Brian Beatty

New York Institute of Technology | NYIT · Department of Anatomy

Fingerprints, otherwise known as dermatoglyphs, are most commonly thought of in the context of identification, but have myriad other roles in human biology. They are formed by the restricted ability of ridges and furrows of the epidermis to flatten. The patterns these ridges and furrows make can be represented as 2D fingerprints, but also as 3D str...

Objective We have previously demonstrated that subendothelial calcification accelerates atherosclerosis in mice. This study addresses a mechanism by which subendothelial calcifications can increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL) uptake into the arterial wall. Methods Mice overexpressing tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) in endothelial...

Background: Human skin texture has yet to be quantified for diagnostic purposes. Here, the surface metrology of seborrheic keratoses is investigated with an optical profiler. Materials and Methods: Dermatologic specimens of 7 cadavers were prepared. Specimens were molded with polyvinyl siloxane and casts prepared with resin, which were scanned usin...

Coronodon includes species of basal toothed mysticetes that were initially interpreted as engaging in raptorial feeding and dental filtration. Here, the feeding of this extinct genus is revisited based on recently described specimens and species. Associations between tooth position and types of dental wear were tested, and evidence for feeding beha...

Objectives: Human skin texture has yet to be quantified for diagnostic purposes. Here, the surface metrology of seborrheic keratoses is investigated with an optical profiler. Methods: Dermatologic specimens of 7 cadavers were prepared. Specimens were molded with polyvinyl siloxane and casts prepared with resin, which were scanned using a 3D white l...

Objectives: Human skin texture has yet to be quantified for diagnostic purposes. Here, the surface metrology of seborrheic keratoses is investigated with an optical profiler. Methods: Dermatologic specimens of 7 cadavers were prepared. Specimens were molded with polyvinyl siloxane and casts prepared with resin, which were scanned using a 3D white l...

The weird-looking tubular-snouted camels known as floridatragulines have been a controversial group ever since the first specimens were found in the 1930s. We describe only the second known skull of Floridatragulus dolicanthereus, which gives us a better understanding of the cranial anatomy and proof of association of the jaws and skull, because th...

Objective Beau’s lines, onychorrhexis, and psoriatic lesions of the dorsal nail plate may be missed by photographic methods, indicating a need for surface texture measurement methods that are more quantitative, sensitive, and repeatable than visual inspection or imaging. We conducted this study to evaluate the utility of surface texture measurement...

The North Pacific rim was home to an extinct group of semiaquatic marine mammals, the order Desmostylia, which superficially resembled hippos. Desmostylians are an uncommon fossil vertebrate in most localities where they occur, and Oligocene taxa particularly so. Beyond the type dentition and two femora of Cornwallius sookensis, and the skull and p...

Explaining the Process on the Use of Surface Metrology

The placental skull has evolved into myriad forms, from longirostrine whales to globular primates, and with a diverse array of appendages from antlers to tusks. This disparity has recently been studied from the perspective of the whole skull, but the skull is composed of numerous elements that have distinct developmental origins and varied function...

Birds encompass vast ecomorphological diversity and practise numerous distinct locomotor modes. One oft-cited feature seen in climbing birds is an increase in tail ‘stiffness’, yet it remains unclear to what extent these feathers are altered, and the specific mechanism by which differences in functional performance are attained. We collected a broa...

Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are gigantic filter-feeding cetaceans possessing the unique soft tissue structure baleen and lacking adult teeth; Oligocene fossils have revealed a wealth of early diverging tooth-bearing mysticetes highlighting the transition from archaeocete ancestors to early toothless baleen-bearing eomysticetid whales. The archaeocete...

Teeth are often the first structures that anatomists and paleontologists examine to understand the ecology and morphology of feeding, both because teeth are highly specialized structures that provide precise information, and because they are among the best and most commonly preserved fossils. Unfortunately, many fragmentary fossil and recent specim...

Atherosclerotic lesions within carotid and cerebral vessels are likely to influence hemodynamics and manifest into vascular pathologies, including Alzheimers Disease and ischemic stroke. Hemodynamics are influenced by changes in luminal diameter of vessels and wall shear stress derived from turbulence, which directly relates to the surface topograp...

The Cenozoic diversification of placental mammals is the archetypal adaptive radiation. Yet, discrepancies between molecular divergence estimates and the fossil record fuel ongoing debate around the timing, tempo, and drivers of this radiation. Analysis of a three-dimensional skull dataset for living and extinct placental mammals demonstrates that...

