Simone Hoffmann

Radiology plays a crucial role in diagnosing illness and is increasingly recognized for its significance in medical gross anatomy education. The optimal integration of radiology into the medical curriculum remains a topic of debate. This study explores the impact of radiology teaching modalities on exam performance of first-year medical students and assesses any associated effects on student satisfaction. We compare exam performance of 1851 students on 182 radiology-related questions at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine New York and Arkansas sites between 2020 and 2023. In 2020 and 2021, radiology was delivered through pre-recorded lectures. In 2022 and 2023, radiology was integrated into the gross anatomy laboratory and presented in interactive small-group sessions alongside the dissection. For each exam question, the percentage of students who provided the correct answer was noted and site-specific as well as combined standardized averages were calculated. We then compared question performance between radiology teaching modalities, including a subset of questions that were repeated under both modalities. We did not find significant differences in radiology question performance between radiology teaching modalities. However, student satisfaction was significantly higher when radiology was integrated into the laboratory compared to when it was delivered via pre-recorded lectures. While there was no noteworthy influence on students’ exam results, the small-group sessions were perceived as more beneficial for understanding radiology compared to the lecture-based videos. Maintaining high student satisfaction may influence long-term rather than short-term retention and enhance students’ confidence in comprehension of the material.

With increasing cost and time constraints, anatomy education has shifted away from classic dissection in favor of more effective teaching modalities. Here we investigated different teaching modalities on test performance and student satisfaction in the human gross anatomy laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM). The anatomy laboratory for first‐year osteopathic students at NYITCOM was divided into stations including radiology, case‐based learning, prosection, and dissection. Content covered at those stations was tested via anatomy laboratory examinations, comprised of computer‐based identification and multiple‐choice questions. Our data encompassed 459 first‐year medical students taking anatomy in 2022 at both NYITCOM campus sites (Arkansas and New York). We coded 355 exam questions by teaching modality used in the anatomy laboratory. Questions covered in multiple modalities were classified as ‘mixed’. Performance among modalities was analyzed using a three‐way ANOVA. Prosection‐based questions (mean = 75.6) performed significantly worse than dissection (mean = 83.4, p < 0.01) and mixed‐modality (mean = 80.7, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in performance on material taught through dissection, radiology, case‐based activity and mixed modalities. In addition, we investigated the effect of an instructor at the case‐based activity station using repeated measures ANOVA. Our results indicate that case‐based activity stations performed better without an instructor present (mean = 77.4 v. 72.7; p < 0.05). This study showed that teaching via prosection results in poorer performance than other teaching modalities and that dissection or hybrid models appear more effective in knowledge retention. Contrary to actual performance, students rated prosection as the most effective teaching modality. These results come at a critical time when COVID‐19 has accelerated the shift away from dissection in favor of virtual methods.

We use synchrotron x-ray tomography of annual growth increments in the dental cementum of mammaliaforms (stem and crown fossil mammals) from three faunas across the Jurassic to map the origin of patterns of mammalian growth patterns, which are intrinsically related to mammalian endothermy. Although all fossils studied exhibited slower growth rates, longer life spans, and delayed sexual maturity relative to comparably sized extant mammals, the earliest crown mammals developed significantly faster growth rates in early life that reduced at sexual maturity, compared to stem mammaliaforms. Estimation of basal metabolic rates (BMRs) suggests that some fossil crown mammals had BMRs approaching the lowest rates of extant mammals. We suggest that mammalian growth patterns first evolved during their mid-Jurassic adaptive radiation, although growth remained slower than in extant mammals.

Based on high-resolution computed tomography scanning, we provide new insights into the inner ear and stapedial morphology of Morganucodon from the Early Jurassic of St Brides. At the base of mammaliaforms, Morganucodon plays a pivotal role in understanding the sequence of character acquisition from basal cynodonts to mammals, including the detachment of the middle ear and the evolution of high-frequency hearing. Advancements in imaging technology enabled us to revise or newly describe crucial anatomy that was not accessible for the original description of Morganucodon. Based on 37 petrosals, we can confirm that the apex of the cochlear canal is expanded in Morganucodon, suggestive of a lagena macula. A gently raised crest along the abneural margin is reminiscent of (although much shallower than) the secondary lamina base of other Mesozoic mammaliaforms. The venous circum-promontorial plexus, which surrounded the inner ear in several basal mammaliaforms, was connected to the cochlear labyrinth in Morganucodon through numerous openings along the secondary lamina base. Two petrosals contain fragmentary stapes, which differ substantially from previously described isolated stapes attributed to Morganucodon in having peripherally placed crura and an oval and bullate footplate. Based on the revised stapedial morphology, we question the traditional view of an asymmetrical bicrural stapes as the plesiomorphic condition for Mammaliaformes.

Here we report on a new Early Cretaceous eutherian represented by a partial skeleton from the Jiufotang Formation at Sihedang site, Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province that fills a crucial gap between the earliest eutherians from the Yixian Formation and later Cretaceous eutherians. The new specimen reveals, to our knowledge for the first time in eutherians, that the Meckelian cartilage was ossified but reduced in size, confirming a complete detachment of the middle ear from the lower jaw. Seven hyoid elements, including paired stylohyals, epihyals and thyrohyals and the single basihyal are preserved. For the inner ear the ossified primary lamina, base of the secondary lamina, ossified cochlear ganglion and secondary crus commune are present and the cochlear canal is coiled through 360°. In addition, plesiomorphic features of the dentition include weak conules, lack of pre- and post-cingula and less expanded protocones on the upper molars and height differential between the trigonid and talonid, a large protoconid and a small paraconid on the lower molars. The new taxon displays an alternating pattern of tooth replacement with P3 being the last upper premolar to erupt similar to the basal eutherian Juramaia . Parsimony analysis places the new taxon with Montanalestes , Sinodelphys and Ambolestes as a sister group to other eutherians. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The impact of Chinese palaeontology on evolutionary research’.

Taeniolabis taoensis is an iconic multituberculate mammal of early Paleocene (Puercan 3) age from the Western Interior of North America. Here we report the discovery of significant new skull material (one nearly complete cranium, two partial crania, one nearly complete dentary) of T. taoensis in phosphatic concretions from the Corral Bluffs study area, Denver Formation (Danian portion), Denver Basin, Colorado. The new skull material provides the first record of the species from the Denver Basin, where the lowest in situ specimen occurs in river channel deposits ~730,000 years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, roughly coincident with the first appearance of legumes in the basin. The new material, in combination with several previously described and undescribed specimens from the Nacimiento Formation of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, is the subject of detailed anatomical study, aided by micro-computed tomography. Our analyses reveal many previously unknown aspects of skull anatomy. Several regions (e.g., anterior portions of premaxilla, orbit, cranial roof, occiput) preserved in the Corral Bluffs specimens allow considerable revision of previous reconstructions of the external cranial morphology of T. taoensis. Similarly, anatomical details of the ascending process of the dentary are altered in light of the new material. Although details of internal cranial anatomy (e.g., nasal and endocranial cavities) are difficult to discern in the available specimens, we provide, based on UCMP 98083 and DMNH.EPV 95284, the best evidence to date for inner ear structure in a taeniolabidoid multituberculate. The cochlear canal of T. taoensis is elongate and gently curved and the vestibule is enlarged, although to a lesser degree than in Lambdopsalis.

Gondwanatherians are relative newcomers to the stage known as the mammalian fossil record. Their first known occurrence came with the discovery of an isolated, hypsodont, molariform tooth from the ...