Small skeletons show size-specific scaling: an exploration of allometry in the mammalian lumbar spine

Studies of vertebrate bone biomechanics often focus on skeletal adaptations at upper extremes of body mass, ignoring the importance of skeletal adaptations at lower extremes. Yet mammals are ancestrally small and most modern species have masses under 5 kg, so the evolution of morphology and function at small size should be prioritized for understanding how mammals make a living. We examined allometric scaling of lumbar vertebrae in the small-bodied Philippine endemic rodents known as cloud rats, which vary in mass across two orders of magnitude (15.5g-2700g). External vertebral dimensions scale with isometry or positive allometry, likely relating to body size and nuances in quadrupedal posture. In contrast to most mammalian trabecular bone studies, bone volume fraction and trabecular thickness scale with positive allometry and isometry, respectively. It is physiologically impossible for these trends to continue to the upper extremes of mammalian body size, and we demonstrate a fundament..., Scans of murine vertebral columns (museum specimens sourced from the Field Museum of Natural History) were collected using a GE Phoenix v|tome|x µCT scanner. Spherical VOIs were chosen and segmented in ORS Dragonfly 2021. Trabecular bone morphological data were collected from medullary cavity VOIs using Dragonfly and BoneJ. See the publication Methods section for additional details., , # Small skeletons show size-specific scaling: an exploration of allometry in the mammalian lumbar spine

## Dataset Attribution and Usage

The authors respectfully request to be contacted by researchers interested in the re-use of these data so that the possibility of collaboration can be discussed. Stephanie M. Smith: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

* Contributor ORCID IDs:
* Stephanie M. Smith: [https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-3581](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-3581)
* Lawrence R. Heaney: [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3334-4400](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3334-4400)
* Kenneth D. Angielczyk: [https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7147-2054](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7147-2054)

Suggested Citations:

* **Dataset citation:** Smith, S.M., Heaney, L. R., Angielczyk, K. D. 2023. Data for the article \"Small skeletons show size-specific scaling: an exploration of allometry in the mammalian lumbar spine\", Dryad, Dataset, [https://doi.org/10.5061/dr...