The Lufeng locality of China was a major biodiversity hotspot for sauropods and tritylodontids during the Early Jurassic. We describe a partly crushed cranium with complete dentition and dentaries from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China that we refer to Lufengia. The upper postcanine row length is 10.27 mm, representing one of the smalles...

Dental microwear is used to investigate feeding ecology. Animals ingest geological material in addition to food. The full effect of geological abrasives on tooth wear is unknown. To evaluate mineralogical abrasives as tooth wear agents, rats were fed food manufactured with quartz silt, diatomaceous earth, and calcium carbonate. Rats were assigned t...

The evolution of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) represents one of the most extreme adaptive transitions known, from terrestrial mammals to a highly specialized aquatic radiation that includes the largest animals alive today. Many anatomical shifts in this transition involve the feeding, respiratory, and sensory structures of the cranium, which we...

Manual therapies in medicine rely on a physician’s ability to sense and respond to tactile cues from their hands to inform them of symptoms within the patient. Sensory cues through skin may not be equally sensitive among all people, and little is known about the variation in distribution of sensory corpuscles in the human hand. Variation of corpusc...

CT-scans of a cetacean pathological vertebra from the Calvert Formation of the Miocene Chesapeake Group of Maryland, show features characteristic of a shear-compression fracture with comminution and significant periosteal reaction. The etiology of the injury suggests an intense hyperflexion of vertebrae in at least the lumbar region of the axial co...

Objectives Textural differences between entheses reflect biomechanical activities of the musculoskeletal system. Methods used to measure these surfaces have limitations. Here, the surface metrology of roughness of articular and entheseal surfaces of the knee are investigated with an optical profiler. Methods Osteological specimens of six femora an...

Relative brain size has long been considered a reflection of cognitive capacities and has played a fundamental role in developing core theories in the life sciences. Yet, the notion that relative brain size validly represents selection on brain size relies on the untested assumptions that brain-body allometry is restrained to a stable scaling relat...

Relative brain size has long been considered a reflection of cognitive capacities and has played a fundamental role in developing core theories in the life sciences. Yet, the notion that relative brain size validly represents selection on brain size relies on the untested assumptions that brain-body allometry is restrained to a stable scaling relat...

Modern whales and dolphins are superbly adapted for marine life, with tail flukes being a key innovation shared by all extant species. Some dolphins can exceed speeds of 50 km/h, a feat accomplished by thrusting the flukes while adjusting attack angle with their flippers [1]. These movements are driven by robust axial musculature anchored to a rela...

Stegosiren macei, a new genus and species of halitheriine dugongid from the mid-Oligocene of South Carolina, U.S.A. (Ashley and Chandler Bridge formations, late Rupelian–late Chattian), represents a stage of halitheriine evolution more derived than that of the Old World early Oligocene Eosiren imenti and Halitherium schinzii, but slightly less deri...

Atherosclerosis is an important indicator for future pathological conditions such as stroke, peripheral artery disease, and coronary ischemic events. Though it is known that atherosclerosis does not present in the systemic circulation evenly, detailed studies of many vascular regions are lacking. In this study, we analyze the atherosclerotic distri...

Dental microwear studies often analyze casts rather than original surfaces, although the information loss associated with reproduction is rarely considered. To investigate the sensitivity of high magnification (150x) microwear analysis to common surface replication materials and methods, we compared areal surface texture parameters (ISO 25178-2) an...

Odontocetes (toothed whales) have amongst the most radically altered skull of any mammal, but no study has tested how these modifications have altered its phenotypic integration. Here, we perform the first rigorous assessment of modularity in Delphinus delphis, using a combination of cluster analysis, covariance ratio tests and maximum-likelihood m...

Background: Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease that contributes significantly to cardiovascular mortality. Arterial stiffening due to calcification can coexist with or directly influence pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We hypothesize that arteriosclerosis caused by genetically engineered calcification in mice redistributes shear stress on...

Here, we report a new ‘discovery’ of a desmostylian fossil in the geological collection at a national university in Japan. This fossil was unearthed over 60 years ago and donated to the university. Owing to the original hand-written note kept with the fossil in combination with interview investigation, we were able to reach two equally possible fos...

Odontocete (echolocating whale) skulls exhibit extreme posterior displacement and overlapping of facial bones, here referred to as retrograde cranial telescoping. To examine retrograde cranial telescoping across 40 million years of whale evolution, we collected 3D scans of whale skulls spanning odontocete evolution. We used a sliding semilandmark m...

