang-Fu Zhou led the team that examined an M. gracilis fossil. He’s a vertebrate paleontologist. He works at the Paleontological Museum of Liaoning in Shenyang, China. The team discovered that the fossil included a beautifully preserved hyoid. That structure bears a striking resemblance to the hyoids of modern mammals. The researchers reported their findings July 19 in Science.

Microdocodon gracilis, shown in this artist’s rendition, was likely an agile tree-dweller. Its teeth were ideal for chewing insects. The ability to chew different kinds of foods helped mammals survive in diverse ecological niches and may have been one secret to their eventual success. CREDIT: April I. Neander/Univ. of Chicago

When it comes to food, mammals have found ways to survive in many types of environments. Modern species have teeth specially adapted for their differing diets. Large carnivores like lions and tigers have sharp, cutting blades. Some small mammals have high cusps on their teeth to help crunch insects. Other species have ridge-packed teeth to help grind down plants.

But one thing all mammals have in common is that we chew. That breaks food into tiny pieces before swallowing. That’s unlike, say, reptiles. Those animals swallow food whole, says Zhe-Xi Luo. He’s a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Also, mammals’ mouths, throats and tongues are designed to be flexible and strong enough to suckle milk. This is a defining trait of mammals.

“The food transport and the swallowing of the chewed-up food is all controlled by muscle related to this highly mobile bone” called the hyoid, Luo says.