Morphological relationships between vertebrate claw unguals and sheaths and the functional morphology of these structures

The link between claw morphology and function has been historically difficult to quantify, analyze, and interpret. A confounding factor is the ambiguous morphological relationship between the ungual and the sheath and whether one structure or the other is more useful for inferring function from morphology. In this study, the functional morphology of vertebrate claws is analyzed using sheath and ungual measurements taken from modern claw specimens spanning birds and mammals. Claw measurements were chosen for their potential biomechanical significance and a revised, expanded categorization of claw function is used. When corresponding claw measurements from the ungual and sheath are compared independently, some features are highly correlated whereas others are not. A principal component analysis of the claw measurements reveals that some of the morphological disparity is related to functional differences; however, different functional categories are not clearly separated based solely on morphology. A linear discriminant analysis incorporating a supervised dimensionality reduction method (J-function) successfully classifies 94.52% of the claw specimens to their documented functional categories. When the posterior probabilities of each classification are examined, and the next highest probabilities are considered, the analysis can successfully classify 98.63% of the claw specimens. Sheath measurements perform better than ungual measurements but combining measurements from both structures perform better than considering either structure individually. Both structures contribute valuable morphological information when it comes to inferring claw function from morphology.

Automated summary

This study examines the functional morphology of vertebrate claws by analyzing measurements of sheath and ungual taken from modern claw specimens. The results show that some features are highly correlated while others are not when comparing measurements from the sheath and ungual independently. A linear discriminant analysis with dimensionality reduction successfully classifies 94.52% of the claw specimens to their documented functional categories, and considering posterior probabilities increases the classification rate to 98.63%. Sheath measurements provide better representation of claw function than ungual measurements, and combining measurements from both structures improves the accuracy of inferring claw function.