As the largest known vertebrates of all time, mysticetes depend on keratinous sieves called baleen to capture enough small prey to sustain their enormous size [ 1 ]. The origins of baleen are controversial: one hypothesis suggests that teeth were lost during a suction-feeding stage of mysticete evolution and that baleen evolved thereafter [ 2–4 ],...

Atherosclerosis is a stronger predictor for ischemic cardiovascular events than traditional risk factors such as race, age, sex, history, and metabolic profile. Previous research had primarily used ultrasound; however, we performed a study using histopathology to more accurately grade atherosclerosis development using the American Heart Association...

New nephron formation (nephrogenesis) ceases in mammals around birth and is completely absent in adults. In contrast, postembryonic nephrogenesis is well documented in the mesonephric kidneys of fishes and amphibians. The transient mesonephros in reptiles (including birds) and mammals is replaced by the metanephros during embryogenesis. Thus, one m...

Monotreme adult kidney histology. (A-B) Adult kidney sections from Tachyglossus aculeatus (short-beaked echidna) obtained from two individual specimens stained with H&E. (C-D) Sections of adult kidney tissue isolated from Ornithorhynchus anatinus (platypus). In all images, the outer cortex and renal capsule are shown. No evidence of nephrogenesis w...

Examples of kidney histology in specimens that did not show evidence of adult nephrogenesis. (A) G. gecko, (B) A. carolinensis, (C) L. burtonis. The specimens of gekkota were limited. Therefore, we believe the negative results are inconclusive. In contrast, of eleven examined specimens of A. carolinensis, none showed evidence of nephrogenesis by hi...

Six2 in Alligator mississippiensis. (A) Amino acid alignment of Six2 proteins from human and American alligator (XM_006272170). Red color indicates identical residues, dashes represent amino acid stretches present in one but not the other species, and blue indicates non-conserved residues. Six2 proteins from human and American alligator share over...

Species collected for analysis with corresponding body mass/length. (DOC)

Lower power images demonstrating new nephron formation in A. mississippiensis. (A) corresponds to higher power images in Fig 2E and 2G, (B) corresponds to Fig 2F. Scale bars = 100 μm. (TIF)

Gross morphology of nephrogenic zones along renal lobes of the adult American alligator. Nephrogenic zones appear as opaque lines running along the periphery of each renal lobe (arrows). Inset: magnification of nephrogenic zones highlight by dotted lines. (TIF)

Lack of Six2 antibody staining in adult kidneys of Anolis carolinensis. (XM_003225172). (A) Negative Six2 antibody staining (compare to Fig 6A and 6J). (B) Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) staining (used here as a non-specific fluorescent counter-stain). (C) The result of merging (A) and (B). Scale bar = 50 μm. (TIF)

Lower power images demonstrating zones of nephrogenesis (corresponding to Fig 1). (A) A. mississippiensis (Fig 1A), (B) T. scripta (Fig 1B), (C) C. picta (Fig 1C), (D) T. teguxin (Fig 1D), (E) U. aegyptia (Fig 1E), (F) B. constrictor (Fig 1F). Arrows point to zones of nephrogenesis. Scale bar = 100 μm. (TIF)

Ontogenetic sequence and life stage determination among the desmostylians are poorly understood and known mostly from the study of dental eruption. Advanced-age life stages are nearly unknown. New material of an individual Desmostylus from the late middle to late Miocene of Orange County, California, represents the most ontogenetically advanced des...

A partial articulated skeleton of a desmostylian was found in siltstone of the Sooke Formation in the streambed at the mouth of the Sombrio River in Juan De Fuca Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Another exposure of the Sooke Formation southeast of the locality has been dated to Chron C6Cr age, 24.1–24.8 Ma. This specimen...

Vascular Histopathological Associations with Atherosclerosis

Teleosauridae was a group of largely marine Mesozoic crocodylomorphs, typically considered as akin to "marine gavials" due to their elongate, tubular, polydont rostra that are indicative of a piscivorous diet. Here we show that these extinct crocodylomorphs were more anatomically, and perhaps ecologically, varied than previously thought. We report...

The pterygoid of Mosasaurus hoffmani has been examined in regards to tooth replacement and attachment, but no images of histological sections of the element with teeth in situ are widely known. Here, we present histological sections of the right pterygoid of the very closely related M. maximus (NJSM 11053, one of two classic, largely complete skull...

Oral mucosa demonstrates regional variations that reflect contact with food during mastication. Though known qualitatively, our aim was to quantitatively assess regions to establish a measurable baseline from which one could compare in pathological and comparative studies, in which the abrasiveness of diets may differ.We assessed variations in the...

