Extreme Anatomy: Gear for the Pioneer

This special issue of The Anatomical Record explores extravagant adaptions that vertebrates have evolved from their base groups to survive in the most challenging environments. The special issue stems from a symposium entitled “Extreme Anatomy: Living beyond the edge,” which was held April 23, 2017, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists, (now called the American Association for Anatomy), in Chicago, IL. In part 1 of this issue, we encounter fossorial mammals and cave-dwelling fish and salamanders that have reduced visual systems accompanied by a variety of mechanosensory adaptations. In rivers and seas, teeth may not suffice in the pursuit of prey: aquatic vertebrates are adorned with armor or weaponry or elaborate keratinous sieves. As vertebrates exploit a great diversity of niches, selection has favored a dizzying array of specialized sensory and locomotor adaptions for deep diving, rapid flight, and navigation through dark and complex settings. Each special adaptation, some seemingly quite “extreme” deviations from an original Bauplan, becomes a tool for a pioneer-like diversification of vertebrates. Anat Rec, 2019.