The evolution of endothermy in vertebrates is a major research topic in recent decades that has been tackled by a myriad of research disciplines including paleontology, anatomy, physiology, evolutionary and developmental biology. The ability of most mammals to maintain a relatively constant and high body temperature is considered a key adaptation, enabling them to successfully colonize new habitats and harsh environments. It has been proposed that in mammals the anterior nasal cavity, which houses the maxilloturbinal, plays a pivotal role in body temperature maintenance, via a bony system supporting an epithelium involved in heat and moisture conservation. The presence and the relative size of the maxilloturbinal has been proposed to reflect the endothermic conditions and basal metabolic rate in extinct vertebrates. We show that there is no evidence to relate the origin of endothermy and the development of some turbinal bones by using a comprehensive dataset of µCT-derived maxilloturbinals spanning most mammalian orders. Indeed, we demonstrate that neither corrected basal metabolic rate nor body temperature significantly correlate with the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal. Instead, we identify important variations in the relative surface area, morpho-anatomy, and complexity of the maxilloturbinal across the mammalian phylogeny and species ecology.

Abteilung Messelforschung und Mammalogie Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt 60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany

Biology Department Washington University St Louis MO 63130 USA

Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University Cambridge MA 02138 USA

Department of Reproduction Management Leibniz Instiute for Zoo and Wildlife Research 10315 Berlin Germany

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia 37005 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Freie Universität Berlin Germany

Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution Université de Montpellier Place E Bataillon CC 064 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5 Montpellier France

Institut Universitaire de France Paris France

Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear Instituto Superior Técnico Universidade de Lisboa Lisboa Portugal

Mammal Section Department of Life Sciences The Natural History Museum SW7 5DB London United Kingdom

Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart DE 70191 Stuttgart Germany

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