Current research suggests that retinal arterial changes such as arteriovenous nicking and arterial narrowing are pathologically distinct from atherosclerosis. Other studies have found a positive correlation between retinal changes and systemic atherosclerosis. However, limited recent histopathologic evidence assessing atherosclerosis in the central...

Several extinct sperm whales (stem Physeteroidea) were recently proposed to differ markedly in their feeding ecology from the suction-feeding modern sperm whales Kogia and Physeter. Based on cranial, mandibular, and dental morphology, these Miocene forms were tentatively identified as macroraptorial feeders, able to consume proportionally large pre...

A new dromomerycine palaeomerycid artiodactyl, Surameryx acrensis new genus new species, from upper Miocene deposits of the Amazon Basin documents the first and only known occurrence of this Northern Hemisphere group in South America. Osteological characters place the new taxon among the earliest known dromomerycine artiodactyls, most similar to Ba...

Modern porpoises (Odontoceti: Phocoenidae) are some of the smallest cetaceans and usually feed near the seafloor on small fish and cephalopods [1-3]. Within both extinct and extant phocoenids, no evidence for specialized mandibular morphology has been documented [4-7]. Here we describe a new species of extinct porpoise, Semirostrum ceruttii, from t...

Teeth of the small durophagous mosasaur Carinodens belgicus are known from Maastrichtian Atlantic-Tethyan deposits worldwide. The peculiar dentition of Carinodens inspired debate and speculation on its dietary niche ever since its first description. In this contribution, we describe the macro- and microwear pattern in five well-preserved isolated t...

A new metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Lower Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Kimmeridgian, Upper Jurassic) of England is described. This specimen, a three-dimensionally preserved skull and left mandibular ramus, is referred to a new species: Torvoneustes coryphaeus sp. nov. Within the genus Torvoneustes, T. coryphaeus sp. nov. is unique as it has...

Simojovelhyus pocitosense is based on a lower jaw fragment with three molars from the late Oligocene amber mine deposits near the village of Simojovel, Chiapas Province, Mexico. It is the oldest fossil mammal known from Central America. It was described by Ferrusquia-Villafranca in 2006 as a helohyid, a group of primitive artiodactyls known from th...

In the 2011 ISPH symposium, we presented thin sections of a pterygoid tooth of Mosasaurus maximus from the Cretaceous of New Jersey, along with thin sections of a maxillary/dentary tooth of the same taxon and locality. The enamel-dentine junction was smooth in both teeth and enamel thickness varied, indicating that the surface morphology was primar...

Dakosaurus and Plesiosuchus are characteristic genera of aquatic, large-bodied, macrophagous metriorhynchid crocodylomorphs. Recent studies show that these genera were apex predators in marine ecosystems during the latter part of the Late Jurassic, with robust skulls and strong bite forces optimized for feeding on large prey. Here we present compre...

Character by taxon matrix used in the phylogenetic analysis (nexus file). (TXT)

Characters and coding sources used in the phylogenetic analysis. The document also has a list of supplementary references and a complete list of institutional abbreviations. (DOC)

Modern manatees have a unique type of tooth development, continually forming identical new molars in the posterior end of each quadrant of their mouths, and then progressively moving teeth anteriorly, only to reabsorb roots and spit out worn crowns. This process is not only developmentally complex, but requires space in the oral cavity that imposes...

Metriorhynchidae was a peculiar but long-lived group of marine Mesozoic crocodylomorphs adapted to a pelagic lifestyle. Recent discoveries show that metriorhynchids evolved a wide range of craniodental morphotypes and inferred feeding strategies. One genus, Dakosaurus, is arguably the most aberrant marine crocodylomorph due to its large, robust, zi...

Despite the increased use of light microscopy in microwear analysis, studies that recognize observer error are scarce. Nonetheless, microwear analysis based on light microscopy may be more prone to observer bias than SEM or confocal microscopy. We measured observer error among five observers, who independently analyzed identical sets of dental wear...

One potentially problematic aspect of dental microwear analysis is sensitivity to the resolution (fineness of detail) at which dental wear surfaces are viewed. Magnification is one of many variables that determine resolution. Microwear studies based on light microscopy generally report magnifications ranging from 30X-100X, although ambiguities in r...

The distributions and features of palatal and pterygoid teeth in amniotes have been used as phylogenetic characters and as a means of interpreting dietary specializations, yet very little is known about them, especially in fossil groups. Questions abound about whether pterygoid teeth develop in similar ways to maxillary and dentary teeth, particula...