In the humerus, among other skeletal elements, a transformation from a terrestrial to a fossorial life style occurred, with the most specialized taxa showing a greatly different humeral shape [ 9].
Although the life histories of some crayfish (i.e., primary burrowers) are centered on a fossorial existence independent of surface water, all North American crayfish are viewed in an aquatic context.
While many studies have suggested that aetosaurs had a fossorial or burrowing lifestyle, aetosaurs have few of the characteristics that fossorial animals have as adaptations to digging.
Morphological shifts are mostly related to the reduction or loss of individual elements in functional complexes of the skeleton that may be related to the repeated evolution of a fossorial ecology.
The comparatively low PaO2 and high PaCO2 of these animals was a consequence of their adaptation to a fossorial environment.
The cross-section of Condylura is unique in that it displays a typical fossorial outline combined with a very round medullary cavity as present in semi-aquatic and terrestrial species.
The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is a widespread fossorial rodent in Europe with a polygynandrous mating system.
We test the hypothesis that compactness is higher in humeri in the most fossorial species due to the severe mechanical strains to which they are exposed to during digging.
In this study, we investigated the effects of landscape, host dispersal and demography (population abundance and phase of the fluctuation) on the distribution of a gastro-intestinal nematode Trichuris arvicolae in the fossorial water vole Arvicola terrestris sherman.
However, most of these studies focus on adaptations to an aquatic lifestyle [ 16, 19, 20, 23, 24]; in contrast studies of microanatomy in fossorial taxa are lacking.
