Views on the Form-Function Correlation and Biological Design
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Views on the Form-Function Correlation and Biological Design Sergio F. Vizcaíno 1,2
&
M. Susana Bargo 1,3
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The linkage between form and function is a fascinating field for intellectual analysis and contemplation in natural sciences by naturalists, biologists, anatomists, as well as philosophers and theologians. In the early nineteenth century, creationists’ approaches (Cuvier-Paley) helped to install the idea of a form-function binomial that gained scientific status in the second half of that century when it was contextualized within the framework of evolution by natural selection. In the mid-twentieth century, W.J. Bock and G. von Wahlert settled the modern basis for the elucidation of adaptation based on morphology, function, environment, and their interconnections. The paleontologist Leonard Burton Radinsky made significant contributions to the development of form-function studies. Also, his posthumously published book The Evolution of Vertebrate Design (1987), inspired many young biologists to embrace form-function approaches. Radinsky emphasized the importance of looking for the behaviors or functions that are actually correlated with a particular anatomical form in living species, together with a biomechanical design analysis as looking at that anatomical structure from a biomechanical or engineering perspective. Field biology research and testing form-function correlation should be a prerequisite in adaptation research programs. Keywords Radinsky . Morphology . Biomechanics . Adaptation . Mammals
Introduction The observable intersection between form and function has long been one of the most fascinating fields of study, intellectual analysis, and contemplation in the natural sciences, particularly by naturalists, biologists, and anatomists, as well as, albeit from different intellectual perspectives, among philosophers and theologians. Probably the earliest known treatise on the topic comes from Ancient Greece. In the sixth century BC, Aristotle wrote De Motu animalium (On animal movement),
* Sergio F. Vizcaíno [email protected] M. Susana Bargo [email protected] 1
División Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Unidades de Investigación Anexo Museo, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Av. 60 y 122, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
2
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
3
Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas (CIC), Buenos Aires, Argentina
in which animal bodies were treated as mechanical systems. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) paid special attention to human and animal body proportions and how movement was achieved. For understanding movement and applying it to his art, he explored thoroughly and systematically the underlying principles of movement (Capra 2007). The topic also was taken up by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679), the Napolitan physiologist, physicist, and mathematician. Clearly inspired by Aristo
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