Muscular and Skeletal Anomalies in Human Trisomy in an Evo-Devo Context PDF

Preface

The seemingly endless forms of life that inhabit our world inspire in us a deep-felt wonder. Could the variety we see before us be directed through mechanisms that can be illuminated through their own errors? The study of abnormal development, such as human trisomy and cyclopia, allows us to explore the mysteries and mechanisms behind normal evolutionary and developmental processes and can provide insight into how morphology changes throughout evolution. By studying the abnormal, we can determine the "normal" morphological and developmental mechanisms in comparison with the associated genetic conditions, better understand the correlations between phenotype and genotype, and explore the applications and implications of these data for medicine and public health. This book is one of the fi rst of a new scientifi c area named "Evolutionary Developmental Anthropology"; specifi cally, in this book in human birth defects, rather than mutants of nonhuman model organisms, are studied to explore both normal and abnormal developmental and evolutionary mechanisms, processes and patterns. Moreover, this multidisciplinary work combines scientifi c research lead by Rui Diogo, a multi-awarded investigator, with state-of-the-art anatomical and medical illustrations and 3D imaging, done by two of the more brilliant—and also multiawarded—young illustrators in the US, Christopher Smith and Julia Molnar. By focusing on both muscular and skeletal birth defects in humans with trisomy and cyclopia, including Down syndrome—one of the most studied human syndromes that, due to its high incidence and the fact that individuals with this syndrome often live until adulthood, is of special interest to the scientifi c and medical community—, this book is of interest to a wide audience, including medical researchers, physicians, surgeons, medical and dental students, pathologists, and pediatricians, among others, while also being of interest to developmental and evolutionary biologists, anatomists, functional morphologists, and zoologists.