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The ancestral shape hypothesis: an evolutionary explanation for the occurrence of intervertebral disc herniation in humans

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, April 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#12 of 3,714)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (97th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
27 news outlets
blogs
5 blogs
twitter
69 X users
facebook
23 Facebook pages
wikipedia
3 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
4 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor
video
2 YouTube creators

Citations

dimensions_citation
29 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
147 Mendeley
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Title
The ancestral shape hypothesis: an evolutionary explanation for the occurrence of intervertebral disc herniation in humans
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, April 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12862-015-0336-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kimberly A Plomp, Una Strand Viðarsdóttir, Darlene A Weston, Keith Dobney, Mark Collard

Abstract

Recent studies suggest there is a relationship between intervertebral disc herniation and vertebral shape. The nature of this relationship is unclear, however. Humans are more commonly afflicted with spinal disease than are non-human primates and one suggested explanation for this is the stress placed on the spine by bipedalism. With this in mind, we carried out a study of human, chimpanzee, and orangutan vertebrae to examine the links between vertebral shape, locomotion, and Schmorl's nodes, which are bony indicators of vertical intervertebral disc herniation. We tested the hypothesis that vertical disc herniation preferentially affects individuals with vertebrae that are towards the ancestral end of the range of shape variation within Homo sapiens and therefore are less well adapted for bipedalism. The study employed geometric morphometric techniques. Two-dimensional landmarks were used to capture the shapes of the superior aspect of the body and posterior elements of the last thoracic and first lumbar vertebrae of chimpanzees, orangutans, and humans with and without Schmorl's nodes. These data were subjected to multivariate statistical analyses. Canonical Variates Analysis indicated that the last thoracic and first lumbar vertebrae of healthy humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans can be distinguished from each other (p<0.028), but vertebrae of pathological humans and chimpanzees cannot (p>0.4590). The Procrustes distance between pathological humans and chimpanzees was found to be smaller than the one between pathological and healthy humans. This was the case for both vertebrae. Pair-wise MANOVAs of Principal Component scores for both the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae found significant differences between all pairs of taxa (p<0.029), except pathological humans vs chimpanzees (p>0.367). Together, these results suggest that human vertebrae with Schmorl's nodes are closer in shape to chimpanzee vertebrae than are healthy human vertebrae. The results support the hypothesis that intervertebral disc herniation preferentially affects individuals with vertebrae that are towards the ancestral end of the range of shape variation within H. sapiens and therefore are less well adapted for bipedalism. This finding not only has clinical implications but also illustrates the benefits of bringing the tools of evolutionary biology to bear on problems in medicine and public health.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 69 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 147 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Australia 2 1%
Brazil 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Luxembourg 1 <1%
Unknown 141 96%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 28 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 23 16%
Student > Bachelor 16 11%
Researcher 16 11%
Other 10 7%
Other 30 20%
Unknown 24 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 38 26%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 28 19%
Arts and Humanities 13 9%
Social Sciences 10 7%
Engineering 10 7%
Other 20 14%
Unknown 28 19%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 304. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 May 2023.
All research outputs
#113,116
of 25,371,288 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#12
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,137
of 279,949 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#2
of 71 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,371,288 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 279,949 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 71 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.