Behavioral correlates of fascicular organization: The confluence of muscle architectural anatomy and function

Abstract

Muscle is a complex tissue that has been studied on numerous hierarchical levels: from gross descriptions of muscle organization to cellular analyses of fiber profiles. In the middle of this space between organismal and cellular biology lies muscle architecture, the level at which functional correlations between a muscle's internal fiber organization and contractile abilities are explored. In this review, we summarize this relationship, detail recent advances in our understanding of this form-function paradigm, and highlight the role played by The Anatomical Record in advancing our understanding of functional morphology within muscle over the past two decades. In so doing, we honor the legacy of Editor-in-Chief Kurt Albertine, whose stewardship of the journal from 2006 through 2020 oversaw the flourishing of myological research, including numerous special issues dedicated to exploring the behavioral correlates of myology across diverse taxa. This legacy has seen the The Anatomical Record establish itself as a preeminent source of myological research, and a true leader within the field of comparative anatomy and functional morphology.

Keywords: adaptation; ecology; morphology; myology; physiological cross‐sectional area.

FIGURE 1

The covers of the 2018 Anatomical Record special issues on functional myology guest edited by Hartstone‐Rose, Santana and Marchi, and featuring one of Dickinson's first published papers.

FIGURE 2

Cover of the special issue guest edited by Sanger and Sanger (2014) and under the leadership of Albertine.